Musings on the Nature of Online Community

So, some news to report…

Passed second assignment in 696 with flying colours so I am ready to start the last assignment - the preliminary proposal.

It appears that my thesis is actually evolving into a project as I have choosen to evaluate the effectiness of the Elgg software to promote the development of online community.  The test for my program advisor is that if you are testing or evaluating software in any way you are doing a project.  I am still a bit uncertain as my focus will not actually be on evaluating the Elgg software but rather the software will be the tool used to probe how online communities develop.  So, I guess I still need to clarify this further.  No doubt this will be part of the process of the next few weeks as I develop the proposal further.

I am excited to have found a possible target group to include in my study.  CBEEN, the Columbia Basin Enviromental Educators Network, is a  network of educators in my region who work collaboratively and independently on various projects.  The geographic region of the group is quite large so they are looking for ways to connect that do not include expensive face-to-face travel.  They are keen to share information on the projects they are running, successes they have had, problems they are facing, etc.  They are a group that has a number of charismatic members that others want to connect with and a number of members that are new to the field/network.  This is a group that wants to enhance its network by using online tools to connect so I think the Elgg software will be a good  fit.

I still have a large number of issues to address but my first meeting with them is on Friday so I will record their response/feedback at that time.

Anyone out there in Elgg land have any feedback on the process of installing and running Elgg.  This will not be my responsibility as they have technical support but the more information I can give them the better!

As I struggle to extricate myself from the world of children, flu’s and ear infections I find myself reading again about social networking and wondering just what the differences are between f2f networks and online networks. As always I defer back to a definition to get going:

Wikipedia (and many other sources of course) give the following definition:

A social network is a social structure made of nodes which are generally individuals or organizations. It indicates the ways in which they are connected through various social familiarities ranging from casual acquaintance to close familial bonds.

So, in education the teacher tends to be the node, when doing collaborative work one person usually stands out as the node, in an organization the president, chairperson, etc. is the node and so on. Of course it is not that simplistic. Just being the boss or the leader does not make one the node. The node is simply the individual that connects other individuals to the organization or to each other. And on and on goes the discussion of what makes up a social network…

My query is what, if anything, makes social networks behave differently in a f2f or online environment? Is it the uncertainty about the rules of engagement when making online connections that is not present in f2f situations? In f2f face situations you can see when someone laughs at a joke, is displeased by an interaction is offering encouragement. There are so many cues in person. So, do online social interactions or relationships get stalled because there are so many unknowns? Unless the types of relationship that is trying to be achieved online is very well defined (teacher-student, boss-employee) are people generally wary of how interaction is to develop? I know I could certainly benefit from a personal development type course entitled “How to Develop Online Relationships” (professional that is - I have enough personal relationships, mostly under the age of 5, to keep me occupied for now!)

I guess that is still a roundabout way of saying I am still trying to figure all the value of blogging, social networking systems, online community and “all that jazz”…