syllabus
blackboard
student.email resources
last.updated 6.07.06
Digital Communities
Purpose
To examine whether communities can be generated in digital spaces. And if so, what factors faciliate or hinder the process.
Questions
- How do the factors that Monroe describe affect the communities that form in digital spaces?
- Harry, from Silver's research, proves the point that we made last week in class--trolls or "gadflies" make the community about them. Yet the participants in Silver's study saw this as both a blessing and a curse. Harry gave the online community a purpose somedays, but he was annoying. What might this say about the BEV community or digital communities in general.
- What do all of these "protests" that Gurak and Logie describe say about the nature of digital communities? Why do you think the Haunting of GeoCities was rhetorically effective? Do you these strategies would be effective today?
- Over the last two weeks we have talked about barriers to technology for individuals of color, non-androcentric identities, and other hinderences to communities. If computer technologies are rhetorical, what solutions are there to these barriers?
Monroe
- Given the digital divide, does the ability to create a community online only serve to reinforce the existing digital divide or can it be a way to begin to transcend the digital divide to integrated group interaction as suggested toward the end of the article?
- I would assert that the DD deals more with class/education than race.
Although race is a peripheral issue, I think the issue of economics and
education is the primary impediment of access, whether this issue exists at improvised schools or improvised households. In addition, even if individuals have the resources they still must be educated on the value of having access to the internet to appreciation its benefits. - In the case of a child who is told the computer is important at
school, but his or her family is in the group of "don't wants", who is
right? The school or the family? - What are the political consequences of identifying the debate of the Digital Divide as an Asian-Latino Divide, rather than a White-Black Divide? Might the relevance of these statistics "alleviate" the responsibility of White/Black corporate entities and citizens to work toward access for all?
- Monroe discusses “inherited wealth” and says “unequal distribution of wealth through multiple generations could explain racial differences in educational attainment.” How can this be a true statement when wealth does not definitively correlate with race?
- The revelation of this story, for me, is the idea of the don't wants. Monroe is right that we too often ascribe our own reasons to the unconnected, such as assuming that they are afraid, or unable to connect. We don't think about those to whom the technology is just not interesting. Is Monroe's point, ultimately, that we need to make everyone care about technolgoy? In other words, is he agreeing with the premise of the NIST report, that technology is a basic necessity, akin to food and shelter, and that those who don't have it are disadvantaged? Or is he saying that there are legitimate reasons for not wanting it?
Silver
- I love Harry. He's the perfect Troll. The funny thing about a true troll is they always believe they are acting for the good of others. They don't mind being hated, so long as they can make people think. At least, that seems to be the idea. I think there's still a strong element of what we talked about on Monday, too, however, which is the the real motivation may simply be to recast a discourse that seemed to exclude them into one that cannot avoid them. How can we form a discourse community that allows for trolls without allowing them to overrun the discourse?
- "He continues by describing kill files as online versions of offline communication practices. For Derek, a kill file is "just a technological implementation of what people have been doing for years" (345).
I am troubled by the frequency of "sudden death" metaphors in online communication. In a real life context, I suppose we can "kill" the TV, or "shut down" the Internet, but in a world built entirely out of text and language, a "kill file" or "toading" (as in the case of Mr. Bungle) the consequences seem infinitely dire. Can we consider these "death" metaphors merely the extension of realtime language, or extreme online ethics? - The BEV network is lacking participants because there isn’t an interest. The internet is supposed to be “cyber-white” but people like to connect to others with the same interests. Therefore, a web page would have more interest if it fit the demographics of the audience and that would reveal people’s race, gender, sexual orientation – wouldn’t it?
- Why are digital communities like myspace so effective at "creating a community" when the users are so geographically separated and yet local/regional online communities are generally not as effective? is there really a community on the sites like myspace or is it something more superficial (as the article hints - perhaps communication vs. community)?
- The member of an online community should not be able to determine the rules of engagement for a meaning discourse in the online community. The nature of a subservient, passive, and consensual dialogue is boring and docile. I think every online community needs an agitator to engage in adverse conversation with to really receiving meaningful discourse out of the community.
- Is a sense of investment among the participants of an online
community the key to maintaining the community?
Gurak & Logie
- The is article illustrates that use of technology as a means of protest or boycott and represents the power of the internet to allow individuals to manifest public discontent from their own private homes with the benefit of being anonymous; thereby avoiding any consequences or backlash.
- "Finally, these Web protests both illustrate the degree to which the Web intensifies the Internet's nonhierarchical structure, which was also a striking feature of the text-based protests?. Protest participants seem willing to defer questions of credit and attribution in exchange for the establishment of a collective, community-centered ethos" (44).
Based on the "nonhierarchical structure" of the protests, in addition to the attitude of the protestors, and the way that these protests easily adapt forms and structures to their use, can we identify these actions as, or similar to, feminist action? - Can we think of any examples of web-based protests that were not also essentially web-centric? In other words, can the Internet be used to stop war and stuff, or is it just good at keeping itself free, as the examples in the article seem to indicate?
Moveon.org seems to have extended the reach of the Web into politics, for example. - Since the Petitionsite.com is anonymous and lacks credibility – have the petitions ever been successful?
- What happens after the petitions are signed on
Petitionsite.com? Is there any follow-up action for each cause? Do
companies take these petitions seriously if they are just digital
signatures with no action behind them? - does the sense of anonymity that comes with online communication lead to the perception of diminished credibility vis a vis online petitions? what can be done to capture the ease of digital communication but increase the credibility of info submitted or collected digitally/online?
Example