tutoral six: the internet and online communities

Tutorial Six: The internet and online communities

Either search online for a community which interest you or choose one of the provided online communities to investigate. Make sure your selected a community that comprises some form of online forum, discussion page or chat room. You may also wish to see if your community has a Wikipedia entry.

Provide the web address and the name of the community you are investigating


The community i am going to investigate is my space www.myspace.com

What is the brief or focus of this community



MySpace is a popular social networking website offering an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music and videos for people of all ages around the world






What services are provided? How interactive is this site? How can people contribute?



MySpace offers services such as a general Profile setting, where you can update your mood, as well as your fav movies, bands, TV shows etc as well as being able to up-load photo's video's, audio-clips etc to your general profile, write blogs, as well as a comment space, where people can leave you comments. You can style your MySpace page to match your personality, by colour co-ordinating it, adding slide-shows, quiz results and joining groups that interest you.MySpace features in general are: Bulletins,Groups,MySpaceIM,MySpaceTV,MySpace Mobile, MySpace News, MySpace Classifieds and MySpace Karaoke







Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment on why people choose to contribute to this community. What is it they are seeking?





The reason why I have a My-space page is so it’s easier to stay in touch with my friends & family who are in a different part of the country. It's easy to see what they are up to with their life’s by having a quick look at their page and you can look at photo's that they have posted to see what they have been up. I think a lot of people use my-space for this reason as its quicker and easier than posting a letter these days.Other people may be seeking friendship from other people and wanting to get to know other people in there own area. Relationships may also be formed over MySpace but it isn’t something I would do, as you never know if the person contacting you is telling the truth, or if they are some-one prowling on unassuming, naive people





Cut and paste an example of the type of topics being discussed (you may have to provide a context to your excerpt).



Activities (258131 groups)Automotive (56390 groups)Business & Entrepreneurs (25696 groups)Cities & Neighbourhoods (44369 groups)Companies / Co-workers (40109 groups)Computers & Internet (18990 groups)Countries & Regional (14911 groups)Cultures & Community (90529 groups)Entertainment (395449 groups)Family & Home (54542 groups)Fan Clubs (273493 groups)Fashion & Style (86038 groups)Film & Television (51012 groups)Food, Drink & Wine (45263 groups)Games (75199 groups)Gay, Lesbian & Bi (42520 groups)Government & Politics (35143 groups)Health, Wellness, Fitness (30779 groups)Hobbies & Crafts (37904 groups)Literature & Arts (35171 groups)Money & Investing (15672 groups)Music (355313 groups)Nightlife & Clubs (67833 groups)Non-Profit & Philanthropic (23240 groups)Other (1470810 groups)Pets & Animals (41627 groups)Places & Travel (21011 groups)Professional Organizations (50950 groups)Recreation & Sports (150304 groups)Religion & Beliefs (118518 groups)Romance & Relationships (73636 groups)Schools & Alumni (195876 groups)Science & History (10417 groups)Sorority/Fraternities (33809 groups)And discuss anything, for example:Posted: 27 Dec 2006, 19:24 Let's make our own list of 1,000 places to see before you die.

These are a list of topics that are being discussed on MySpace.








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.

My-space has a page specially dedicated to safety and security: http://www.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=cms.viewpage&placement=safety_pagehome.You have the ability to set your profile to private, therefore only your friends or immediate contacts can view your details, but if your profile isn't set to private, then any videos or pictures you have uploaded become available for anybody on the internet to use. Also people add you all the time and you have no idea who they are






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


You are given the opportunity to meet people all over the world, and you get the ability to find out other peoples perspectives on a certain topic. It's easy to get to, for example, no having to travel anywhere as you can do it all in the comfort of your own home! People can communicate with other people who have the same interests, or have the same illness etc.






Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment what this community lacks or can not provide which traditional communities can.





There is no actual face to face stuff, its all over the internet, so you lose some sense of sociability....some people spend all their time in front of a computer, rather than getting out into the community and communicating with people, which isn’t good for building social skills