Medier og kommunikation XII

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Medier og kommunikation XII

• Online community

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Dagens program

• Essays og kommentarer!
• Teorilektion
• Spørgsmål
• Over frokost Synopsis

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Sociologiske betænkeligheder

• Institutionen er et sociologisk grundbegreb, eks.
  nationalstaten
• Hvornår er en institution?
• Er sociologien på vej mod et nyt paradigme?

Urry, J. (2000). Sociology beyond Societies
Mobilities for the Twenty-first Century. London
Routledge.
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What is an Online Community?

• In 1996 a multidisciplinary group of academics
  held a workshop at which they identified the
  following core characteristics of online
  communities (Whittaker, Issacs, O'Day, 1997, p.
  137)
• Members have a shared goal, interest, need, or
  activity that provides the primary reason for
  belonging to the community.
• Members engage in repeated, active participation
  and there are often intense interactions, strong
  emotional ties and shared activities occurring
  between participants

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What is an Online Community?

• Members have access to shared resources and there
  are policies for determining access to those
  resources.
• Reciprocity of information, support and services
  between members is important.
• There is a shared context of social conventions,
  language, and protocols

Preece, J., Maloney-Krichmar, D. (2003). Online
Communities Focusing on sociability and
usability. In J. Jacko A. Sears (Eds.),
Handbook of Human-Computer Interaction (pp.
596-620). Mahwah, NJ Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
Inc. Publishers.
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Licklider Taylor

• Internettet som fremtidsvision
• Lickliders Galactic Network (1962)
• Message processors and large, multiaccess
  computers
• Console Terminal keyboard plus printer or
  graphical console
• Network

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A plastic medium

• Multiaccess systems must be developed
  interactively
• Plastic or moldable medium (LT)
• Bootstrapping (Engelbart)
• Materiale uden egenskaber (Löwgren Stolterman)

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On-line Interactive Communities

• A network of networks ? internettet
• Communities not of common location, but of common
  interest

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On-line Interactive Communities

• OLIVER On-Line Interactive Vicarious Expediter
  and Responder, cf. avatar
• What you do, what you read, what you buy and
  where you buy it, who your friends are, your
  value structure, etc. Cf. tracking via cookies,
  gmail, myspace

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The promises of on-line community

• Life will be happier
• Communication will be more effective and
  productive
• Tight coupling will be challenging and rewarding
• Plenty of opportunities (and no unemployment)

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Steve Jones

• Sharing of information
• Not in the sense of the transmission of
  information
• It is the ritual sharing of information that
  pulls it together

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James Carey
Communication under a transmission view is the
extension of messages across geography for the
purposes of control, the case under a ritual
view is the sacred ceremony that draws persons
together in fellowship and commonality. Carey,
J. W. (1992). Communication as Culture (Reprinted
ed.). New York London Routledge.Original
publication, 1989. P. 18.
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En tilbagevendende modsætning

• Communication (Jones)
• Transferring information/switching
• Interact with living information/modeling
• A plastic or moldable medium (LT p. 98)
• Informational housekeeping vs.
• Creative informational activity (p. 100)

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Ferdinand Tönnies, 1881 - 1916

• Gemeinschaft
• Fællesskab (da.)
• Community (eng.)
• Gesellschaft
• Samfund (da.)
• Society (eng.)

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The false equation

• Gemeinschaft physical community co-presence
• Gesellschaft distant society mediated presence

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The internet is not a medium?

• A substrate for humanity (Berners-Lee)
• Incorporates space and time ? virtual space

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Reality

• Reality is a social construction (Berger
  Luckman)
• Dependences become from this point of view
  primary (Hjelmslev)
• Internet communities are virtual spaces
  constructed from connections

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Types of communities

• Society
• Work organizations
• Personal (work) network
• Personal interests
• Personal intimate relations

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Fællesskab og individualitet

• The tragedy of the commons
• Internet-communities kan forlades med en unsub
  kommando
• Samarbejde mere effektivt end individuelle
  præstationer
• Elective affinities

Hardin, G. (1968). The Tragedy of the Commons.
Science, 162, 1243-1248.
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Gaveøkonomi

• Overskud (Nørretranders)
• Pacific North West Native American potlatch
• Klientilisme
• Forældre og børn

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Evaluating communities

• Scope, substance, dominance
• A shift from territory to culture
• Break-down of hierarchies
• Communities that are not communities?

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Fumbling the future

• The future of the internet is the future that we
  carve out individually as well as collectively
• In creating our individuality, we create the
  collectivities we belong to