Some Final Reflections on the Module

I have really enjoyed this module. It has helped me overcome initial concerns about my technical abilities and definitely made me more confident than ever to embrace new media. Whilst I have learned basics such as making a screenshot of a website, I have also experienced how easy it actually is to construct your own website.

I have particularly benefited from the discussions we had in class, which made me question some of my assumptions. I have also really enjoyed attending the Walking the Digital Dog lecture advertised by Nigel earlier this term, as well as learning about Open Source Software. What’s more, more often than not I now tend to use Firefox as a browser instead of Internet Explorer. Initially I haven’t noticed much difference between the two of them. Having worked on our group wiki though I was soon to find out that our project website looks appalling and incredibly chaotic when opened with Firefox. This made me realize how, even online, it is difficult to escape corporate claws.

Our expectations, as Nigel repeatedly mentioned, for things online to be free is also something I’ve come to question. I have already briefly touched upon this in my post on Second Life so I won’t go into further detail here.

Indeed, the module has aroused a fascination with Second Life in me. I have now established a Second Life presence and I’m still taken aback by the virtual world. Upon noticing that most avatars are designed according to prevailing cultural ideals, I’ve tried my hardest to go against this trend. My avatar is thus old and chubby. Maybe this is the cause for my unpopularity within Second Life as I have yet to make friends there.

This leads me to another observation in regards to Second Life that strikes me: the emphasis on and obsession with appearance and accordingly consumption. It seems as though our online actions are a mere perpetuation of our offline actions.

By now I even got into the habit of blogging. As aforementioned I believe in many cases blogging is very valuable for it often provides a counterpoint to mainstream media coverage. Reconsidering my previous reflections on blogging, I would like to add that I now understand how blogging might help me share, explore, shape and develop my ideas by putting them into the public domain and leaving them open to feedback. Hence, I’ve come a long way from being extremely insecure about sharing my thoughts online even if I might not continue to keep a blog immediately after this module.

I have certainly become more careful with revealing personal information about myself on both Facebook and StudiVZ so as to avoid advertising myself for identity theft.

Finally, I have one minor reservation in regards to the module: Although I can’t deny that I have acquired some important technical skills, I would have liked the module to put more emphasis on the technical aspects. Since our course is generally more academically charged, I think it would have been nice to do something more technologically challenging.

Nonetheless, with the growing ubiquity of new media technologies in the workplace this module was undoubtedly useful for my future, regardless of what career I will be pursuing.

Reflections on the Group Project

As I have already made references to group dynamics in earlier posts, I will try and keep this short so as to avoid repetition.

With the last nine weeks having gone by rather quickly, I’m pleased to say that Karl, Neng and I have finally managed to complete our group project on Virtual Communities.

Although we experienced some communication difficulties to begin with, which lead to one of the group members leaving the group to concentrate on their own project, I believe that overall Karl, Neng and I worked very well together as a group.

As our ideas concerning virtual communities evolved throughout the course, we ended up changing the direction of our group project constantly. Researching material on the topic I believe really helped us define and shape our ideas for the project. Above all however it seems that the animated discussions we had within the group in order to find a suitable definition for the term community which we could all agree on, lead us to decide upon exploring the concept itself by means of the project.

Whilst we didn’t allocate specific roles within the group, we nevertheless decided to divide the project thematically. I found this very effective since it allowed each of us to thoroughly research one aspect of ‘virtual community’ we were particularly interested in. It also helped relieve individual work load and thus made us work more efficiently. Even though our styles of writing differ immensely, we decided not to edit our website’s content. I actually believe that the different styles of writing in relation to our case ctudies work quite well, since it bestows a certain sense of character upon them.

The only concern I have in regards to the content is the fact that we haven’t been able to cover all the numerous ways the term community can be understood within cyberspace. I realize that we only had limited time available, which naturally requires selection. Besides, we ended up becoming a group of three only, which made it somewhat difficult to cover the whole range of virtual communities and their different aspects in the first place. Despite all this, I believe we have coped really well by managing to take into account the most important aspects of virtual community within our case studies.

Personally, if there had been more time, I’d have enjoyed studying Second Life and/ or World of Warcraft as a virtual community in addition to Social Networking Sites for this project. World of Warcraft interests me on a personal level mainly because my teenage brother has developed a passion for it. As for Second Life, the concept still intrigues me. Since I could not consider it in regards to this project however, I have chosen Second Life as my subject of study for my essay for the New Media/ New Technologies module that ran parallel to this course.

I’m also very pleased with the look of our wiki page, which was designed collectively. We went for a rather minimalist design and decided not to include too many pictures so as to avoid making the website look unnecessarily crammed. If you ask me, we have successfully transformed a rather unaesthetic wiki page into a pleasantly-designed website, which was probably the most challenging aspect of this module.

Indeed, I have tried my very best to make our web page look as consistent as possible. As a result, I’ve become very confident with using the wiki and have also acquired some basic html skills.

As I have no doubt mentioned numerous times before on here, I can be a bit of a perfectionist as well as extremely determined. Hence when faced with a problem I preoccupy myself with it until I have found a solution to it. Whilst this is certainly positive in that I don’t allow problems to demotivate me, it can also hold up progress. I have thus not yet stopped agonizing about the wiki programme’s stubbornness in refusing to accept my cell padding changes from 10 to 20, albeit having tried everything in my power to no avail. I have made sure though that I paid attention to more important issues and not allow it to impede our progress. Nigel in fact gave me some good advice last Monday: there are more important things than fretting about cell padding, even if it is (only) going for a beer in the pub. ;o)

Having finished the project, I have to admit though that I am nowhere closer to an understanding of what community is. The term community has certainly evolved and come to mean so many different things at once, it seems impossible to establish a unanimous definition. As I have already discussed the notion of community here, I will not go into much further detail. I nonetheless feel that I should add to my previous consideration of the notion of community where I have expressed a sense of belonging for a village community tied to the street I used to live in for most of my life. It occurred to me that the reason I have chosen to move to a metropolitan city like London may be linked to this kind of village community. Whilst it undoubtedly provides support in many ways, it is also incredibly suffocating. Nine weeks ago, I would have associated the notion of community with almost exclusively positive attributes. Whereas now I have gained a better understanding of how often such positive traits are inextricably linked with negative aspects.

Overall, I’m very pleased with how the group project went. Apart from some (may I say major) initial communication problems that were nevertheless quickly resolved, we haven’t encountered any major drawbacks. I even believe that throughout the group project my decision making skills have developed.

I’m satisfied with our final project and I also believe we got on very well as a group even though it was the first time Neng, Karl and I have worked together. I’d therefore like to end this post with a big THANK YOU to Karl and Neng! It was great working with you!

Just a short post to express my delight and gratitude:

YAY! to my previous blog entry – I’ve added a picture and yet the line spacing remained consistent. :o)

The Week Before the Deadline...

In fact I should be sorting out some discrepancies on our group wiki at the moment. When trying to access the website however the following message appears:

Whilst this is undeniably making me feel a little uneasy I’ve decided to write on my blog instead and hope the problem the page is experiencing will be resolved soon.

Speaking of the group wiki, I’ve noticed that our page looks different (and somewhat awkward may I say) when opened with Firefox. I don’t know whether this is something I should be concerned about right now but it is definitely not making me happy. I wonder if we should try and resolve it?

Apart from the above I feel that the group project is coming along quite well. The majority of the writing for the project now seems to be completed. The three of us met on Friday to compose our conclusion. Another group meeting is scheduled for Monday morning to review our introduction as well as to verify and edit the rest of the content if necessary.

Having watched Nigel help us sort out some inconsistencies on Monday, I feel very confident using the wiki now. I’ve realised that often it is more sensible and above all easier and quicker to make amendments in the source, which is what I have been doing lately. I have been experiencing problems trying to amend the cell padding from 10 to 20 in the table properties though. I would love to say that (after hours wasted on this) I’ve stopped agonizing about it. As I can be a bit of a perfectionist this would be a lie. What I can say however is that I understand there are more important issues needing attention right now so I’ve laid that matter to rest. At least for the time being, since it is only a minor formatting problem.

After an insightful (but unfortunately rather brief and interrupted) discussion with Nigel (and some of my fellow students) regarding blogging, I guess I ought to reconsider my reflections on blogging. Maybe I should approach blogging as Eco does teaching and writing for newspapers:
‘That is why I like to teach, to expound still-imperfect ideas and hear the students’ reaction. That is why I like to write for the newspapers, to reread myself the next day, and to read the reactions of others. A difficult game, because it does not always consist of being reassured when you meet with agreement and having doubts when you are faced with dissent. Sometimes you have to follow the opposite course: Distrust agreement and find in dissent the confirmation of your own intuitions’ (1986: xii).

I will elaborate on the above as well as consider the group dynamics and the group project in my final blog entry for this module next week. I hope we will be given until Friday to do so as the work load at the moment feels rather overwhelming, as always at the end of term.

Eco, U. (1986) Travels in Hyperreality. Harcourt Brace & Company: Orlando, Florida.

Reflections on Blogging

Seven weeks into this module, I doubt that I will continue to keep a blog upon the module’s completion. I certainly feel more comfortable about sharing my thoughts online but I still prefer keeping in touch via email or the telephone.

Initially, blogging to me seemed to be me more of a certain kind of one way communication aimed at simultaneously everyone and no-one. That is to say someone who by chance stumbles across my blog may or may not decide to read it.

Having said that, my opinion that blogging is a particular form of one way communication was proven wrong. Anyone is free to leave comments and thus interact with the author. When Mette and I went to the IET’s annual Mountbatten lecture Walking the Digital Dog and subsequently blogged about it, I was positively surprised to find Roo Reynolds (the guy who gave the lecture) had commented on my (/our) entry (/entries) about the event. In this way we entered into a dialogue with Roo Reynolds, albeit unintentionally. Above all, it gave both us and Roo Reynolds the opportunity to clarify any concerns. This is clearly something that with the utmost probability would not have happened had we not blogged about it. Considering this I can’t deny that blogging is undoubtedly advantageous.

Yet to me blogging still feels like writing a diary. In light of this module then blogging I believe is very appropriate as we’re supposed to use it to document our learning progress. Upon the completion of this module however blogging will serve no purpose for me anymore. So my conservative attitude towards blogging doesn’t seem to have changed much. In my defence though I have never been much of a diary person either!

Perhaps I should also add that even though blogging is not my cup of tea, I do approve of websites such as Milblogging that provide a space for soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq (as well as their families) for example to disseminate their first-hand experiences of the war. I regard these blogs as important to our understanding of warfare as they clearly offer a counterpoint to mainstream media coverage of the war in Iraq.

Another thing (totally unrelated to the above) I would like to mention here with regard to blogging is that blogger has left me severely frustrated at times. I’m perhaps a little squeamish in this respect but one thing I find particularly annoying is that lately after adding pictures or videos the spacing of the text beneath the added item seems to decrease (see Good Web Design/ Bad Web Design and Walking the Digital Dog) making the entry look patchy. I have yet to figure out how to prevent this if that is at all possible. Surprisingly in an earlier entry (My first attempt at blogging…) this didn’t happen (or maybe I found a way to set it right and just can’t remember).

Making Progress

As planned we had a brief group meeting before class on Monday. This allowed us to discuss where we’re at in terms of the group project, as well as determine what we believe still needs to be done.

As in class we were given a chance to work within our groups (which I greatly appreciated!), we were able to focus our attention on one of our top priorities this week: sorting out the web design of our wiki page.

Editing the wiki appeared to be more difficult than I first anticipated. Fortunately Neng has some previous experience with html and web design in general, for which I’m very grateful. We opted for a somewhat minimalist design, which is not to say that this is a bad thing. In fact, at present I’m very pleased with the design of our wiki page. I’m especially happy about the choice of colour, which is particularly easy on the eye. Of course, there are still some inconsistencies which we’ll have to work on but most importantly the first step has been taken.

I’ve already played around with the wiki last night and made some minor formatting changes. This definitely made me feel more comfortable with the whole editing process. Monday’s class was thus incredibly valuable: not only did it help ease my concerns voiced in my previous blog entry, but I also feel that I have acquired some important wiki editing skills for this project.

Although I have been feeling a little insecure about adding my (not yet final) written work on social networking sites onto our wiki page, I nevertheless did it yesterday. It is clearly convenient to have everything that is project-related in one place, which will probably make the final editing process easier.

Hopefully by the end of this week our research into virtual communities will be completed and put down in writing so we can start piecing everything together.

Panic setting in…

This week I believe has been the toughest so far. We seem to have lost a group member along the way (?) and with the deadline looming panic is slowly but surely setting in. Having been granted a look at last year’s group projects I have to admit didn’t reduce the panic. Most of their finished websites, if not all of them, were in my opinion very well designed. Considering that we have only swiftly worried about the design of our wiki page this didn’t help. It was good however to get an idea of what is expected of us in terms of written style, as well as quantity and quality of information. Whether we will meet these expectations is another question.

On a more positive note, it was great to be given time to work on our group project in class on Monday. This allowed us to determine a third virtual community as a case study for our group project, namely Freecycle. It was also helpful to be able to consult Nigel in order to eliminate any remaining unclarities with regard to the group project.

I’ve also finally decided to stop reading and start writing. I found that, while interesting and undoubtedly relevant, it is difficult to incorporate all the information I have collected on virtual communities into our project. There just seems to be so much to say about virtual communities that I’m somewhat afraid we won’t be able to do the project justice. For one, there is still plenty of material available on the subject matter that I haven’t had the chance to look at (yet).

In general I also noticed that there is little academic material on social networking sites per se, possibly because they are relatively new phenomena. Overall, out of all the texts I’ve read I found Howard Rheingold’s (2000) revised edition of The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier most useful in regard to this project. I also think that David Bell’s (2001) essay Community and Cyberculture in his book An Introduction to Cybercultures provides a fantastically comprehensive account of the different understandings of community within the field. Unfortunately, Bell’s work is one of many I have read that have found no place in my first written draft on social networking sites.

We have scheduled a group meeting before class this Monday to discuss and edit the work we have done so far. I’m also still unhappy with the design of our web page as already mentioned above. Hopefully we can resolve this problem on Monday as well as start exchanging ideas about images and videos we might want to include.

With two weeks to go I’m still hoping I’ll get a chance to analyse the group dynamics in relation to Belbin and Tuckman’s work as originally intended but time is running out…

IET tv - Walking the Digital Dog Webcast

Group Project

I was pleased that Nigel made some space for us on Monday to meet in our groups. I felt that because half of my group members were prevented to attend the lecture the previous week we were lagging a bit behind. As aforementioned I have difficulties making decisions and imposing them upon others, something I will definitely have to work on.

Anyway, as we presented our ideas Nigel pointed out that we had to find a focus point linking them all together so as to avoid making the group project sound as if it were three/ four separate essays rather than one coherent, fluid piece. So Karl, Neng and I met Thursday afternoon to discuss this. We had agreed on Monday to do some reading on virtual communities. After an ongoing debate we all came to the conclusion that it would be tricky to come up with one unanimous definition for the term ‘community’. So we decided that through our piece we will be aiming to explore the different ways the term is understood (and how virtual communities might differ from and/or be similar to real life communities) by comparing and examining specific virtual communities as case studies (Queeruption, MySpace, and possibly a third one which we have yet to agree upon).

Overall, I'm quite happy with the way the group project is developing. I’m also relieved that we were given an indication of how long the piece is expected to be (thanks to Bella!). I’m still a little puzzled though about the style of writing that is required of us. I understand that it is supposed to be academic but in the first person… Oh well, I’m sure we’ll figured it out.

Good Web Design/ Bad Web Design

Before I will post my examples for what I consider good and bad web design I’d like to point out that, as in all matters of taste, these examples have been chosen in a subjective manner. I generally believe that since most commercial websites are usually designed by professionals it is not easy to find fault with them. I also don’t feel I’m in a position to make any such judgements as my knowledge in regards to the aesthetic aspects of web design is rather poor. Moreover, the websites I tend to visit regularly are in my opinion relatively well designed. I had more difficulties finding a poorly designed web page.

So here we go.

Please find below my example of what I consider to be good web design.



This web page is generally clearly arranged. The colours in my opinion are harmonic and suitable. Information is relevant, concise and clear as well as easy to find.

This website by contrast appears to be less well organized and is definitely messier. It’s nevertheless fairly simple to find what you’re looking for. I also think that the website might benefit from earthlier colours. Since the organization is dedicated to sell and promote ethical items the shade of blue employed on its website seems inappropriate. I tend to associate the colour with chemicals rather than ethical consumption. I still wouldn’t argue however that it represents a good example for a poorly designed web page.

Websites similar to the one above are clearly poorly designed, basically because there is no design whatsoever. Whilst the font and style used might be consistent the content appears to be more suitable for print than online. The web page completely fails to grab my attention and there is simply too much information on one page. Then again I think it is important to keep the purpose of certain websites in mind…

Phew! This entry actually took me longer to complete than any other – I wasted hours to find out how to make cached snapshots of websites and publish them successfully as pictures on my blog. At least I can now say there’s something I’ve learned today. :o)

Walking the Digital Dog

On Thursday Mette and I attended the 30th annual Mountbatten lecture at the IET, as suggested by Nigel. As the title of the lecture (Walking the Digital Dog: Work, Learn and Play in Digital Worlds) delivered by Andrew (Roo) Reynolds of IBM already indicates the audience was introduced to how virtual worlds are used to play, work, and learn.

The first thing that struck me (/us) was the audience. Upon arrival we seemed to be the only females in their mid-20s attending the lecture. The Common room, in which registration took place and refreshments were served, was predominantly filled with men in their mid-40s and above. Given that the lecture was first and foremost aimed at people with no experience of virtual worlds one would naturally expect older people in the audience. Later it emerged however that many of them appeared to have more experience of and within virtual worlds than I do. So much for conventional stereotyping…

Then again the conspicuous non-attendance of women in my opinion clearly reflected the general absence of women within technology. I was thus happy to spot the name of a woman working for an organization called womenintechnology on the list of participants that we were given at registration. Thanks to the name badges we were all encouraged to wear it was easy to find and approach her. I found it interesting and exciting to find out about an organization committed to promote and support women within the IT sector, a field that is still largely dominated by men. We were also given a business card by a council member of the Women’s Engineering Society ‘promoting the education, training and practice of engineering among women’. I’m pleased to have found out that through organizations such as these women are given a voice in an industry for which they regrettably still seem to be regarded as unsuitable. Of course it was also fantastic to observe that women who are active in the IT sector stick together and aid one another.

The lecture itself I thought was excellent, albeit a little too positive about virtual worlds. Since I received the lecture as a response to the negative press virtual worlds such as Second Life tend to get this was acceptable. As the handout we were given upon registration states, Reynolds was arguing that ‘virtual worlds may affect mankind as momentously as writing, the printing press, the telephone and the World Wide Web’. I think it is fair to say that he has convinced me.

Reynolds undoubtedly made clear that virtual worlds are suitable for everyone. Although I have difficulties picturing my own granny (who’s still very active) enthusiastically in front of a computer trotting about in the form of an avatar in Second Life, I can see how this might work for other elderly people. I certainly think that for those suffering from autism or Aspergers, as well as for people with a pathological fear of social contact, virtual worlds can provide a platform for establishing social relationships and perhaps even help them overcome their anxieties. Reynolds in fact repeatedly stressed the possibilities virtual worlds offer in terms of maintaining as well as building social relationships.

The usefulness of the space-time compression intrinsic to virtual worlds was also touched upon. This means that corporate meetings and lectures for example can take place without anyone having to travel. Whilst this of course is very convenient, it is simultaneously environmentally friendly. At a time in which global warming poses an imminent threat, the reduction of business flights to me sounds particularly appealing.

I didn’t understand how Reynolds could compare watching a baseball (or football) match with friends in a virtual world to doing the same in a pub though. Doesn’t the whole atmosphere get lost in doing so? And isn’t it a rather lonely experience? I realize it might enable me to watch a football match with (I’m not sure whether ‘to watch with’ is the correct phrase here) family and friends abroad but that to me doesn’t even replace watching the football with friends on the telly at home, let alone in the pub.

Another interesting topic covered by Reynolds was how virtual worlds are increasingly utilized for educational purposes. Reynolds made reference to a game called Recall that is taking its players through Ireland’s troubled history in the form of a Romeo and Juliet story. This game is distributed around Irish schools. My younger brother (and many other schoolchildren), who spends more time playing World of Warcraft than concentrating on school, would certainly benefit from such a game. The idea of learning through playing I believe is a brilliant one. Reynolds also demonstrated how virtual worlds are used for training purposes in the medical profession for example. Whilst it can’t replace hands-on experience in surgery the simulation can nevertheless aid in familiarizing oneself with the sequence of events etc.

I don’t want to go into any further detail here in respect to Reynold’s lecture so I’ll just post the slideshow (taken from www.rooreynolds.com) that was used by him in case anyone is interested.

View Upload your own

After the lecture we were invited for (free) drinks in the Common room to discuss our thoughts with other members of the audience, a perfect opportunity for networking. Mette and I had an exciting conversation with the director of Codexx Associates Ltd and a senior lecturer at Kingston University’s Faculty of Computing about issues of fraud (and the handling of other criminal activities) within Second Life (or other virtual worlds). This is certainly an area I’d like to look into in more detail. I’ve also succumbed and decided that I would eventually establish a Second Life presence in order to get some firsthand experience.

Overall, I had a fantastic evening so thank you very much Nigel for bringing the event to our attention! It was definitely an enriching experience and I’m glad I went.

What is a community?

First of all I believe I ought to mention that I’m not intending to find a suitable definition for the term ‘community’ here (if that is at all possible), as I believe this should be reserved for our group project. Rather I would like to use this space to reflect on the discussion we had in class with regard to the notion of ‘community’ and my own perception of it.

I think after Monday’s lecture and discussion, we can all agree that the concept of ‘community’ is a very complex one. I, for my part, don’t believe it is possible to come up with one universal definition for ‘community’.

Nonetheless, I realized that I seem to have a very clear perception of whether or not I’m a member of certain (what are usually referred to as) communities without any apparent or rational reason.

The concept of ‘community’ seems to be closely connected with the concept of commonality. One’s belonging to a community might thus be determined geographically for example, that is according to one’s shared nationality, birthplace and/ or one’s shared place of residence.

Accordingly, I would have to class myself as being a member of the German community in Reading (if there is such a thing), which I don’t. In fact, I don’t consider myself as belonging to any community in connection with being German (or living in Reading) at all. I believe that nationality is more or less irrelevant in terms of community membership, probably because you can’t really choose your nationality (sure you can change your nationality but you cannot do away with the fact that you were born and bred in a certain country to parents of a certain nationality).

There are undoubtedly many people who’d argue that their nationality engenders a feeling of community membership. A German friend of mine for example, who has been living in London for over ten years, would certainly consider herself as belonging to a German community within London. So what differentiates me from her? Is community membership a matter of personal choice? Or am I just in denial? Do I actually belong to a German community in Reading without being aware of it?

I would argue that community membership above all requires a strong sense of belonging and a firm belief in shared values, both of which I lack in terms of my nationality. Hence community membership clearly seems to involve more than just having something in common with others, be that nationality, sexuality, or ethnicity. Considering this it would be interesting to see how many heterosexuals as opposed to homosexuals identify themselves as being part of a community in relation to their sexuality.

Funnily enough, I wouldn’t deny being part of a particular type of village community relating to the street that I used to live in for most of my life and that I still return to when visiting my family. Membership of this street community usually involves get-togethers, such as an annual street party in the summer, birthday parties, barbecues, dinner parties, or coffee parties. Unlike with my friends, I barely stay in touch with my fellow street community members unless I go back to stay with my parents and one of the get-togethers is taking place at the time. This didn’t stop one of the members from inviting me to her wedding in April next year, which I’m planning to attend.

Is my feeling part of such a community but rarely getting involved enough though? Can I still count myself as a member of such a community even though I am now living miles away from the street that connects these people?

Community membership here also seems to be based upon mutual support, a lot like Rheingold’s notion of a gift economy. You know you can rely on the other members to help you out if necessary without being expected to give something in return.

This is similar to what I believe I experience as part of being a football supporter. Although admittedly mutual understanding would perhaps be a better term to describe the feeling. I therefore consider myself as being part of a football supporting community, both on a club level and on an international level. Strangely enough however I don’t feel as though I belong to any kind of student community despite sharing the same experiences and feelings with many other students. Maybe there is more to it than merely mutual understanding?

I also don’t feel part of any virtual communities even though I have a Facebook and Studivz account. Why? I don’t know. I guess I use these social networking sites as a means of communicating and staying in touch with people I rarely see (mostly because they live abroad and I can’t afford speaking to them on the phone) rather than anything else. Using the telephone as a means of communication doesn’t necessarily mean I belong to a telephone community, or does it?

I will bring this entry to an end now as brooding over the concept of community seems to leave me even more confused in trying to establish what constitutes a community. I hope that researching our group project will help me resolve this confusion.

Second Life

In Monday’s lecture Nigel brought the widely disputed online community Second Life to our attention.

Personally I have never considered establishing a Second Life presence, possibly because I’m already finding it difficult enough to cope with my (let’s call it) ‘First Life’. Two of my very good friends however are keen proponents of the virtual world, without allowing it to take over their life. Let me also assure you that, unlike some people might have thought, both of them are perfectly sane and enjoy a healthy social life (in the real world).

Second Life certainly offers them an opportunity to interact with people on a global scale, something the incredibly dull and mono-cultural village they live in seems to deny them.

I’m actually very tempted to make an unduly comparison here. Second Life for some appears to me to serve the same social function as nightclubs do for others. Rather than having an intimate party with close friends at home, many prefer to mingle (in small groups) with complete strangers in overpriced nightclubs. I’m not trying to suggest that both should be considered equal social activities since I don’t believe they are, not least because clubbing requires one’s physical presence.

This leads me to another interesting question raised in Monday’s class: Is meeting (in the sense of getting to know) people online less safe than meeting people in the flesh?

In my opinion this question is slightly complex. Virtual encounters indisputably cannot cause physical pain, i.e. in the virtual world you certainly won’t be (physically) raped, tortured, beaten, killed, etc. On the other hand, I don’t believe virtual contact prevents you from experiencing emotional pain caused by bullying or other forms of emotional abuse. Considering that in extreme cases this might lead to suicide, the answer to the above question seems less straight-forward. It becomes even more complicated when taking into account that paedophiles for example might use virtual communities as a realm to get to know future victims.

Anyway, I’m digressing. There’s one last thing I’d like to mention in regards to Second Life: the reactions provoked by the idea of people spending money on virtual commodities, be that cars or even a piece of land. Contemplating this idea, it occurred to me that we’re probably all guilty of purchasing items we don’t really need. We live in a consumption-driven society in which status (and maybe even class?) is determined by commodities, so why should online communities be different from that? I’m certainly not going to spend my money on virtual commodities anytime soon, but maybe we can regard these communities as a mere reflection of reality and evaluate our own habits and behaviour accordingly.

If, as Rheingold suggests, some virtual communities indeed operate ‘gift economies’,

‘in which people do things for one another out of a spirit of building something between them, rather than a spreadsheet- calculated quid pro quo’ (Rheingold. 1994: 59),

then perhaps we can even learn from them.

Rheingold, H. (1994) The Virtual Community: Surfing the Internet. Minerva: London (Yes, I still prefer reading print editions to online editions)

(First) Proposal of our Group Project Plan

The following (so far) also appears on our group wiki page

Virtual Communities

In order to look at virtual communities in more depth it first necessitates a definition of the term ‘community’:
What is a community, how do we define a community? What constitutes a virtual community as opposed to a community in real life? How might a virtual community be similar to or different from a community as we experience it in the real world?
Resources we think might be useful in considering the above:
Raymond Williams’ definition of the term ‘community’ in his Keywords (1976), dictionary definitions of ‘community’
Howard Rheingold’s work on virtual communities available here

From the above, the question arises as to whether virtual communities might have changed people's perception of the local-global nexus. We will aim to discuss this relationship between the local and the global in terms of cyberspace. This will require a definition of cyberspace, as well as take into account how cyberspace might have redrawn national boundaries and the consequences this might have.

At last we will explore the possible motivations (such as narcissism, confirmation, etc) of people joining virtual communities (such as Queeruption, MySpace, Facebook, etc). Whilst this will give an account of how virtual communities are often used to market oneself or to gain confirmation, we will also consider Rheingold’s concept of a ‘gift economy’. This will also enable us to assess the pros and cons of virtual communities (possibly by using two to four different virtual communities as case studies).

Conclusion: We will evaluate all of the above and hopefully come to a concise conclusion of how the emergence of virtual communities might have impacted upon our perception of the term community.

Planning...

This week involved the first stage in the process of completing our group project: planning – as the title of this entry indicates.

Elom, Karl, Neng and I have now determined the themes we would like to cover in our group project on virtual communities. I won’t go into much detail here in order to avoid being repetitive as I will post the (first) proposal of our project plan as it (at the moment) also appears on our group wiki page later on.

In brief, we have agreed upon covering the following:

1. give a definition of the term ‘community’ and look at what constitutes a virtual community,
2. discuss the local-global nexus in regards to cyberspace,
3. and examine the possible motivations (such asnarcissism, confirmation, etc) of people joining virtual communities (such asQueeruption, MySpace, Facebook, etc).

The summary above might sound a little vague and is explained in more detail in the project plan. I also think some themes will consolidate once we have completed our research.

In order to relieve the work load and thus work more efficiently, I suggested to my fellow group members that we could divide the topics between the four of us. One of my group members however objected to this and pointed out that each of us might arrive at different readings of the same text. This will then enable us to form a more balanced argument on virtual communities. Whilst I recognize the validity of this argument, I fear that the time we have at our disposal might not allow us to do so. We will have to find a plausible solution of how to best approach this problem soon, in particular to avoid all of us concentrating on researching the same topics and as a result ending up with insufficient information on others.

Unfortunately I also have to point out that we already seem to be experiencing communication problems. The attempt to communicate via e-mail so far has proven somewhat problematic. It might therefore be worth picking a day for us to meet in person and exchange our ideas and thoughts on the project that way.

We have also decided to put a picture of ourselves on our group wiki page. I have to say that as yet I’m quite pleased with how easy it appears to be to construct (or rather edit) the wiki page (*touch wood*). Nonetheless, our creative abilities will clearly be challenged. At present I’m not satisfied with the design of our page and, as it was me who posted the project plan onto the page, I am willing to take full responsibility for that.

Correction

In my entry on open source software I erroneously claimed that PBWiki is open source software. This was kindly pointed out to me by Nigel in a comment (thank you!).

I acknowledge this mistake and have now edited the entry accordingly. Although wiki enables people to add, remove, edit and change content of a wiki page, the software itself doesn’t allow for active participation in its development.

I hope I got it right this time. ;o)

Our first group meeting

My previous entry mainly dealt with open source software, simply because the concept intrigued me. Although I had heard of it before I have never really given much thought to it so I considered it worth an entry.

This entry however will be entirely dedicated to the progress of our group project on virtual communities. So far we have had one rather short meeting, more or less to brainstorm our ideas. Initially we agreed upon exploring virtual music communities in regard to MySpace (see Karl’s entry Week One). Having exchanged our own experiences with, as well as our views and ideas on virtual communities, we now decided on focusing our study more broadly on the themes of narcissism versus confirmation.

In my opinion, virtual communities such as MySpace and Facebook are primarily about selling, promoting, and publicizing oneself. This, I believe, is precisely why MySpace is often utilized by musicians. It certainly is a cheap and easy way to market oneself and establish a following. For non-musicians, that is the talent-less, these virtual communities also offer room for exposure in what to me often seems a rather narcissistic attempt to gain stardom in a celebrity-obsessed world. But virtual communities can also provide a space for individuals to overcome insecurities and help others achieve a sense of belonging, in other words they can give confirmation.

Personally I thought it would also be interesting to consider the way virtual communities offer an opportunity to embrace one’s deviances. Take Armin Meiwes, in my opinion a perfect, albeit slightly extreme example. Meiwes (who has since become somewhat of a cultural icon) used virtual communities to locate a volunteer who’d consent to being eaten. This case is a particularly interesting one, not least because of its controversy.

I am however aware that there are only a limited number of issues we can cover within the time available. In fact, I’m already beginning to feel the pressure of organizing my time efficiently, especially with deadlines for other course work approaching fast.

To end this entry on a good note, I’d like to mention that so far there have been no difficulties within our group. I’m sure we’ll work well together and hopefully produce some good work.

Open Source Software

I have always associated open source software with techno-nerds. Being built upon the principle of active participation in its development, open source software to me is (or at least until now was) inextricably linked with expertise. My perception was such that a non-geek like me would never be able to come to terms with such a complex thing as open source software.

It is remarkable though what such software can achieve. I believe the success of Linux is a prime example for this. In August 2006, Becky Hogge of the New Statesman wrote the following:
‘In 2001, it was estimated that 8,000 man-years had been invested in building Linux, most of this voluntarily. Had this feat been attempted by a commercial software company, the cost would have been in excess of $1bn’.
Given the amount of time that is invested in developing Linux, it seems only logical to assume, as Raymond (author of The Cathedral and the Bazaar, who describes Linux as ‘a great babbling bazaar’) does, that bugs are quickly discovered and corrected. It comes as no surprise then that on its website, Linux is described as revolutionary. As great as all this might sound, I still believe I have yet to become more confident with new technology before I consider embracing Linux.

I have however taken on Nigel’s suggestion and downloaded an alternative browser. With the downloading taking less than five minutes and no effort at all, I’m now using Mozilla Firefox without any problems. So far I haven’t noticed much of a difference between Mozialla Firefox and Windows Internet Explorer. In fact, all the websites I usually visit look exactly the same. This leaves me feeling incredibly ignorant and lazy about my previous attitude towards open source software, as well as my unquestioning acceptance and support of conglomerate-controlled software.

Of course I will also get more accustomed to wiki in the next few weeks in the course of our group project (I will consider the progress of our group project in more detail in another blog entry). We have already created our own group PBwiki page, which was fairly easy, and called it dekn, according to the first letter of each of our first names in alphabetical order. Ingenious, isn’t it?

After Monday’s class I might even attempt to use html sometime in the future. Whilst at first it seemed quite daunting, html soon turned out to be not half as difficult as I expected it to be.

Overall I think this week I have firsthand discovered how closed-minded I used to be in regards to new technologies. It is incredible how easy it is to accept conventional norms and go with the flow. I now realise that there are plenty of alternatives to conglomerate-controlled software, most of which is not as difficult to use as one might initially assume. I will certainly try and be more open-minded and above all rely less on my perception of things before I have tried or experienced them myself.

My first attempt at blogging...

‘As technology advances, it reverses the characteristics of every situation again and again. The age of automation is going to be the age of "do it yourself”’ (McLuhan. 1957/ in McLuhan and Zingrone. 1997: 283).

As this is my first attempt at blogging I have chosen to start with the above quote by Marshall McLuhan, which I believe perfectly sums up the practice of blogging.

Although I never hesitate to debate my views face to face, I have never before considered starting a blog. The reason is probably that I assumed no-one would actually care to read it, thus rendering it insignificant. I also predominantly rely on print and broadcasting media (or credible websites such as bbc.co.uk or newstatesman.com), for news and information. I realise I might show myself conservative in my attitude to new media but I’m expecting this course to challenge this way of thinking.

So far I’m intending to use this blog for the sole purpose of my individual assignment but, who knows, I might brim over with enthusiasm for blogging and continue even after the course is finished.

As for my expectations, I’ve anticipated the module to be more technologically charged. As I would describe my technological knowledge as basic, however, I am not at all disappointed. Whilst I have created a computer game upon completion of a computer-programming course in Delphi language at school about ten years ago, I have recently become less technologically active. I hope the module will reawaken my interest in new media and enable me to explore the different possibilities they offer.

Although I found it difficult to make a decision in regards to which topic I’d like to cover last Monday, I’m excited about the prospect of working in groups. My decision making skills are certainly one area that I’d like to improve. Having worked in groups before, I’m also aware of the importance of time-management and communication within the group. It is still early stages though and I’m sure I’ll get back to this point later.

The group project will undoubtedly be interesting, especially since I have never worked with Elom, Karl, or Neng before. I’m also looking forward to making sense of the group work by considering both Meredith Belbin and Bruce W. Tuckman’s ideas on group psychology, as well as becoming more technologically savvy by playing around with wiki. Rheingold’s The Virtual Community: Finding Connection in a Computerised World may also be worth a look in regards to our chosen theme.

Reflecting on some of the issues raised in class on Monday, one particular concern caught my attention: the inequalities in terms of access to the Internet between the developed and the developing world. This brings me back to McLuhan and his concept of a ‘global village’. One might argue that through the emergence of the Internet and the World Wide Web, McLuhan’s concept (or anticipation) of a ‘global village’, in which
‘we have extended our central nervous system itself in a global embrace, abolishing both space and time as far as our planet is concerned’ (McLuhan cited in Harvey. 1990: 293),
has been realized. As the map below indicates however, this ‘global village’ is predominantly occupied by people from the developed world.



This global digital divide and its consequences is certainly something I’d like to look into in more detail. I will here draw this lengthy and hopefully not too tedious first entry to a close and leave some space for thought.


Essential McLuhan (1997) ed by McLuhan, E. and Zingrone, F. Routledge.

Harvey, D. (1990) The Condition of Postmodernity. Blackwell: Cambridge MA and Oxford UK.