Tutorial Six: The internet and online communities

Provide the web address and the name of the community you are investigating http://www.bookcrossing.com/

What is the brief or focus of this community The purpose of the book crossing community is to share and track books all around the world. They can also talk about and review books as well as do challenges to find books.

What services are provided? How interactive is this site? How can people contribute? People are able to track books around the world, talk in forums, and buy books online. In the forums people can discuss books, share books, participate in book hunts and challenges.

Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment on why people choose to contribute to this community. What is it they are seeking? Kollock (1999) says there are four reasons why people are involved in online communities. They are anticipated reciprocity, increased recognition, sense of efficacy and sense of community. With increased reciprocity people will contribute information with the expectation that others will then contribute information in return. Increased recognition is when people become well known in the community for their contributions. They are looked up to as being knowledgeable in that community. People can contribute to a community because they feel as they have done something or have been productive. This is a sense of efficacy. The other reason that people contribute is to be involved in a community. They feel that they are welcomed and included. This is the sense of the community. People contribute to bookcrossing.com for all these reasons.

Cut and paste an example of the type of topics being discussed (you may have to provide a context to your excerpt). This excerpt is from Booktalk, the forum which members can talk about books that they read. Anyone read Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict? Mr. Darcy? 2 replies by eblanco001 2 months ago These books are very sweet, and you could easily finish them in one sitting. Maybe I just read too fast. :) Anyone else enjoyed them? Re: Anyone read Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict? Mr. Darcy? 1 reply by bekoh 2 months ago I've never heard of them. Who wrote them? Being somewhat of an Austen addict myself I wouldn't mind having a read. parent

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. Online it is difficult to know who any one is. Consider the case of the girl in USA who committed suicide after she found the boy she meet on MySpace and wrote cruel messages to her, turned out to be the parents of the girl next door. Here is the link to the story (http://www.myfoxstl.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=4926871&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1)

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. An online community has some advantage over traditional communities. The best thing about online communities is that people can be anywhere in the world and be involves. This gives us greater cultural understanding and a variety of different experiences. Another benefit is that large amounts of information can be transferred between people easily. Online communities provide opportunities for people of similar interests and experiences to converse and transfer information. The great thing about online communities is that are usually free and easy to use.

Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment what this community lacks or can not provide which traditional communities can. The thing that this community lacks is the ability to physically meet the other people in the community. It would be easy to pretend to be someone you are jot and nobody would know the difference. Due to this lack of ability to meet in person it can be difficult to understand nuances such as humour. Considering that 90% of a conversation is body language, talking on line is at a distinct disadvantage.