If they aren't real...why do people get married after meeting online, or form lasting friendships...or develop ideas? Are these not the finite forms of reality? Does this medium excuse a person of good manners or allow them to betray themself any more than in real life? Not really. Sure you can "pretend" a bit better online...but it is funny how text unwittingly weeds out our personality isn't it? You don't know if I am a man or a woman, and so the medium is different and dunfamiliar. However, you are not concentrating on that...you are concentrating on my idea. It is simply a different way of splicing reality. No less a community than in a different venue wouldn't you say?
Lockhard seems to consider the venue to be more important than the basic principle. The word "virtual" is really a foolish word. Do I virtually sit here typing? Of course not...I am breathing and wishing I had more coffee and wondering why I promised myself I would go down for the oplympics but did not...
The real online communities (since they are not virtual) are just as vibrant and controversial as communities in other spaces (living rooms, cafes, community halls). These online venues or places which survive if they meet these basic cornerstones:
1.) They must cause interest in a central idea - Is Napster a community? Maybe. Sure...people all want free music....but what is the central idea? Any community that centers itself on an idea that interests people will survive. Slahdot is the idea_lab. It is a classic think tank. It survives on multiplicity and articulation. The communities that create their own interest may last a while, but they will soon die if the idea behind them does not create thay interest.
2.) They must be self-sustaining out of need - The community will exist because it must exist. Slashdot is needed as a forum for double-think. A land of swimming ideas...waiting to crawl from the soup into companies and other communities, burning issues, finger food. Seniors must have community, people must have ways to trade recipes, loved ones must grieve the loss of their relatives. If the community serves a self-sustaining need, it will survive.
3.) It must have a populace with identity - Why else would slashdot cajole the unholy into spending the time to get a login...all to not be deemed a coward? It is a statement. It says...to play here...you must have "identity". Lake_Eyre as meaningless as it sounds, yet still betrays something created by me...a semblance of me in some small way exists in that identity. That identity found in the form of avitars, logins, anything that makes Susan from Delaware different from Jane in Pemona. Anything that gives each member a platform from which to engage.
4.) It must have personalities - People in a real community must be engaged in that community through difference...debate, discussions and argument create personality. The populace must have an identity and a reason to become involved. How long does a community of people who hate United Aitlines last? Sure...maybe you post a few beefs and you are done...but does that make Untied.com a community? I think not. How would slashdot work if not for the credit received from good penmanship? Jon Katz is a perfect example of how personality is required for community. Whether I abhore him or revere him, his articles divulge his personality, his ideas and he acquires a stature albeit good or bad for me and only me. I do not exist for him until now, but for me he equates to community.
5.) It must have a creator - A true community is nurtured and born from a singular or group idea that evolves into a community. I know that there are communities out there that have been created by companies and other communitites created by people. Reagrdless, although seemingly obvious, a community must be created and it must be accessible by at least a few people. That does not mean that a community is for all. Does Lockhard not equate the cigar houses in Britain as distinct communities? They are simply closed communities to all who are not English gentleman. That does not mean that they go against Jeffersonian or democratic ideals. The founders simple get to decide what is allowed and that is the micro version of democracy. A community is a tiny state unto itself if you will. These creators get to decide who may join the community and what role they may play. Right down for instance on slashdot to where they vote the article might be read or unread.
This pentagon, forms what I believe is a community. It works for both the group of men smoking Gitanes and playing Bocce on a Paris street all the way down to a guy in a drilling rig hat playing Mech commander in Boise. It is not a matter of venue, but of the five requirements above.
Slashdot Mirror
If they aren't real...why do people get married after meeting online, or form lasting friendships...or develop ideas? Are these not the finite forms of reality? Does this medium excuse a person of good manners or allow them to betray themself any more than in real life? Not really. Sure you can "pretend" a bit better online...but it is funny how text unwittingly weeds out our personality isn't it? You don't know if I am a man or a woman, and so the medium is different and dunfamiliar. However, you are not concentrating on that...you are concentrating on my idea. It is simply a different way of splicing reality. No less a community than in a different venue wouldn't you say?
Lockhard seems to consider the venue to be more important than the basic principle. The word "virtual" is really a foolish word. Do I virtually sit here typing? Of course not...I am breathing and wishing I had more coffee and wondering why I promised myself I would go down for the oplympics but did not... The real online communities (since they are not virtual) are just as vibrant and controversial as communities in other spaces (living rooms, cafes, community halls). These online venues or places which survive if they meet these basic cornerstones: 1.) They must cause interest in a central idea - Is Napster a community? Maybe. Sure...people all want free music....but what is the central idea? Any community that centers itself on an idea that interests people will survive. Slahdot is the idea_lab. It is a classic think tank. It survives on multiplicity and articulation. The communities that create their own interest may last a while, but they will soon die if the idea behind them does not create thay interest. 2.) They must be self-sustaining out of need - The community will exist because it must exist. Slashdot is needed as a forum for double-think. A land of swimming ideas...waiting to crawl from the soup into companies and other communities, burning issues, finger food. Seniors must have community, people must have ways to trade recipes, loved ones must grieve the loss of their relatives. If the community serves a self-sustaining need, it will survive. 3.) It must have a populace with identity - Why else would slashdot cajole the unholy into spending the time to get a login...all to not be deemed a coward? It is a statement. It says...to play here...you must have "identity". Lake_Eyre as meaningless as it sounds, yet still betrays something created by me...a semblance of me in some small way exists in that identity. That identity found in the form of avitars, logins, anything that makes Susan from Delaware different from Jane in Pemona. Anything that gives each member a platform from which to engage. 4.) It must have personalities - People in a real community must be engaged in that community through difference...debate, discussions and argument create personality. The populace must have an identity and a reason to become involved. How long does a community of people who hate United Aitlines last? Sure...maybe you post a few beefs and you are done...but does that make Untied.com a community? I think not. How would slashdot work if not for the credit received from good penmanship? Jon Katz is a perfect example of how personality is required for community. Whether I abhore him or revere him, his articles divulge his personality, his ideas and he acquires a stature albeit good or bad for me and only me. I do not exist for him until now, but for me he equates to community. 5.) It must have a creator - A true community is nurtured and born from a singular or group idea that evolves into a community. I know that there are communities out there that have been created by companies and other communitites created by people. Reagrdless, although seemingly obvious, a community must be created and it must be accessible by at least a few people. That does not mean that a community is for all. Does Lockhard not equate the cigar houses in Britain as distinct communities? They are simply closed communities to all who are not English gentleman. That does not mean that they go against Jeffersonian or democratic ideals. The founders simple get to decide what is allowed and that is the micro version of democracy. A community is a tiny state unto itself if you will. These creators get to decide who may join the community and what role they may play. Right down for instance on slashdot to where they vote the article might be read or unread. This pentagon, forms what I believe is a community. It works for both the group of men smoking Gitanes and playing Bocce on a Paris street all the way down to a guy in a drilling rig hat playing Mech commander in Boise. It is not a matter of venue, but of the five requirements above.