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April 28, 2003
Thinking about E-Community
The other day listening to a discussion of bringing community into the technological revolution the audience seemed to be very focused on the internet and technology as a means to exchange information and get in touch but they argued that it was not an avenue to build community. Working with the Civic Honors Project from my experience I would argue the opposite assumption is true based on the rational that information exchange is a great form of communication and is the basis of quality discussion based on mutually acquired information and interest. However lets think for a moment about an example of building community.
Robert has always attended his homeowner association meetings and wanted to find out more about his community. Since meetings only happen once a month for the city and other groups are spread out all over the city Robert wanted to find somewhere to get immediate information and results. If the city had an online community that held information and the potential for interaction Robert could not only find out information. Robert would have transcended his community of place with an addition of a community of interest in interacting in the E-Community.
The next generation of individuals within the community will be online savvy and the expectation for the ability of immediate interaction is on the rise. Individuals within the online community expect to be able to send E-mail post to bulletin boards and find discussion threads about anything and everything they would want to read about. In fact if somebody within the community finds a topic that is not being discussed a new webpage and bulletin board are not far away as the technology has become decentralized and anybody can put together a digital commons for the purposes of communication.
Understanding that anybody within the community can create a forum for discussion it then becomes imperative for the community to create its own forum. Without a centralized discussion of the community in one place fragmentation of the community within different groups will occur and the ability for mass communication will be lost as a struggle to communicate occurs. If Robert could simply go to the city or country online discussion find the answers to questions and even learn about new organizations and meetings online discussion is not the focus is it is becomes the foundation of building a supplemental network.
Not everyone can attend every meeting within the community and sometimes those individuals get lost within the cracks of the system if they cannot find some avenue of getting the information. What do you think about the value of online communities within modern society, are they supplemental or are they going to become the norm?
449 words posted by nels lindahl at 04:14 PM
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