What is an online community?

Hi Guys,

The Video Presentation by Michael Wesch seemed very interesting. I personally use youtube to watch family videos or entertainment, but had never realised the way we are communicating all around the world. As stated by Adrienne, he thinks that humans will always need to connect and communicate, but the tools/media that we use change the way the communication is delivered. I think it’s very true that we as humans will always need to connect and will use what ever tools or technology is available to us to communicate.

As said in the presentation that Media is not content, media are not just tools of communication, media mediate human relations. When media changes, than human relations change. Media do not just distance us, they connect us in different ways, that can sometimes feel distant, but sometimes that distance allows us to connect more deeply than ever before. My sister had performed a dance in Ausi and I was so desperate to see her dance, and was so glad to see it in you tube the next day. I personally think it is a really good way of sharing, trading and collaborating with the rest of the world.

It shows that most common videos in youtube are home Videos and the age group commonly using youtube is around the age of 18 to 25 years of age. His presentation also highlights the group of people who tends to put false information, which affects people feeling and thoughts, I think people should think twice before putting false or made up stories online. Users need to be more honest with their posts.

Overall I think presentation made me realise how widely youtube is being used worldwide.

The second resource I went through was the “Building Online Communities” and this was an interesting reading about; the Internet exists to improve communication and communities can grow anywhere communication occurs. In today’s world, a lot of people think that internet technology is for the digital natives, but I think anyone can be part of these online communities and share ideas and link with the rest of the world. I agree with the comment made “Without an underlying goal, it's extremely difficult to guide users in constructive ways”, in any sort of online community there should be some reasons for it to exist. And these reasons should be the factors drawing the users towards the online community. The community itself is not the only draw, in most cases, but it is a primary attractor. People like to fit in into an online community, and it takes making several new relationships to produce this impression.

As an online designer, not everything will work out as predicted or planned. A lot of times users would surprise you, they’ll latch onto and chase down ideas you've never found important or even knew existed. I think this is very true, because it’s hard to know who the audience are when designing an online community. If you see positive comments on the site, than you will know that the site is liked by many and it is a good site.

It is important to have the initial contribution for the online community easier that would encourage more contributors. The interface being used has to be user friendly and simple to use to make it easier for the users. It is also important to set some simple rules to maintain a good site.

Overall from this reading you can gather a lot of useful information about how to build a successful online community.

Some forms of evidence that I would look for when determining an online community are:
- Ways of online Interaction
- How people participate - Members
- Content – The better the content, the more members you will have
- Transactions - easier it is to do the transaction, the more involved members will become.

Looking forward to reading others ideas and perpectives :)

Regards
Krishan