Virtual Communities - Renninger and Shumar (2002)

The first three chapters provided a very nice introduction to the concept of "Virtual Community". Especially the following sentences were a great summary:

"...People in virtual communities do just about everything people do in real life, but we leave our bodies behind. You can't kiss anybody and nobody can punch you in the nose, but a lot can happen within those boundaries" (Rheingold, 1994).

In the second and fourth chapters, an example of a failed virtual community (MediaMOO) and a successful virtual community (MathForum) have been discussed respectively. I have never joined either of those communities but it was interesting to read the reasons of failure and success.

It is not difficult to understand why people discontinued to use MediaMOO. It is said to be text-based. I really don't know the environment but to be honest a text-based environment doesn't sound very interesting. I totally agree that "In a text-based world, users have access to full range of body language and emotion, limited only by their writing ability and imagination (Bruckman & Fensen, 2002)". The authors discuss the other reasons of failure. It seems that another important reason of failure is that people preferred to build other communities out of it which are focusing on specific subject matters. As stated, having subgroups and connections within the community seems like a logical solution to this problem, but community members should be involved in the forming process, so they create what they want.

MathForum, on the other hand, was said to be satisfactory since it meets most of the needs of community and provides opportunities to think critically. The things that make it so engaging are: "the opportunities to talk, think and share resources with others about mathematics, technology and/ or pedagogy; interactions with expert-others who model and provide support for problem solving; and a wide and ever deepening range of quality content about mathematics, technology and pedagogy (Renninger and Shumar, 2002)". It seems that MathForum is really effective in professional development. It is the high quality and well established system and effective functionality what makes it so desirable.

Although the idea of 'virtual communities' might seem boring and uninteresting to some people (because of the dependence on the computer), it is a fact that there are many well designed virtual communities out there which are really dynamic, highly interactive and enjoyable.

To me, an effective way of interaction, ongoing dynamism, attractive interface and tools may really make a virtual environment inevitable. I am really looking forward to discover some other features of virtual environments which make them attractive, desirable and effective. BASED ON YOUR OWN EXPERIENCES can you think of other features of virtual worlds which make them REALLY good?

Reflections on 4 of the Time Magazine Articles - "Person of the Year" Section (Dec. 2006)

Time magazine articles that I have read this week are:
Time's Person of the Year: You!
The Beast with a Billion Eyes
Power to the People
My So-Called Second Life

In its December 2006 issue, Time magazine focused on the place of internet and cyberspace in human life. YouTube, Second Life, Wikipedia and Facebook are some of the virtual environments that are covered. Obviously, such virtual worlds have an important impact in people's lives. Nowadays most of the people don't think of a life without computer and internet. Why is internet so important? Because, it provides the most easiest and fastest way of communication.. And resources are endless.

I don’t blame people who really enjoy spending hours in different virtual worlds. Because it is interesting and attractive to observe other people’s lives/thoughts/ideas/emotions in the comfort of your home. For example, YouTube.com is the first address that I type in the address bar if I need to watch something/someone funny, learn a piece of software from an expert or see something about a country I wonder.

Although I am not a person who uploads something on YouTube, I am sure that the site is even more meaningful for people who like to share their talents, ideas, etc. with other people. For example it should be amazing to know the fact that anybody in the world can watch your video in which you sing a song with your beautiful voice.

Everybody has a different purpose on the internet. Time article “Power to the People” provides several examples of different uses of internet. A girl ‘signs in’ to share her emotions on YouTube, a boy likes to share the photos he takes in a photo sharing site called Flickr, another person interacts with old friends through a social networking site called Facebook, etc.
Internet has something for everybody’s taste and need. For me? Second Life doesn’t mean a lot since I have never used. But I know that I cannot live without the social networking site Facebook because it lets me stay updated with my friends, family and relatives who all live overseas…