Burnett says: ‘ part of the “different flavour” of a given community can be seen in the particular norms and pattern of acceptable behaviours within the community. That is, each community emphasises its own particular patterns of interaction, and sets its own norms and expectations.’ That’s fairly obvious, I guess, but it fits in with […]
Anesa’s thinking about where the borders of linear programming lie. I’m thinking about where the borders are on virtual communities. A lot of people I read (I’m reading Gary Burnett on information exchange in virtual communites, at the moment) characterise a virtual community as what you see happening online. It’s the people posting and it’s […]
I’m thinking about the role of posting length in building a virtual community. I think that long postings put people off, because they look carefully constructed and full of information – they are more difficult to read and they are intimidating because they appear to show that the poster has thought about and knows about […]
I seem to read a lot about the positive aspects of communities, virtual comunities and learning communities. What are the negative aspects? Has anyone looked at them? Real-world communities often define themselves in terms of the other, in terms of what they are not. Is that true of online communities? Do online communities do that […]
I’ve just been reading Brown, R. E. (2001) The process of community-building in distance learning classes JALN Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 5, 18-35. I have problems with the beginning of the article which is very bitty – particularly when the author defines her terms. However, it is a useful grounded account of the growth […]
Chao designed a categorisation scheme for online communities in 1999. S/he based this on McMillan and Chavis’s definition, which suggests s/he felt that online communities are like offline communities. I wonder if that’s the case. Is anything online the same as it is offline? Anyway Chao looks at the four categories like this: Membership – […]
I’m reading Bonk, Wisher and Nigrelli in Karen’s book on communities of learners. They take their definition of communities from McMillan and Chavis in 1986. M and C reckon there are for key elements to a sense of community: membership – sense of belonging, community boundaries, identity and personal investment. influence – influencing the community, […]