Tutorial Six: The Internet and online communities!

Sawatdee Kaa!

Today’s blog is all about the internet and online communities! I will be introducing to you 3 online communities and will tell you some detailed info about them, enjoy!

A topic of interest that I want to introduce today is social networking. The following online communities relate to this topic, however to begin with I want to provide you with a definition of what online communities are from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_community : “An online community is a virtual community that exists online and whose members enable its existence through taking part in membership ritual”.

Face book Groups: http://www.facebook.com/groups

This online communities provides a system similar to this blog, where people can join and create ‘groups’ and have continuous discussions about them sharing each other’s thoughts.

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_group#Networks_and_groups : Face book allows different networks and groups to which many users can join. It also allows privacy settings on basis of networks. Groups are used for discussions and events etc. Groups are a way of enabling a number of people to come together online to share information and discuss specific subjects. They are increasingly used by clubs, companies and public sector organizations to engage with stakeholders - be they members of the public, employees, members, service users, shareholders or customers. A group includes but is not limited to the following: the members who have joined recent news contents, wall contents, photos, posted items, videos and all associated comments of such items. People can contribute to the site by joining up and creating there own groups and sharing and discussing their own thoughts with others.                                                                                                                                                          **One would think people choose to contribute to this community because Face book is a great way to meet friends and keep up on what they are doing. Once you add a friend to your Face book friend list you will always know when they are adding things to their blog or updating their profile. They can Join Face book groups to meet people like them or browse the profiles to find new friends.

**Examples of topics discussed on face book are: In my graduation year at college, the head of the year book co-ordinators created a face book page where all the year 13 students could access, in order to put up any ideas they had to make the yearbook possible! The page was short sharp and basic! The description on it was as follows: “Give us some ideas on what you want; photos, your profiles etc. invite other Waimea College Year 13's to this group too. If you want to upload photos just scroll to the bottom and click "add photos". If you’re adding photos that are obviously inappropriate they may not make it in but feel free to add them regardless. Let’s make this happen!”

Another example of a page created on face book is called “Talking to your dog like it fully understands you”. This of course is a funny topic which gets everybody laughing and involved, because really I think we all have moments where we talk to our animals like we think there listening!                                                                                                                                              **See this link for ethical issues that may arise in this Face book community: http://www.slideshare.net/maemae21/social-ethical-issues-of-information-systems-facebook

Google blogger: http://www.blogger.com/home                                                                                                                     The intended purpose of this site is to offer a place for people to create a page of their own that they can share to the world their thoughts and ideas about any topic of interest. Google Blogger is a blog-publishing service that allows private or multi-user blogs with time-stamped entries. Generally, the blogs are hosted by Google at a sub domain of blogspot.com.  People can contribute to this service by joining up, creating their own accounts then interacting with other blogs and shearing there thoughts to the world! Just like I am now!               

 **One would think people choose to contribute to this community because you can use blogs for everything from updating your friends and family about your life, giving your own advice column, discussing your political views, or relating your experience in a topic of interest. You can host blogs with multiple contributors, or you can run your own solo show. Although there are fancier blog tools out there, the mixture of cost (free) and flexibility makes Blogger one of the best deals around.  **Examples of topics discussed on the blogs: Today the example I would like to address is my own blog which you are currently reading! The example of what this blog is about is as follows:

“Kiaora, My names Rachel Thomas and I’m a second year Otago Polytechnic student studying Occupational therapy. This blog is created for a paper in the course that I am studying which is called ‘Participation In Occupation One’. In this course we are looking at digital and information technology, which is why we are creating a blog. We are interested in how digital and information technology fits within current human occupation and what the implications might be for OT practice”.                                                                                                                                  **With blogging there are potential dangers with writing n the public sphere so when creating an account you need to address the ethical issues such as not disclosing nay personal information or details, making your blog optional. See this link for more information on ethical issues that could be a risk: http://www.annettevee.com/blogstoteach/blog_ethical.html

Twitter:http://twitter.com/                                                                                                                                    The intended purpose of this site is to provide a service for people to share their thoughts to the world! Twitter is a website which offers a social networking and micro blogging service, enabling its users to send and read messages called ‘tweets’. People contribute to this service by joining up, making an account and connecting with others who also are joined up to the service.                                                                                                                                                              **One would think people choose to contribute to this community because it’s a great place for keeping people informed on what you are up to without the need to spend a lot of time crafting an entire post on the subject. You just say what's up and leave it at that.

**To show you an example of types of topics being discussed, watch this video as it explains it all! Enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/user/Twitter?blend=1&ob=5

**See this link for ethical issues that may arise in Twitter, as well as face book: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=130741806967916#!/group.php?gid=130741806967916#!/group.php?gid=130741806967916&v=app_2373072738

These online communities have benefits over the more traditional geographical communities. Online communities provide a network for people to connect through space where they can share their own thoughts, interest and concerns. People connecting can be anywhere in the world and still be participating fully in the community. However, traditional communities provide the real and more physical senses of a community where people can connect face to face, in reality! Both communities however both provide support, information, friendship and acceptance between strangers.