I will be investigating the online community of facebook. The web address is http://www.facebook.com/
What is the brief or focus of this community
Facebook is a free online social networking website. Its purpose is to allow users to connect and communicate with friends, family and others that share common interests. Even more, it enables individuals to know what is happening in friends lives, and a great tool for reconnecting with old friends from primary and high school.
What services are provided? How interactive in this site? How can people can contribute?
Facebook provides the service where all users can create their own profile page including, personal information, photo albums, and their current life situations. The users are able to add friends, edit, and maintain their profile, write messages on their own and their friends profile, compose private and public messages, upload photos and videos and become a fan of their favourite groups. There are many ways people can interact on facebook including walls, photos, status, chat, news feeds, notifications and joining groups. A individuals wall is a space on their profile where their friends can post public comments for the individual to see, and their current activity. Individuals can upload photos, write descriptions and tag the people in the photos, and which others can write their comments underneath. An individuals status informs other users that are friends of what they are currently up to, or their opinions and views on anything, and in which their friends can comment on underneath their status. Chat allows you to have a conversation with friends that are online. News feeds appear on every users home page which includes the individuals profile changes, upcoming events, friend suggestions and birthdays. Notifications are things that are sent to you to inform you that someone has added you as a friend, private and public messages, quizzes, and invitations which you can either accept or decline. Individuals can also join groups of become a fan of groups, for example their favourite bands. Therefore facebook is a major interactive website and has many service which individuals can execute this.
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 choose to contribute this community because it is allows for individuals whether overseas, or living in the same town to instantly communicate and interact with friends, family and others. As a member of facebook, I contribute to this community in order to chat online with friends in order to keep in contact, upload photos of recent events, make new friends, find old friends, writing comments and seeing what friends have been doing by viewing their profiles, photos and videos.
Cut and paste an example of the type of topics being discussed
There are many different types of topics being discussed on facebook including what is currently happening in peoples lives, what they are doing for the weekend, whose getting married, who broke up with who, you name it! To be honest, it one big gossip community. Below is an example of a social event:
118Th Waikaia Rugby Club Cabaret
Start Time:Saturday, July 31, 2010 at 8:00pm
End Time:Sunday, August 1, 2010 at 12:00pm
Location:Waikaia Community Centre
The first cabaret was held in memory of the time Maui and the European explorer J.T. Thomson battled to the death during a vicious drinking game in the Waikaia region. Since that time the cabaret has been a celebration loosely related to the local rugby team.
There is a rich history behind this event, including the 1911 event in which club members burnt the Waikaia bridge so the coppers could not confiscate the illegal moonshine that was being sold at the event. By morning, no evidence remained of the previous evenings activity.
Whilst no theme has yet to be decided on, Club president J.T.A McKee together with Club Captain Darrin Wing have ruled out two possible themes. Queer Eye for The Straight Guy was dismissed as 'encouraging ye Auckland rable' whilst the 'Recession Session' was deemed inappropriate for local exporter morale.
Considering material presented during the course and make comment on the potential ethical issues that may arise in this community
Potential ethical issues that may arise within this community include users stalking other individuals profile, users providing too much personal information for other to find where they live, work etc, viruses that can get into users profiles, the level of privacy, users using fake identities and profiles therefore providing false information, the types of photos uploaded onto peoples profile, and the fact people can upload photos and videos of you, and tag your name underneath without your permission.
Considering material presented during the lecture and make comment on the benefits this community holds over traditional notions of community
There are many benefits that facebook obtains over traditional notions of community. This includes connecting friends and family over large or small distances, gives users the ability to connect with people who have common interests, information is instant and shared at high speed, and there is no hierarchy meaning everyone has an equal voice.
Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment what this community lacks or can not provide which traditional communities can
However, facebook in relation to traditional communities lacks verbal/face to face communication, the information that is shared on facebook is always reliable and valid, people can become addictive and rely on their only way of communication, only people with computers and the Internet are able to join facebook.
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