Online Community

When I speak of online communities, I am talking about the access the participants have to people in other places, which can only be done through email or instant chat, and which is of a two-way nature. For example, Joe is on various mailing lists for athletic brands, and observatories, sports reports and other things of interest, but that is one-way. He receives the information.

Examples of Two-Way Online Communities

Joe and Chris have both constructed ‘groups’. Joe through Google, and Chris through MSN. Joe wished to use his group as a way of sending work to and from school and as a storage space. Chris wanted to use his group as a way of maintaining contact with his friends (that he attends school with), and having a ‘special’ enterprise just for them. Unfortunately, his friends were unable to log on. Joe had limited response from the other members in the group, but he expected that he and his classmates would work on it in the next school term.

Lisa and Charli have met many people online through two websites that that both have accessed. This was two-way communication. Their friends’ websites enabled them to leave messages on a certain page, which the author could respond to, so ongoing message boards were established with each website. Lisa made a posting on a NZ organization’s website, but had not had a reply.

Lisa accessed an online community when she shares music files. Joe, Tim and Tom said this was something they did as well, but I did not observe this activity with them.

For Charli, her online community - which she termed her ‘overseas friends’ - was of significant importance to her. Of her overseas friends, she had this to say: “Yeah, I love my friends overseas. I love them. Sometimes like I think I'm closer to them than I am like with people here, just because they're that, like I just have that much more space, cause I love, I need my personal space.” Her online community was constructed of people whose photos she had only seen on the Internet, and of who she had only spoke with through MSN Messenger, email, or postings on websites. However, her MSN contacts did include people she had physically met.

All of the participants use MSN Messenger (which they just call ‘MSN’) to communicate with their contacts. This was almost always an activity they did as well as another activity or more. All of the participants have an email address which they check their emails regularly.

Jake preferred to use the Apple Macintosh application titled ‘iChat’, though he did use MSN as well. He used iChat to ask for help from consultants at the Apple Store in regard to the networking of computers and the like. People asked him for help (through ‘MSN’ or ‘iChat’) with lighting, sound, and technical problems. The instant chat was also a form of leisure for Jake.

Anne also used MSN Messenger to play online games with her contacts (which she termed ‘buddies’). These contacts were people she had physically met. Charli often used MSN Messenger to send files, rather than conventional email (through her hotmail address).

Both Tim and Tom used forums and message boards to ask questions and receive help in regard to games they played. Tim and Tom would join up with other online players (that they knew or didn’t know) in order to better help them achieve quests for the game World of Warcraft.

Tom had used the opportunity to create websites for clans and teams that play certain games. Tom also stated that he would “ask on the net” if he needed help with website construction. Tim stated that he would “ask people on the internet” as one-way he went about learning new things.

NB: Now that I’ve written this up, I am not sure that there is enough information for this to be included. Is it interesting?