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Online Community
By Trishus | August 24, 2008
Online communities, like any community need to have something in common, something needs to bring people together.
But when do all these individual online voices, become a community?
When they listen, and respond and interact, when ideas are collaborated and knowledge shared, when a connection is felt.
What makes a good online community?
interaction, connection openness, communication… Community comes together when we need each other.
August 25th, 2008 at 4:58 am
Brief and to the point posting! I like that. First, I think we should be more realistic about the Time element. People should be able to share a common time. In an offline community like Rotary, I can have the same purpose as the whole organization, but I need a small group that meets locally. Likewise with the web. We need to have local time neighborhoods that open a wide variety of choices for times to meet. Instead we ave been following a path that narrows the window.
I challenge anyone on line to place two people at the extremes of a longitude and another two people at an equal distance on a latitude of the globe. All mother factors being equal, the two on the longitude will have a posting frequency greater (I will predict that the frequency is not only greater but drastically higher) than those on the latitude.
We need to address this issue of time because if you and I have the same purpose, it doesn’t matter if it is physically impossible to meet consistently at a convenient time.
August 25th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
I think working in real time is helpful… but not essential. Online communities allow for discussions to take place over a period of time. Like this discussion with Arti and I started with my post on the 24th, her comment on the 25th and now mine. While discussions happening in real time is my preference, the ability for discussion to be expanded over time in this virtual setting allows greater contribution.
I it is ever so exciting when someone posts a comment on one of my blogs… wow communication from the outside world.
August 25th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Happy to be here! Well, I think my point is that there is an imbalance in the “global community”. You and I are bound by physical laws in our message cycle (send/receive/send) frequency. If we are both in the same neighborhood of a time zone, then we have increased options. We can communicate at a higher frequency because we share the same conscious day. But this is not true for people positioned on a latitude. They are subject to the physical laws of Earth’s rotation. They do not share the same conscious day. The window is smaller for them.
So I reject any notion of “global community”. Communication is far greater between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres than it is between the Eastern and Western. The harder we try to bridge this gap, the narrower the window for meeting becomes.
If you are in the States, then there is a range of time zones in which people share the same conscious day. Basically, you can communicate with anyone two or three time zones to the East or West of your own. Further away than that is getting out of your comfort zone. But you have free range on your own longitude.
Think about it. How many Chinese or Russians do you meet online! Basically, the further I am from someone on a latitude, the lower the frequency.- This does not apply to my longitude. If I am on EST I can be in New York and communicate equally with someone in Montreal or in Santiago, Chile. Place tow poster on a latitude at the same distance from eachother as Montreal to Santiago. The window of consciousness closes.
This is foundational for understanding how to organize and facilitate online. Real time is not essential, but when you need it, it’s nice to know that it is possible. The possibility is very limited for global groups. Understanding this can help us open the possibilities for community.
August 25th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
So where in the world are you Artie? I am in the south east of Australia at the moment and it is 1.30 in the morning and I am just getting into some tut questions.
I am a night owl so where ever you are… maybe our window of opportunity is greater?
I think the our “global community” is also restricted by language, cultural and technological differences. Online translation still doesn’t cut it and I still can’t get Thai script to work on my mac….
I think these issues including time need to be given consideration when creating global online communities and address how they are going to be overcome.
August 28th, 2008 at 10:24 am
I think that I am about -5 GMT but I’m not sure. If we communicate over a period we will get a feel for when we can meet. But my point (I think) is that you can only communicate in real time with people who are online when you are. And those people happen to be awake when they are posting. And at that time, there is a whole other Internet that is asleep. So where is this mythological Global Web I’ve heard so much about? We are subject to physical laws that govern our time so I think that we should treat time as if it were a geographical limit. If you and I share the same time, the same conscious day, if we are awake for the same 14 or 16 hours of every day, then we have a huge window to communicate through.
This is a nifty World Sunlight Map that can help you get in tune with what’s happening. I look at it a couple of times a day and also watch who shows up to post. Very interesting. One of our bloggers is in Pakistan but works nights so he’s one of us.
http://www.die.net/earth/
Since you are a “night owl” maybe we can do some plotting together. If you have gmail, they just introduced a new group chat. We can use that with email and google groups and get some people together. How about a google groups workshop?
August 28th, 2008 at 10:30 am
Another thing we can chat about is our assignments. You need a “What is Community” post on your blog and also a “Faciliating, Moderating or Teaching” post! Let’s meet about that and then you might be inspired to write something.