Online communities

Community is "A group of interacting people, living in some proximity (i.e., in space, time, or relationship). Community usually refers to a social unit larger than a household that shares common values and has social cohesion. The term can also refer to the national community or international community" (Community, 2012, para. 1). There are several types on communities from Geographical or communities of location (ie. neighbourhood), communities of culture (ie religion, ethic groups, or identified by needs such as disabled persons), and community organizations (ie. informal based on family and kinship or formal business and political organizations).

Virtual or online communities are social networks in which people can interact through specific media. These may include any or a combination of the above communities such as geographical and political so that they can purse mutual interests and goals (Virtual community, 2012).

There are many online communities now-a-days. Youtube, Wikipedia and Facebook, just to name a few!

YouTube is all about ‘broadcasting youself’. This is an online community in which people upload videos (personal videos, tv/movie clips, music videos) so that others can view, comment, like/dislike, use, and share with others. This is a very interactive web community that is available in 54 different languages and just about any where in the world. (YouTube, 2012).

Wikipedia is an online enclycopedia in which people can research almost any topic imaginable. This site allows for the contribution of others by allowing them to edit just about any page as they see fit. Wikipedia has over 21 million articles and available in 283 languages with 2.7 billion page views per month just from the U.S alone (Wikipedia, 2012).

Facebook is an online social networking site allowing for members all over the world to interact with others, share thoughts via posts, photos, video, play games and so much more. The site has over 845 million active profiles. Not only is it used by individuals but by companies, groups, tv programs and so on. (Facebook, 2012). At the beginning of 2011, over 250 million people sign in on a daily basis (Hepbrun 2011).

There are four main reasons people choose to join up, contribute etc to an online community. Peter Kollock (1999) state that people join online communities for Anticipate Reciprocity, Increased Recognition, and Self Efficacy. Anticipated reciprocity is the expectation in that if one contributes to a service, they will get information in return. Increase Recognition is the user seeking recognition for their contribution to the site. Self efficacy refers to the sense that one has had an impact on this environment and that they are a ‘helper’. Sense of Community can be created by making someone feel welcomed to the site, informality and to not be judged by others that share the same community. Also by being created by an actual person and allowing them to communicate or share thoughts/posts with other community users. (Creating a sense of community around a website, 2012)

There are several issues that may arise from using such online communities.
Social injustice - a persons’ human rights may be breached in many ways. Posting comments about someone, tagging them in photos, invasion of privacy and identity all without having asked for their permission before doing so. This is can be related to any online community in which someone has a profile, allows for comments to be posted etc. For example Facebook.
Lack of informed consent: this is not asking for permission to tag people in photos, name them in posts, sending requests (ie for gaming purposes).

Lack of identity accountability - people can upload and edit internet sites anonymously thus not taking responsibility of their actions.

Lack of privacy - once some one had used an online community is can open all sorts of doors. One can type in someones’ name and no doubt at least one thing will turn up in the search of them. This could be a facebook page, an article etc.

With anything there are always the benefits and the limitations. For online communities these are:
Benefits:
connect with others with whom they have lost contact with and interact with others around the world who they may have never met before.
Allows people to view someone’ s personality
connect with people who have similar interests/needs/concerns
foster understanding and unity
provide a large amount of information available at our finger tips
allows for silent observation prior to participation
usually doesn’t cost to use an online community basic services
great equality of voice
speed of information sharing
ability to monitor and regulate users

Limitations: these are only available to those that use and have internet access.
Technology compatibility
Misuse
Delusional reliance on virtual communities
rapid growth may result in unwanted or unperceived changes
limitied communication tools
validity of the information being shared
who sustains and manages the community

References:
Community. 2012. Retrieved April 22, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community

Creating a sense of community around a website. 2012. Retrieved April 22, 2012, from http://www.internetevangelismday.com
/build-community.php

Facebook. (2012). Retrieved March 30, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook

Hepburn, A. (2011). Facebook statistics, stats and facts for 2011. Retrieved 22/03/12 from http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com
/facebook-statistics-stats-facts-2011/

Kollock, P. (1999). The Economies of Online Cooperation:Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace. Retrieved April 1, 2012, from
http://www.connectedaction.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/2001-peter-kollock-economies-of-online-cooperation.htm

Virtual community. (2012). Retrieved April 1, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_community

Wikipedia. (2012). Retrieved March 30, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia

Youtube. (2012). Retrieved March 30, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youtube

Online Videos

One of the main things taken from my second placement was the emphasis on crafts and craft making. These crafts can be anything at all, from cards, making collages and so on. They can also range from simple to complex, depending on the persons' ability.
No matter the level of involvement, one always contribute to the creation of a craft. The following videos are examples of crafts and how they can be linked to occupational therapy practice:


(EHowArtsandCrafts,2010)
This video shows the process of making a paper gift box


(CreativeChoices, 2008)
This video talks about making craft a business. People craft for different reasons one could be to make some money from doing something they love.


(Fetlgd57, 2008)
Although this clip is about leather craft, it can be applied to any craft that people may participate in. Making a gift for someone can be very rewarding in itself. Seeing their face light up when they open it and see it’s been made by hand. Taking notice of all the time and effort one has put into choosing, making and presenting the gift.


(Babaraannsmith, 2011)
This video is by an OT demonstrating a craft can can enhance the pincer grip strength of the hand and fingers.


(Babaraannsmith, 2008)
Although these videos are aimed at making crafts with children, the task of craft making can be modified to suit the inidivuals’ needs whether it be for someone who has a mental, cognitive or physical disability. This is a great way to teach or re-teach a range of skills from co-odination, excutive functions (planning), fine and gross movements, pincer strength and so on.

References:

Babaraannsmith. (2008). Retrieved April 20, 2010, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpnnLMDlFIw

Babaraannsmith. (2011). Retrieved April 20, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Dyz89py5j0

CreativeChoices. (2008). Retrieved April 5, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nAtaUofQY4

EHowArtsandCrafts. (2010). Retrieved April 2, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op15rZhsK8g

Fetlgd57. (2008). Retrieved April 20, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiSxcOuXo34

Making a movie :D

Occupational deprivation a video by whitetiger172 on Flickr.

One of our missions was to plan, shoot, produce and then edit a piece of material using a video camera and using movie editing programs.
Occupational deprivation is the ‘influence of external circumstances that prevents a person from acquiring, using or enjoying occupation over an extended period of time’ (Towsend and Wilcock, 2004).
Occupational deprivation was chosen to depict how one with a disability, ie in the movie someone in a wheelchair, can be excluded and deprived from doing what it is they need/want to do.
Firstly as a group we chose which sub topic we would like to depict (occupational justice, deprivation, transition and disruption). Once we had chosen which one, we then proceeded to come up with ideas for how we could express occupation deprivation in a movie. We chose a few ideas and then chose the location/s within the polytechnic in which we recorded several small sections. These sections were then edited using the iMovie program enabling us to cut out segments of the sections, rearrange segments and add special effects such as speeding up, slowing down, old fashion look, titles, deleting any sound then adding music in the background. Once the editing was finished, we then posted the movie on to this blog for our fellow students to view.

Making a blog

In order to create a blogger account you must first set up a google account if you do not already have one. Go to blogger.com, sign up and follow the instructions to setting up you own account. Once signed up you can then choose a blog template, design the blog how you like, create titles, change colours of the background and fonts and so on. Using the new version, you can change the design of your blog, from font, backround and so on, by clicking on the template link on the left hand side on the main page. Click customize to change the fonts etc. To create a blog title, click layout and ‘header’ or one of the first bars at the top of the layout page. This allows you to create a title and give a brief description about your blog. You can also add what is called ‘gadgets’ (if you prefer) to your blog page by clicking on the ‘add gadget’ link on the right hand side. This can be a range of things, such as the wolf on mine. Most are just quirky little things that express who you are. To ensure that the correct time is displayed when posting a segment, click on the setting - language and settings. Once all these basics are set up, you are now ready for your first post! Click ‘ new post’ on the left on the main screen and away you go. To edit or delete any posts simply click ‘posts’, then choose from the options displayed under the title when the mouse is placed over it. Explaining how to ‘embed’ clips etc is a little hard to explain, Youtube is probably one the easiest, in that you click ‘share’ underneath the video and then embed. This will give you a code which you copy and then paste into your blog. Most things that have the ability to be embedded, will happen in a similar way. Happy blogging :D