Open Air

Niche social networks

January 21st, 2009 Posted by: l.dewis

Doing a bit of thinking about passion communities in education after attending some talks on astronomy at the OU. I was sat next to an ‘astronomy widow’ – the wife of the speaker. As she travelled round the UK listening to him give talks, she met a lot of the astronomy community and so I chatted to her about the stereotypes, the mix of people and how informed they were. For her husband, site owner of http://unmannedspaceflight.com/ and space exploration junkie Doug Ellison, astromony was a hobby not a profession. He did a very convincing impression of being an expert. From my own experiences I’ve seen passion communities in local history and family history. But I wonder what other academic passion communities are out there?

I missed this presentation at the Web 2.0 Expo but it gave a few interesting examples.

Entry Filed under: Communities