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