question 5: Blogging is a practice that is mundane and yet radical in its potential to transform individual and collective agency and activism. Discuss.
1. Boetcher, Sue, Heather Duggan and Nancy White (2002) ‘What is a Virtual Community and Why Would You Ever Need One.’
http://www.fullcirc.com/community/communitywhatwhy.htm (accessed 10 March 2011)
This online journal discusses two main points which include what a virtual community is and the effect of virtual community in offline lives. Authors gave a simple explanation about virtual community. They defined that virtual community is used to gather people to the cyberspace and players use the cyberspace to “communicate, connect and get to know each other better over time.” BBS, electronic bulletin boards, chat rooms and online forum are examples of virtual communities. Users can interact with others through the cyberspace. Most of the time, users work, interact and share the common interest with others in virtual communities. Internet is well-developed, however, digital divide is an important problem which deserves our concern. Authors interviewed some people about the relationship between online and offline lives. Some argued that online or virtual communities can affect offline lives while the others held the opposite views. Authors pointed out the main question which is how to integrate our online experience with and the offline one.
We can thus find that users in the Cyberspace can overcome the constraints of time and space as users can interact and exchange information with others. It is possible to do so without any geographical boundaries.
2. Papadakis, Maria C. (2003) ‘People Can Create a Sense of Community in Cyberspace.’
http://www.sri.com/policy/csted/reports/sandt/it/Papadakis_IT_virtual_communities_issue_brief.pdf (accessed 10 March 2011)
The author, Papadakis, discussed whether virtual communities were real or not. In America, 84 percent of the Internet users responded that they had interacted with others in the cyberspace. Internet is not only a tool for seeking information, but also a social interaction tool which enhances personal tie with others. She argued that there are evidence supporting that sociological characteristics of offline communities can also be shared in virtual communities. There are many similarities in both online and offline communities, for instance, both communities have regulations, interactions, some form of governance. People who share common interest are grouped together in the virtual communities. Moreover, group norms can also be found in both online and offline communities. ‘Players’ are expected to follow those group norms. There are social controls in the virtual communities so as to promote civil discourse and curb anti-social behavior. People always rebuild their ‘real-life’ or offline social status in the cyberspace. Therefore, ‘social status’ can still be found in the virtual communities. Users can then have community cohesion in the virtual context.
There are a sense of community in a virtual context and many connections between online and offline world. The boundaries between online and offline communities are blur. Hence, online world may change people’s agency and activism.
3. Guo, Yi Maggie and Chung-Tzer Liu (2010) ‘Loyalty of Web 2.0 Sites: The Role of Sense of Belonging.’
http://www.pacis-net.org/file/2010/S24-01.pdf (accessed 10 March 2011)
The authors discussed the user loyalty of Web 2.0 in this research essay. They used Taiwan as a place for case study. Many netizens are using Web 2.0 as a tool to interact, participate, share and collaborate in blogs, forums and some sharing websites. Web 2.0 website is different from some traditional websites which do not simply provide information, but also have the communal sense and social interaction. Authors used “Wretch” which is the largest community website in Taiwan. The main feature of this website is blogging and the function of sharing photos and videos. This research shows that youngsters and students are the typical users of this website. Service quality, trust and sense of belonging are the three main elements of the loyalty. However, the sense of belonging is composed of both service quality and trust.
Loyalty is a very important element for the website. People maintain their loyalty in the blogging with their service quality, trust and sense of belonging. People are not passive in the Web 2.0 era, they can participate in it. Blogging provides a platform for audience to express themselves and may have the influence to the society.
4. Blood, Rebecca (2004) ‘How Blogging Software Reshapes the Online Community.’
http://siti-server01.siti.disco.unimib.it/itislab/uploads/2007/11/how-blogging-software-reshapes-the-online-community.pdf (accessed 11 March 2011)
The author, Blood, is an early blog user. This article is about the history of weblogs and the blogging software’s development. Weblogs mean the ‘personal web site’. Weblog is different from other media formats like Web journals and e-zines. Weblog contains a simple design. The content of weblog is generally short and has personal views. Rebecca argued that “Weblogs could become an important new form of alternate media, bring together information from many sources, revealing media bias, and perhaps influencing opinion on a wide scale”. When Blogger was founded in late 1999, it changed the culture of weblog. Blogger provides a platform to bloggers to post whatever they want. Permalink is a new function introduced by Blogger. Bloggers can refer to other blogs or other online resources. The web of Blogger plays an important role in the history of weblogs. Moreover, Crossblog talk, comments and trackback are also new blogging software to develop weblogs. The function of comment on weblogs makes readers visible.
The blogging software helps connect and interact with the other bloggers. Weblogs keep on developing and innovating the weblog software. Bloggers try to combine the new features into the weblogs and hope to make the weblogs more mature.
5. Thorne, Justin (2008) ‘Online Community Interaction – Revolution or Revulsion?’
http://www.iiisci.org/journal/CV$/sci/pdfs/I600ZG.pdf (accessed 10 March 2011)
This research essay discussed the influence of the virtual community and how it affects the netizens’ decisions on buying. The author, Thorne, used blogs and forums for the case study. After the emergence of the Internet, most people trust the views of netizens more than the product advertisements. Thorne quoted a sentence from Wellman, “[n]etworks of interpersonal ties that provide sociability, support, information, a sense of belonging, and social identity.” The finding of this research essay shows that the majority of the respondents claim that interacting with others who share the common interest, discussing and getting recommendations are the purposes of visiting the forums. When comparing the influence on the purchases decision between forums and blogs, it is found that forums have much more influence than blogs. Recommendations are the very important element for netizens, especially for something they do not really familiar with. Even if they have already decided, many people still seek recommendations from the virtual community to verify if their decision is right, while sometimes these recommendations may sway their decision.
It can find that most people are influenced by the virtual community. There are close relationship between online and offline lives. The effect on the virtual community can never be ignored and neglected.
Overall
Cyberspace has been well-developed in the recent decade. We cannot avoid connecting it which is related to our everyday life. Blogging is not mundane but revolutionize the public’s action.
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