E GROUPS

AND
ONLINE COMMUNITY
 A group (often termed as a community, e-group or club)
is a feature in many social network services which allows
users to create, post, comment to and read from their own
interest- and niche-specific forums, often within the realm
of virtual communities.
  Groups, which may allow for open or closed access,
invitation and/or joining by other users outside the
group, are formed to provide mini-networks within the
larger, more diverse social network service.
 Much like electronic mailing lists, they are also owned
and maintained by owners, moderators, or managers,
which possess the capability of editing posts to
discussion threads and regulating member behavior
within the group.
   unlike traditional Internet forums and mailing lists,
groups in social networking services allow owners and
moderators alike to share account credentials between
groups without having to log in to each and every group.
History
 The rise of the World Wide Web resulted in an expansion
of the varieties of methods for communication on
the Internet, much of which was limited in the 1980s to
discussion innewsgroups, BBS and chat rooms.
 a few services such asMSN Groups, Yahoo!
Groups and eGroups pioneered the combination of web-
based mailing list archives with user profiles; by 2000,
such services doubled as full-fledged mailing lists and
Internet forums, allowing users to create an extremely
large variety of discussion and networking mediums with
comparatively sparse thresholds of complexity. 
 Further features included chat rooms (often Java-based),
image and video galleries, and group calendars.
  began in the early- to mid-2000s in the form of such
services
as LiveJournal, Friendster, MySpace and Facebook. 
  These services continued the evolution of the web-based
e-group as a discussion and organization medium. In the
late 2000s, services such
as Yammer and Micromobs further advanced e-group
communication by taking advantage of microblog-style
activity streams
Importance of e groups
 Before people expanded their social life to the internet,
they used to have small circles. These included the
networks gained from the rural areas or villages, such as
family, friends and neighbors, but also community groups
(churches). These networks represented a social safety
net to support individuals.
 Since we’ve moved a huge part of our social life to the
internet online social networking groups has become very
important for us to maintain a structure in our social life.
Online networking is made up by clusters of people,
bounding themselves together on the World Wide Web
 To be able to sort out the many different clusters we belong
to we use online groups to helps us arrange and make
sense of all our contacts.
 This sense-making is rooted within us, we sort and put
people into compartments or sort by categories to make
sense and try to understand our relationships to the
people around us.
 Online social networking groups therefore enables us to
do the same thing online.
  Online social networks have a huge impact on people’s
lives. Since the Social Network Revolution has offered
people with more loose ties and diversity in their
relationships, it creates both stress and opportunities. 
 The way that people currently connect, communicate and
exchange information can be described as a form of
operating system because of the similarities between the
structure of computer systems and the networked
individualism that has taken form in society. These
structures consist of unwritten rules, norms, constraints
and opportunities which are apparent for those who are
part of a specific network.
Online community
 An online community is a virtual community whose
members interact with each other primarily via the
Internet.\
 online communities may feel like home, consisting of a
"family of invisible friends“
  Those who wish to be a part of an online community
usually have to become a member via a specific site and
necessarily need an internet connection.
 An online community can act as an information
system where members can post, comment on discussions,
give advice or collaborate.
 Commonly, people communicate through social networking
sites, chat rooms, forums, e-mail lists and discussion boards.
People may also join online communities through video
games, blogs and virtual worlds.
  "a virtual community is defined as an aggregation of
individuals or business partners who interact around a shared
interest, where the interaction is at least partially supported
and/or mediated by technology and guided by some protocols
or norms".
 Some signs of community are:
 Content: articles, information, and news about a topic of
interest to a group of people.
 Forums or newsgroups and email: so that community
members can communicate in delayed fashion.
 Chat and instant messaging: so that community members can
communicate more immediately
Development
 There is a set of values known as netiquette (or Internet
etiquette) to consider as an online community develops.
Some of these values include: opportunity, education,
culture, democracy, human services, equality within the
economy, information, sustainability, and communication.
An online community's purpose is to serve as a common
ground for people who share the same interest(s).
 Online communities may be used as calendars to keep
up with events such as upcoming gatherings or sporting
events. They also form around activities and hobbies.
 Many online communities relating to health care help
inform, advise and support patients and their families.
 Students can take classes online and they may
communicate with their professors and peers online.
 Businesses have also started using online communities to
communicate with their customers about their products and
services as well as to share information about the business.
Other online communities allow a wide variety of
professionals to come together to share thoughts, ideas and
theories.
 Discussions where members may post their feedback are
essential in the development of an online community.[8]
 Online communities may encourage individuals to
come together to teach and learn from one another. They
may encourage learners to discuss and learn about real-
world problems/situations as well as focus on such
things as teamwork, collaborative thinking and personal
experiences.
Building online community
 According to Dorine C. Andrews, author of Audience-
Specific Online Community Design there are three parts
to building an online community:
 starting the online community,
 encouraging early online interaction,
 and moving to a self-sustaining interactive environment
 In order to gain early interaction by members, privacy
guarantees and content discussions are very
important.. Successful online communities tend to be
able to function self-sufficiently.
 Participation
 There are two major types of participation in online
communities: public participation and non-public
participation, also called lurking. Lurkers are participants
who join a virtual community but do not contribute. In
contrast, public participants, or posters, are those who join
virtual communities and openly express their beliefs and
opinions. Both lurkers and posters frequently enter
communities to find answers and to gather general
information.
 five types of trajectories amongst a learning
community
 Peripheral (Lurker) – Observing the community and viewing
content. Does not add to the community content or discussion. The
user occasionally goes onto YouTube.com to check out a video that
someone has directed them to.
 Inbound (Novice) – Just beginning to engage the community.
Starts to provide content. Tentatively interacts in a few discussions.
The user comments on other user's videos. Potentially posts a video
of his or her own.
 Insider (Regular) – Consistently adds to the community discussion
and content. Interacts with other users. Regularly posts videos.
Either videos they have found or made themselves. Makes a
concerted effort to comment and rate other users' videos.
 Boundary (Leader) – Recognized as a veteran participant.
Connects with regulars to make higher concepts ideas.
Community grants their opinion greater consideration. The
user has become recognized as a contributor to watch.
Possibly their videos are podcasts commenting on the state
of YouTube and its community. The user would not
consider watching another user's videos without
commenting on them. Will often correct a user in behavior
the community considers inappropriate. Will reference
other user's videos in their comments as a way to cross link
content.
 Outbound (Elders) – Leave the community. Their interests
may have changed, the community may have moved in a
direction that they don't agree with or they may no longer
have time to maintain a constant presence in the
community.
Problems
 Online communities are relatively new and unexplored
areas. They promote a whole new community that prior to
the Internet was not available. Although they can promote a
vast array of positive qualities, such as relationships
without regard to race, religion, gender, or geography,, they
can also lead to multiple problems.
 performances,
 financial,
 opportunity/time,
 safety,
 social,
 psychological loss
Virtual community
 Online or virtual communities form "when people carry on
public discussions long enough, with sufficient human
feeling, to form webs of personal relationships” Rheingold
 Virtual communities are created around common interests
 They require:
◦ People
◦ Purpose
◦ Policies
◦ Computer systems (Preece)
 Considered “third places” (conversation-based informal
environments that are neither work nor home and are a
place of community)
 They can include (from Preece 13 drawing on ACM):
◦ Shared activities and strong emotional ties
◦ Shared access to resources and policies concerning the
resources
◦ Reciprocity of info, services, and support
◦ Shared context including language
 There is a sense of community
 There are often rituals
Myspace :
Myspace is one of the world’s largest
social networks with about 125 million
users today
Facebook
Facebook is a larger social network than
myspace, containing more than 350
million active users today