Tutorial Six

Tutorial Six: The internet and online communities

Either search online for a community which interest you or choose one of the provided online communities to investigate. Make sure your selected a community that comprises some form of online forum, discussion page or chat room. You may also wish to see if your community has a Wikipedia entry.

Provide the web address and the name of the community you are investigating

Del.icio.us http://del.icio.us/

What is the brief or focus of this community

Del.icio.us is a social networking website allowing people to bookmark their favourite websites and allow other to access your library of websites. This way a person can link with another person with the same interest or collaborate with your friends or work colleagues. In your library of favourite websites you can organise them into different tags and topics. Del.icio.us can be used for research, wishlist, podcast, vacations, linklog or cookbook.

What services are provided? How interactive is this site? How can people contribute?

People can contribute by setting up their own favourite library. This networking is not very interactive with others as you can only look at other peoples libraries or send to a person you might think is interested.

Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment on why people choose to contribute to this community. What is it they are seeking?

People may join del.icio.us to link up with others with the same interest and find useful or interesting websites they could use. Using del.icio.us could also be a faster and more useful tool to a search engine as the websites have been filter by the user of del.icio.us.

Cut and paste an example of the type of topics being discussed (you may have to provide a context to your excerpt).

Welcome - Arthritis NZ
edit / delete
to Arthritis disabilities ... saved by 1 other person ... on may 15
OPUS
edit / delete
to O.T.equipment housing.modification ... saved by 3 other people ... on may 14
Stroke Foundation of New Zealand - Reducing Risks, Improving Outcomes
edit / delete
to Stroke Disabilities ... on may 14
The Brain Injury Association of New Zealand
edit / delete
to Disablity Brain.Injury ... on may 14
Lifetime Design Foundation - Products, services and environments designed to include all New Zealanders
edit / delete
to Occupational.Therapy ... on april 17
Tennis Ball Retriever
edit / delete
to Tennis.Ball.Retriever Cute Dog ... on march 16
Budget Backpacker Hostels New Zealand
edit / delete
to backpacking accommodation travel ... saved by 8 other people ... on oct 23
Quality Hostel Accommodation - YHA New Zealand
edit / delete
to travel YHA accomodation backpacking hostel ... saved by 16 other people ... on oct 23
Dictionary.com
edit / delete
to dictionary.com dictionary ... saved by 15793 other people ... on oct 10
Disability Funding Info : Enable New Zealand
edit / delete
to Enable Disabilities equipment ... saved by 4 other people ... on oct 10
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Considering material presented during the course and make comment on the potential ethical issues that may arise in this community e.g. lack of identity and accountability.

Yes there is a lack of identity and accountability as anyone can join and you do not have to prove yourself to join or even use you name. You do not know what websites have been added under a tag and whether they are appropriate sites.

Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment on the benefits this community holds over traditional notions of community e.g. communities reliant on geographic proximity

It complements real life communities, i.e. linking colleagues together.
Provide large amounts of information.
Can connect people all over the world.
Connect people with similar interest.
Allow silent participation.
It doesn’t cost extra.
An individual chooses what the put under their user name.
Fast way of sharing information.

Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment what this community lacks or can not provide which traditional communities can.

You do not Know who has access.
Misuse.
Unwanted websites could be added.
Limited communication tool.
Validity of websites being added.