Developing Internet-based Community

Developing Internet Based Community : Developing Internet Based Community Ed Geraty LCSW-C

Community organizing : Community organizing The same concepts and strategies used in traditional community organizing are applicable to building Internet-based communities.

Internet-based community? : Internet-based community? A virtual community, e-community or online community is a group of people that primarily interact via communication media such as newsletters, blogs, message boards, email, or instant messages rather than face to face, for social, professional, educational or other purposes. If the mechanism is a computer network, it is called an online community. Virtual and online communities have also become a supplemental form of communication between people who know each other primarily in real life.

Slide 4 : Many means are used in social software separately or in combination, including text-based chatrooms and forums that use voice, video text or avatars. Significant socio-technical change may have resulted from the proliferation of such Internet-based social networks.

Slide 5 : It does not necessarily mean that there is a strong bond among the members, although Howard Rheingold, author of Virtual Communities , mentions that: virtual communities form "when people carry on public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships"

Similarities Between Real Time & Virtual Communities : Similarities Between Real Time & Virtual Communities 1. Anticipated reciprocity A person is motivated to contribute valuable information to the group in the expectation that one will receive useful help and information in return. Indeed, there is evidence that active participants in online communities get more responses faster to questions than unknown participants (Kollock 178).

Slide 7 : 2. Recognition Recognition is important to members of a community. in general, individuals want recognition for their contributions. Why do we contribute to our community? How are others who do not contribute to their community looked upon? Communities encourage and support contributing members.

Slide 8 : 3. Sense of efficacy Individual members of a community contribute because the act results in a sense of efficacy A sense that they have had some effect on this environment. There is well-developed research literature that has shown how important a sense of efficacy is (e.g. Bandura 1995). making regular and high quality contributions to the group can help individuals believe that they have an impact on the group and support their own self-image as an efficacious person.

Slide 9 : 4. "sense of community" as it is referred to in social psychology People, in general, are fairly social beings and it is motivating to many people to receive direct responses to their contributions to the community. People generally feel safer in a community environment People are involved in social contracts with others.

What is community organizing? : What is community organizing? Community organizing is a systems approach where the people affected by an issue are supported in identifying problems and taking action to achieve solutions. The organizer challenges those he or she works with to create change —it is a means of achieving social change through collective action Tactics and strategies employed by the organizer are similar to the processes of leadership including a) timing the issue, b) deliberate planning, c) getting the attention of the populace, d) framing the issue in terms of the desired solution, and e) shaping the terms of the decision-making process.

Why use community organizing? : Why use community organizing? "A single bracelet does not jingle"- African proverb Community organizing helps to bring out many voices to add collective power and strength to an issue. Community organizing is a key part of an overall strategy to make changes in a community that are widely felt, and that reflect the wishes of the people who are directly affected by alcohol-related community problems. This requires the organizer to not only listen and be responsive to the community, but also to help community residents develop the skills necessary to address their own issues in an ongoing way.

Individual vs. Collective Action : Individual vs. Collective Action Community organizing looks at collective solutions — large numbers of people who engage in solutions that impact even more people. These people usually live in the same neighborhood, town or block. Many traditional responses look at individual solutions, focusing on the individual as a means to solve systemic problems.

Slide 13 : "The community organizer...must constantly examine life, including his own, to get some idea of what it is all about, and he must challenge and test his own findings. Irreverence, essential to questioning, is a requisite. Curiosity becomes compulsive. His most frequent word is 'why'?“ - Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals, 1971

Life Cycle of the Virtual Community : Life Cycle of the Virtual Community A membership life cycle for online communities was proposed by Amy Jo Kim (2000). It states that members of virtual communities begin their life in a community as visitors, or lurkers. After breaking through a barrier, people become novices and participate in community life. After contributing for a sustained period of time they become regulars. If they break through another barrier they become leaders, and once they have contributed to the community for some time they become elders. This life cycle can be applied to many virtual communities, most obviously to bulletin boards, but also to blogs and listservs

Building Blocks of the Virtual Community : Building Blocks of the Virtual Community The webpage or group of wepages ( a website) This is the home of the community on the vast spaces of the Internet. Like any community, it has borders, a common purpose or mission, but by itself, is the least interactive form of a community.

Adding to the Community : Adding to the Community For the community to become more interactive and meet the needs of it’s members there must be ways to communicate among like-minded community members, sharing information, and meeting community member needs. This requires……………………………..

Community Building Tools : Community Building Tools Bulletin Boards E-newsletters Comment sections, Surveys and other feedback tools A listserv for members to communicate on a regular basis as a offshoot of the website Possibly a blog

Slide 18 : Sometimes members of a more developed community want to interact in a physical sense in the virtual world. They may create Avatars Avatars are psychological, oftentimes interactive representations of the member, expressed in digitalized images.

Inclusion and Exclusion : Inclusion and Exclusion Just like in some real time communities, virtual communities, may become “exclusive” “Members Only” virtual communities are widespread and require log in names, passwords, etc to join the community This solidifies the boundaries of the community (member vs nonmember)

My story of Internet Community Building : My story of Internet Community Building It all started on 9/11 Global Social Work An Internet-based International Social Work Community for social workers, human services workers, humanitarian aide workers, and human rights organizations.

Building Your Community : Building Your Community What issue are you passionate about Create a webpage about it www.networksolutions.com Add a subscriber online newsletter Search the Internet to find other websitesites related to the issue Add those website URLs (link) to your website

Slide 22 : 6. Add a discussion board to your website 7. Create a listserv related to the issue, and put the listserv URL on your website 8. Go to other related listservs, and with the listserv owners permission, tell other people about your website and how they can find it. 9. As your community grows, other community members will post to your listserv, bulletin board, etc

Some Internet Communities : Some Internet Communities SWAN http://cosw.sc.edu/swan/ Intute Social Science Blogs http://www.intute.ac.uk/socialsciences/blog/2008/03/07/our-favourite-social-science-blogs-2/ Global Voices Blog http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/