 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Online Communities Monika Merkes monika@melbpc.org.au |
Millions of different communities exist on the Internet. Like communities in real life, online communities have structures, values, norms and ways to enforce these norms. There are hierarchies in the membership ranging from "newbies" to the "elite". People join these groups for different reasons: to make new friends, learn about a certain topic, share their experience of an illness, have fun, get advice, or search for something or someone.
Jenny Preece, the author of Online Communities. Designing Usability, Supporting Sociability
http://www.ifsm.umbc.edu/onlinecommunities/toc.htm wrote that an online community consists of:
There are different types of online communities, including virtual, organisational and local communities. Virtual communities consist of groups of people who may never have met face-to-face, but who have some common concern or interest they wish to share. Organisations set up intranets - internal communication systems - to enable members or staff to work together and communicate. These may or may not be accessible to people outside the organisation. Increasingly neighbourhoods, towns, suburbs, and cities also develop ways of communicating and sharing information online. Sometimes this involves public access, training, and electronic democracy. The main tools for online communities are email lists, newsgroups, web discussion forums, and chat groups
(IRC).
Commercial organisations such as Yahoo! Groups http://groups.yahoo.com/ or ezboard host online groups at no cost to group members. However, commercial advertising is usually part of the deal (ezboard also offers a no-ad account for a small fee). For example, ezboard outlines on its website
http://www.ezboard.com/about_adandpart.html that its 500,000 online communities generate 350 million page views from over 3.3 million unique users per month, "providing demographic and other information useful for aggregate targeting".
Market researchers also take advantage of online communities. "Discussion
Miners" aggregate relevant consumer insight from online sources, analyse and package it, and sell it to corporations. Corporate customers use this packaged consumer knowledge to provide better and more competitive products and services. However, the communities whose content is being mined do not receive financial or other benefits from this activity. A British report examined five successful online communities and found that they share certain features. These include:
(Local Connections: Making the Net Work for Neighbourhood Renewal) http://www.communities.org.uk/
Commonwealth and State/Territory Governments provide funding to address the
"digital divide", the gap between those who have access to information technology and are familiar with its use, and those who don't have access to computers and the Internet. The latter have less opportunity to take part in the education, training, shopping, entertainment and communications opportunities that are available online.
A survey of Australian programs aiming to increase individual and community access to the Internet examined 214 public, private and community-based initiatives and found that regional Australia was the main target, followed by young people and Indigenous Australians. More than half of these programs provided access centres with free or inexpensive access to the Internet, often with training for users who are unfamiliar with online technologies.
http://www.noie.gov.au/projects/access/community/cps/index.htm.
My Connected Community, or mc2, is an example of such a program http://mc2.vicnet.net.au/. It is funded ($3.5 million) by the Victorian Government through the Department of State and Regional Development and coordinated by
Vicnet http://www.vicnet.net.au/. My Connected Community is part of the Victorian Government's
Connecting Victoria strategy to ensure that the benefits of online technologies are shared across the entire Victorian community. After a pilot with 30 community groups,
mc2 was launched in March 2001. At the time of writing, 278 online groups were listed on the
mc2 website. The program also provides web space for groups, chat, and training workshops - all free of charge. There will be a further two funding rounds, the next in early 2002.
The program caters for a diverse range of groups, for example:
Ararat Rural Women
A dedicated group of 170 Rural & Regional Women in from the Rural City of Ararat and the Pyrenees Shire raising awareness of current social issues.
art.darebinonline
The mission of art.darebinonline is to encourage diversity and experimentation in the arts, to provide an online exhibition space for untried art and artists, and to foster an appreciation for the role that artists play in our community as reporters, provocateurs, commentators, and peers. 10 members.
Australian Scrabble Players Association (Vic)
A group of 300 people like yourselves who love to get together and play Scrabble.
Cohuna/Leitchville Dairy Discussion Group
Dairyfarmers in the group share ideas, visit farms and invite guest speakers.
It is a support group working for the benefit of members and the local rural community. 18 members.
iplaybowls
Generic group of people who play lawn bowls. 26 members.
street level e:zine
A place for youth living on Melbourne streets to connect, share information and publish their works. 5 members.
Vic Anglicans Online
Vic Anglicans Online is the Anglican Church of Australia, Province of Victoria. The host is Newlands: Community Education and Multimedia Centre. 44 members.
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URLs
Centre for Community Networking Research, Monash University - http://www.ccnr.net/ Communities Online - http://www.communities.org.uk/
Community intranets in Victoria -
Democracies Online -
Douglas Schuler, Seattle Community Networks. New community networks. Wired for change (online book)
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Reprinted from the December 2001 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
