I began reading Jenny Preece's Online Communitites. Designing Usability, Supporting Sociability.
Online Communities. Designing usability, supporting sociability.
Jenny Preece Univ, of Maryland, Baltimore County.
John Wiley & Sons. LTD 2001
One interesting quote:
"If you are not on the Internet, you don't exist" (p.6)
I have gone through the introduction of the book, which sparkled my mind with thoughts of "worn-out" phrases used in the book (like bulletin boards, MUD, MOO). I turned to the date of publication and it was published in 2000, improved in 2001. I was a little bit disappointed in the date as Internet and Online Communities are in constant change (perhaps the concept stays the same), but I am looking forward to the actual topics, because the book is promising in the meaning that it promises to give (social, psychological) background information about community development.
There were issues of digital misinterpretation discussed as more people spend more time in the Internet and less time with other people or family. I do not know about these days, but I believe the issue remains, people spend more time and have more communication online (but my statement is not scientifically proved or researched, just my personal opinion).
Well, I still have to note down some interesting facts that I found from the introduction (p. 13):
"The report from the brainstoming workshop held at an ACM CHI (Computer Human Interaction) Conference on the theory and practice of physical and network communities identified the following core attributes (Whittaker, Issacs, & O'Day, 1997, p. 137):
1. Members have a shared goal, interest, need or activity that provides the primary reason for belonging to thte community.
2. Mmebers engage in repeated, active participation; often, intense interactions, strong emotional ties, and shared activities occur among participants.
3. Members have access to shared resources, and policies determine the access to thise resources.
4. Reciprocity of information, support, and services among members is important.
5. There is a shared context of social conventions, language, and protocols."
"Douglas Schuler, author of
New Community Networks, advocates the role of community networks as a resource that should be built by the community (Schuler, 1996). He claims that new communities should combine aspects of the old and the new, because history is an important part of community: "They must rest on the solid foundations of principles and values and be flexible and adaptable, intelligent, and creative. They must be inclusive. Everyone must be allowed to participate. They will have to engage both governments and business because they both exist to provide services for people. These institutions must be accountable to the people, and not the reverse" (Schuler, 1996, p. xi). Schuler proposes the following core values for building community networks: conviviality and culture, education, strong democracy, health and human services, economic equity, opportunity and sustainability, and information and communication. They imply long-term relationships, acknowledging the past and the importance of governance. /---/ Schuler reminds us that technology can have a special role in promoting these values via online communities. Developers, managers, students, and users are advised to keep one eye on these core values while they strive to map human needs with technology"
(P. 19)
Maybe here is the key why one must continue reading this book, to get to know what were the importances of the old communities and what has remained there to move on from.
Another aspect of communities are social relationships. The introduction touched upon the subject of internet-based relationships that in many cases this may turn out a failure. It is sure, that people create images of the person they are communicating with, and if communication between them is pleasant, often it is thought that the person corresponds to that image in their heads. From my personal experience you may feel disappointment after having a real conversation or meeting with the person - he or she may turn out to be not exactly the person described in the numerous chats or e-mails (nobody uses those for chatting nowadays).
Software for communities was also discussed briefly in the introduction, it was stated that "community developers also have e to design software with good usability so that people can interact and perform their tasks intuitively aand easily. Software with good usability supports rapid learning, high skill retention, low error rates and high productivity. It is consistent, controllable, and predictable, making it pleasant and effective to use." P. 27
The introduction concludes with the thought that no online community is different from a real-life community, as it has real people behind it. I think that the emotions coming from an online community can often be false, as people may read something totally different from one post than the poster has meant. Also a person may skip a line or two from the moving text in the computer screen, because the text is moving on so fast, and later it may turn out that a lot of important information was skipped or misunderstood. The author suggests that real relationships should not be left aside as they are stronger than the weak relationships in the Internet.
As I carried on reading, I basically got no new information. I made some notes at the beginning, but when I went on reading, the book became really familiar.That is why I finished with that book.
I will just paste the notes for future reference:
"Unfortunately some instructors see online education as a forum for the dissemination of knowledge. Precluding the classroom in favour of the computer. Sadly, this uninspiring method of teaching is even welcomed by some, who see it as a fast way to get a degree or training qualification without leaving the comfort of their armchair."
"Educators (Winner, 1995) caution against this approach, which has been dispararingly called a „digital diploma mill“ (Noble, 1998)."
"Online communities, however, can add inspiration and community to education." (p. 55)
"More and more, professors are having to accept that their role is to guide students to meaningful activities rather than to provide knowledge." (p. 56)
"Dr, malaga incorporates these [Blackboard] facilities in an exciting approach, that he refers to by the acronym RED, which stands for read, explore and discuss." (p. 61)
Positive notes on online education were that pupils couldformulate their thoughts before posting whether those were cultural, language or character-related problems (p. 63)
What concerns MOOs and MUDs I am sure that currently pupils of only strong interest towards computers and programming (a minority in Estonian schools, though) are interested in such communities, and as my knowledge of e-learning shows, learning all the commands is time consuming and needs determination, thus I would exclude such learning form.(p. 63-67)
I think that online communities in Education provide a lot of benefits to their users. I agree that real-life participation is as necessary as is community support, but I think that such possibilities enable people to take courses from around the world without even having to go abroad and pay for the travelling costs.
"Such ad hominem attacks are known as flames." (p. 83)
Estonians call such action „leim“, which is probably a derivative of the word.
Rules and roles for communities are needed, certainly, but at the same time it must be remembered that people are not machines. They should not be regulated by rules all the time. (p. 86)
Communities need active participation in order to survive. There are several lurkers or people who have never posted in a thread, thus not contributing to the community. They only read others’ posts and benefit from the community like that. This happens due to several problems like time consumption, lack of language or knowledge, etc. These people do not enrich the community with their participation.(p. 87-90)
Lurking may also happen if a person wants to get to know the community first. (p. 100)
Policy and privacy are important, for example to let people know that e-mails are not entirely deleted after deletion, an a person with edtreme determination can retrieve such information (p. 103)
