COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION, STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS

2 Some Announcements and Reminders  Assn 3: This Thursday  Roundtable Discussions: Tuesday May 6 th  Final Paper Due Date: Thursday May 15th

3 Topics for Today…  Community development and organization using Information Technology  Organization, Control and Regulation of Information Technology

4 “Community”

5 Community???

6 As Smith (2001) puts it…  How is one community or communion marked off from another?  What sort of social networks or systems are involved in a particular grouping or encounter?  What norms or ‘habits’ are involved?

11 The promise of stronger ties…the promise of weaker ties…reduction of inequality… 11

12 Early Online Communities Discussion and Classification  Rheingold– Virtual Community (1993) WELL(Whole Earth ‘lectronic Link)  At this time, geography still played an important role because of BBS’s (local telephone access)  Less use of pseudonyms (identity persistence)  Less initial distrust  Jones (1997) Four Qualities that characterize virtual communities:  A minimum level of interactivity  A variety of communicators  Common public space  A minimum level of sustained membership Jones, Q. (1997). Virtual-communities, virtual settlements & cyber-archaeology: A theoretical outline. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 3(3), 24.

13 Wellman and Gulia (1999)  Online relationships narrow or broad?  Usefulness of weak ties on the Internet?  Reciprocity and attachment to virtual communities?  Strong, intimate ties possible online?  How does virtual community affect “real life” (offline?) community…

14 Uninhibited versus Disinhibited Behavior For further reference see: Reid 1999 (in Communities in Cyberspace by Kollock and Smith) Kiesler and Sproull 1986 “uninhibited, nonconformity in CMC Curtis (1992) “shipboard syndrome”

15 Power, Social Control and Community  What are the resources of interest, how much value do they have to the users, and who ‘controls’ them?  How does scarcity of resources or network position affect power among individuals?

17 A different take on a broader issue: new information technologies and control  Evidence suggests that no information technology has been successfully controlled by any single group for very long (see: Cowan 1997)  Innovators (amateurs, hackers, enthusiasts)  Government  “free market” economy

18 Example: Wireless Communication and Regulation