tut 6

Tutorial Six: The Internet and online communities

Either search online for a community which interest you or choose one of the provided online communities to investigate. Make sure your selected a community that comprises some form of online forum, discussion page or chat room. You may also wish to see if your community has a Wikipedia entry.

Provide the web address and the name of the community you are investigating

www.bebo.com


What is the brief or focus of this community

Friends can create and invite, ether Private or public profiles which the share with each other. any member of bebo can look at a public profile, where as Private are limited to accepted friends. this is a place where photos, comments, videos, widgets, quizzes, blogs and polls.

What services are provided? How interactive is this site? How can people contribute?

Any one can leave a comment which the profile holder can delete at any point. It is mainly for friends to communicate as appose to talking to strangers however this is possible provided they will accept your invitation. It is very interactive providing a place to comment on and view other peoples photos, comments, videos, widgets, quizzes, blogs and polls.

Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment on why people choose to contribute to this community. What is it they are seeking?

People are often wanting to communicate for free with there friends and keep in touch with people they don't see very often. Blogging is the best example of this giving some one the ability to tell all of there online friends what they are currently doing in life.

Cut and paste an example of the type of topics being discussed (you may have to provide a context to your excerpt).
Currently travellers blog:
'We are in Luxor now. The Felluca was awesome, we just chilled out completely for 2 whole days. The boat had one massive mattress over it so we all sprawled out, listened to music, played guitar, read, sun bathed, drank and generally hung out. On the first night we all got trashed and smoked shesha for Africa, I had a smokers cough the next day (sorry Mum, won't happen again). Melissa (my roomy) drank a whole bottle of vodka (she's been living in Ireland) and was soooo hammered, she was demonstrating her yoga moves, I got some classic pics!! On the second night we had a bonfire and party on the land with the local Nubians. The played their drums and sang while we all danced around the fire under the stars. Russ, one of the guys on tour played a few songs on the guitar but they didn't seem very impressed, no beat compared to their music... '

Considering material presented during the course and make comment on the potential ethical issues that may arise in this community e.g. lack of identity and accountability.

The fact that any one can leave a comment and it can stay there for days before you get the opportunity to read or delete it can open the floor up to bullying and also there is no restrictions on people making up false identities or even copying and pasting other peoples. this could mislead people to assuming they know some one. how ever as a fall back a profile can always be made private where people can not post a comment with out being a friend and 'friends' can be deleted

Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment on the benefits this community holds over traditional notions of community e.g. communities reliant on geographic proximity

Bebo provides a free means of communicating with people any where with the Internet in the world. with out leaving the house or even having to be conscious at the same time as the person you want to talk to. for travellers especially it is a good way to update people on what they are doing seeing and where they are headed to next.

Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment what this community lacks or can not provide which traditional communities can.

Seeing some one face to face and reading body language can not be topped nor stimulated, even with 'emocons' or 'smilies' (little faces showing mood) real emotions can not be conveyed as clearly as in person. This can lead to confusion, sarcasm is a major culprit in this.