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Online Communities. February 6, 2005 Douglas Thomas. Place and Space. Connection of virtual and material culture (Stone) Physical and virtual spaces WELL vs. Williamsburg (Hafner) Fragility of the virtual Notions of responsibility and commitment. Nature of Community.
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Online Communities February 6, 2005 Douglas Thomas
Place and Space • Connection of virtual and material culture (Stone) • Physical and virtual spaces • WELL vs. Williamsburg (Hafner) • Fragility of the virtual • Notions of responsibility and commitment
Nature of Community • The dynamic of the Other • Communities as system of exclusion • Processes of “othering” as self-definition • Theme of hospitality (Derrida) • “Stranger” as analytic • Hospitality vs. hostility • Home vs. unheimlich
Emergence(s) of Community • Where do communities come from? • Birth(s) of community • Emergence vs. origins • Organic vs. constructed • Communities of Practice • How is emergence defined? • Law as “law of the other” (language) • Law of the Father (Lacan) • Disciplinary power (Foucault)
Entry • Sink, Drift, and Churn • Newbie entry • Stickiness • Communities of learning/pedagogy • Barriers to entry • Exclusion vs. Inclusion
Born into Community • How and when does one know they are a “member?” • Ritual • Self-definition • Extra-community definition
Becoming a member • Birth of an avatar • Conventions • Meeting expectations • Issues of choice and constraint • Naming
Boundary Objects • Principles (Star and Griesemer, 1989) • Sources of Intersubjective agreement for community of practice • Tools for translation between communities • Define the value and status of knowledge and community (Taylor and Kelko) • Plasticity and contingency
Community and Culture • Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft (Tönnies) • Community vs. Culture • Community both is and gives rise to culture • Emergence of artifacts • Common knowledge • Creation of boundary objects • Community as cultural defense • Munitas, care • Example: GBLT guilds in WoW
Media and New Forms of Community and Culture • Relations of production and consumption • Technology and convergence • Convergence culture (Jenkins) • Producing culture • Machinima as example • The French Democracy (Gesellschaft) • SWG from play to protest (Gemeinschaft)
How do we get at all this? • Multiple perspectives (Bartle) • Textual analysis • Social, critical and cultural analysis • Social science