Welcome to the Neighbourhood
Table of Contents
Instructions for this Report
Some Online Resources on Virtual Communities
Reaction
Would I be a member of a virtual community? Under what circumstances?
Significance of Virtual Communities
Other Reports on Cyberspace Citizenship and Virtual Communities
Some Online
Resources on Virtual Communities
1.http://rdz.stjohns.edu/~storm/
This link is useful for the study of cyber-psychology and on
line therapy. It discusses online communities and the ethics of therapists on
line.
2.http://www.behavior.net/mhn/bolforum/message/32 The goal of this forum on The Psychology of Cyberspace is to share ideas and resources concerning all facets of individual and group experience on the internet - including email relationships, mailing list dynamics, chat communities, the psychology of web site design and networks, attitudes about computers, online psychotherapy, counseling and self help. All theories and perspectives are welcome.
3.http://www.shassan.com/ This page is put together by a former cult member, author, and licensed mental health counselor with over twenty years experience working in the field of cult mind control, thousands of people have sought him out for advice, counseling and support. This page discusses mind control, psychologicl problems, and destructive cults. This page offers help to those people in cults or the friends and family of those who are in cults as well.
4.http://www.grohol.com/ "If online social interactions are addicting, then every real-world relationship I have is an addictive one."-John M. Grohol. This page is an index for psychology, support, and mental health issues, resources, and people on the Internet.
5.http://www.netaxs.com/~jamesiii/papers.htm
This page offers a multitude of links to other
cyber-psychology places. It has a few papers on psychology by the author. This
page would be useful in finding other resources on the net for cyber psychology.
Online Communities
What are virtual online communities?
An on line community is a place or site in which people can gather
and express their ideas. It could be compared to a modern day coffee shop.
Like these coffee shops there are regulars who frequent the site and participate in
discussions. They hold their discussions through computer mediated communications
(CMC) like: live chatrooms, bulletin boards, and e-mail. Many of these sites
hold more than one discussion group. People tend to participate in discussions that
they feel attached to. Many of the people in these discussions share the same
hobbies and interests.
What is their purpose?
Virtual communities are just another
way for people to communicate. They communicate over a wide range of topics
including: politics, movies, jokes, humor, stories, business endeavors, investing, and
many other special interests that people have. There is an unlimited number groups
and discussions to choose from. Another reason for constructing these
communities is to raise money in the use of ads and campaigns. Popular sites and
communities can get paid to put up advertisements for companies, internet malls, etc.
Who creates them and why?
Anyone can build a virtual
community! That is the great thing about the internet. There is so much room
to do things and not much in the way to stop you. All you need is the time,
resources and creativity to start one. Then you need people to come and use
it. Without the people you cannot have a community. As the builder, creator or
administrator you have to update and take care of the site as well as enforce any
regulations that you may impose.
Builder.com has ten
essential tips to building a good online community. Here they are:
Tip 1: test the water
Tip 2: make it a party
Tip 3: have 'em waiting
at the door
Tip 4: use your entire
site to seed discussions
Tip 5: recruit help
Tip 6: set and enforce
rules
Tip 7: remember it's
their community, too
Tip 8: project
personality
Tip 9: grow carefully
Tip 10: be a skilful
moderator
Reaction
How do virtual communities
work?
Virtual communities work by allowing
people a way to vent and communicate freely with those people who share the same ideas and
hobbies. They work because people like to interact and need interaction but do not
receive enough of it in person (in real life). I think that people are more afraid
of showing their true self in public, by using the internet to communicate and meet people
they do not have to worry about an impression. People are becoming more private and
try to keep to themselves more than before (personal opinion). I use the gas station
as an example, the gas station used to be known as the service station but now people do
not have the time nor patience to go to these. They prefer avoiding the interaction
by just getting their gas and going. Service stations where full serve is becoming
scarce here in Hawaii.
How do they spread?
Virtual communities are spread by word of
mouth or by link. If you like a page you may decide to make a link to it and tell
people about it and those people can do the same and before you know it this page everyone
likes is a meeting place to share ideas. This is how we can actively participate in
online communities. Dr. James says making a link to a person's page is like making a
friend. Everything on the web is not for privacy matters it is about advertisement
look at me, here I am!! By making a link to a person's page the more accessible he
or she is. Just think what use is a page if it is never viewed or used? There
would be no use it would essentially be dead until someone discovered it if you think
about it.
What types are there?
There are tons of different online
communities. I do not think you can actually get an accurate count of all the online
communities there are. I consider an online community to be a simple
newsgroup. Our Psychology class was a community that shared and argued points over
our mailing lists. We shared ideas and grew from each others experiences. I
would say our community revolved around our class none the less it was a community.
Just to name a few categories there are: online malls, chatrooms, newsgroups, mailing
lists, and all those game rooms. There are real time communities like chat rooms as
well as those non real time communities where they communicate through e-mail or bulletin
boards. People can post messages on these boards and others could reply and you
could vies the thread of the conversation.
Would I be a member of a
virtual community? Under what circumstances?
I would be a member of a virtual community if I felt that I could
contribute something to it. I would also like to be a member of something that I
would believe in and my membership in it would be appreciated. I would like to give
a hand a be a part of what goes on and be active in its discussion and well I think most
of all I would have to be interested in the topics of discussion.
Significance of Virtual
Communities
I think that it is very important to have
these virtual communities because it is an added way for people to interact. I feel
that many people are becoming afraid of who they meet in the street. There is less
customer service and people are seeking less interaction with others. I find this to
be so because people avoid making eye contact and look to the ground as if they are
ashamed. I think it has to do with the media portraying the negative people and this
stereotype is placed on strangers. On the computer you can still be open and seek
interaction that you would not otherwise seek in the street. You have a mental
connection with a person but risk nothing because you will never meet the other people
unless you arrange it. Therefore I feel that you risk little to no personal
involvement and will not get physically hurt. People are open to discuss topics on
whatever they like. I think that there will be greater use of the internet to find
people and interact because of this change in society.
Other Reports
on Cyberspace Citizenship and Virtual Communities
Lori Rapoza did a report on attaining
her cyberspace citizenship. She uses points in her report to grade her abilities as
she learned to use the net. In he beginning she was confident in her abilities in
using the net, little did she know what lied ahead. As soon as the technical stuff
came down she was turned away and intimidated. Towards the end of the semester she
was a lot more confident and able to complete her assignments a lot faster.
Lori Rapoza's advice on learning the
Internet "Don't Give Up!" She feels that with her perseverance and drive
to learn she had accomplished a lot. There were many difficult times for her and she
pressed on and now she is an avid netizen. She was surprised what she had in her
because there were times in which she felt like quitting this class. I think that
Lori did a great job and I would not be able to tell that she had a hard time with the
internet by looking at her final products.
Dana Rho also did her report on
attaining her cyberspace citizenship. I enjoyed reading this report a lot more
due to its use of icons. The text was easy to read and went well with her
background. She also shares her experiences which I thought, I could relate a lot
with. More than I could relate to Lori's report. There is a passage by Ms. Rho
where I feel every student who will take and has taken Dr. James' course will reach.
"Spending so much time in front of the computer became frustrating. I felt
that valuable time was being wasted because I had nothing tangible to show for all of the
hours I spent with my beady eyes glued to the screen and my hand poised on the mouse. I
was stressed because hours would go flying by and I felt I had accomplished so little. I
was confused with all of the information that was being thrown at me from all directions,
and dissatisfied with my progress--I felt I wasn't going anywhere."
Dana left a good
piece of advice for the following generations to come. "It will take a lot of time to become a cyberspace citizen...but
if you are patient and willing to take this time, expend the energy, and persist through
frustrations, you will be rewarded for a job well done by a sense of accomplishment and
relief that is unique to this class! "
I do not think I could of said it any better. She hit it on the nose
if you ask me.
Impressions
and Reactions
All I can say is WOW!! My classmates
have done a great job on their reports. I can honestly say that they have influenced
me to do better. I really feel bad coming into this class with prior online and web
design knowledge. I feel that a lot of my fellow classmates that I may have
previously helped have long since surpassed me. I had the basics and these people
have just made awesome pages with their use of fonts, backgrounds, and text. I am
jealous!! Here are a few pages really worth looking at: Roy Macareg's, Mike Silva's, Greg Sugitan's, and Alona Tabios's.
Conclusion
I was able to learn
a lot about on line virtual communities. If you are interested in learning about
them as well I can suggest you check out the other pages done above by my
classmates. If you are looking for more in detail and directions on how to make an
online community you should check out Builder.com.
This page can help you out in a bind they have online web authoring and design that you
can look at as well as the awards to prove it. This is a really god site to get more
information to your topics.
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