Virtual Communities' Impact on Politics

2011 ◽  
pp. 506-510
Author(s):  
Vasanthi Srinivasan
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Virtual Community ◽  
Transnational Activism ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Political Communities

Virtual community (VC) as a concept and reality poses some fundamental challenges to the discipline of politics. First, the term virtual undermines the appearance–reality distinction that runs through Western political thought. From Plato to Marx, political thinkers have decried the cunning with which politicians peddle mere appearances of justice or freedom. Computer-mediated communication (CMC) described as virtual defies this dichotomy between appearance and reality; the virtual is that which appears on the screen and yet is experienced as real and sometimes as more real than real. Live images and opinions from all over the globe, mediated through information and communication technologies shape our experience of politics so much so that what happens outside this media space is regarded as marginal (Castells, 1997, p. 312). Similarly, the communal aspect of VC undermines conventional political communities grounded in territorial unity. In this article, we shall clarify the challenges and opportunities posed by VCs to states and civil societies. For this purpose, only some VCs that explicitly address diasporic nationalisms, globalization, democratization, and transnational activism are relevant. How do such communities extend, modify, or subvert existing political ideas and institutions embodied in the nation, state, democracy, public sphere, and so forth? What are the new rights and virtues that come into play through VCs?

Collaborative Knowledge Construction with Web Video Conferencing

2010 ◽  
pp. 85-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stylianos Hatzipanagos ◽  
Anthony Basiel ◽  
Annette Fillery-Travis
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Knowledge Construction ◽  
Video Conferencing ◽  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Collaborative Knowledge ◽  
Collaborative Knowledge Construction

This chapter explores how web-based video conferencing (WVC) can be used to create and support learning environments within a work based learning context. Computer mediated communication interactions through WVC can support collaborative knowledge construction by encouraging dialogical processes in communities of learners and practitioners. We position our field of exploration within the educational landscape defined by socio-economic changes, resulting from the development of the knowledge economy, and the explosive growth of information and communication technologies to serve it.

Virtual Hate Communities in the 21st Century

2011 ◽  
pp. 34-53
Author(s):  
Glenn T. Tsunokai ◽  
Allison R. McGrath
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Interactive Media ◽  
Virtual Community ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
Using Data ◽  
And Function

Technological innovations in computer-mediated communication have helped hate groups to transform themselves into virtual communities. Likeminded individuals are now able to unite from all parts of the globe to promote hatred against visible minorities and other out-groups. Through their online interactions, a sense of place is often created. In this chapter, we explore the content and function of online hate communities. Since bigotry tends to be the cornerstone of virtual hate communities, we highlight the legal debate surrounding the regulation of Internet hate speech; in particular, we address the question: Does the First Amendment protect virtual community members who use the Internet to advocate hate? Next, using data collected from the largest hate website, Stormfront.org, we also investigate how Stormfront members utilize interactive media features to foster a sense of community. Finally, we direct our attention to the future of online hate communities by outlining the issues that need to be further investigated.

Universal Information Ethics? Ethical Pluralism and Social Justice

2011 ◽  
pp. 69-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Ess
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Ethics ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Ethical Pluralism ◽  
Diffusion Of Information ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
Information And Communication

The explosive, global diffusion of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and computer-mediated communication (CMC) confronts us with the need for an information ethics that can resolve ethical problems evoked by ICTs and CMC in ways that provide shared, perhaps (quasi-)universal responses. At the same time, however, in the name of a transcultural social justice that preserves diverse cultural identities, such an ethics must also reflect and sustain local values, approaches, and traditions. Important ethical claims from both within Western and between Eastern and Western cultures exemplify an ethical pluralism that is able to meet these requirements as this pluralism represents important ethical differences as issuing from diverse judgments and applications of shared ethical norms.

Virtually Finding Community in the Third Space

2011 ◽  
pp. 574-577
Author(s):  
Samantha Bax
Keyword(s):  
Electronic Mail ◽  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Specific Interaction ◽  
Virtual Community ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Bulletin Board ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Social Contracts ◽  
Communication Space

The Internet has enabled individuals to communicate across continents and also through temporal spaces, making both place and time irrelevant to these communications. The specific interaction systems utilized for these purposes are referred to as computer-mediated communication (CMC) technologies and encompass electronic mail (e-mail), bulletin board systems and Internet Relay Chat (IRC), to name the most well-known of these technologies. Each of these technologies allows for the gathering of individuals within cyberspace to converse and to exchange information with each other. It is interesting to note that the terms communication and community stem from a Latin word meaning “common,” and thus it can be inferred that communication is a process through which community can be developed (Fernback & Thompson, 1995). Licklider and Taylor (1968), predicted three decades ago that computer networks would become communities, and “in most fields they will consist of geographically separated members …” (online) gathering within a common communication space. Earlier technologies such as the telephone have inspired scholars to state that we now live in a boundless “global village” (McLuhan, 1964). Current CMC technologies have brought about the possibility of numerous people meeting online and conversing with and between each other, allowing for a meeting “space” that consists of abrogated time and place (Fernback & Thompson, 1995), with no boundaries of race, gender or creed. It is from these utopian ideals that the idea of virtual communities has stemmed. The concept of the “virtual community” refers to groupings of individuals utilizing CMC technologies in such a way that they can be likened to communities in the physical world. Rheingold (1993c) states that “virtual communities might be real communities, they might be pseudocommunities or they might be something entirely new in the realm of social contracts” (p. 62). Thus, the question still remains as to whether “virtual communities” can replicate communities that exist in the physical world.

Information Navigation and Knowledge Discovery in Virtual Communities

2011 ◽  
pp. 273-278
Author(s):  
Wenyuan Li ◽  
Kok-Leong Ong
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Discovery ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Virtual Community ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Media Technology ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Information Navigation

Over the past decade, advances in the Internet and media technology have literally brought people closer than ever before. It is interesting to note that traditional sociological definitions of a community have been outmoded, for community has extended far beyond the geographical boundaries that were held by traditional definitions (Wellman & Gulia, 1999). Virtual or online community was defined in such a context to describe various forms of computer-mediated communication (CMC). Although virtual communities do not necessarily arise from the Internet, the overwhelming popularity of the Internet is one of the main reasons that virtual communities receive so much attention (Rheingold, 1999). The beginning of virtual communities is attributed to scientists who exchanged information and cooperatively conduct research during the 1970s. There are four needs of participants in a virtual community: member interest, social interaction, imagination, and transaction (Hagel & Armstrong, 1997). The first two focus more on the information exchange and knowledge discovery; the imagination is for entertainment; and the transaction is for commerce strategy. In this article, we investigate the function of information exchange and knowledge discovery in virtual communities. There are two important inherent properties embedded in virtual communities (Wellman, 2001):

Networking Identities

2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 32-42
Author(s):  
Lhoussain Simour
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Virtual Community ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
New Space ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Virtual Interactions

Electronic connections allow the individual to be at various global sites while sitting in front of his or her computer. By being electronically connected, one’s participation in virtual worlds raises important questions about the nature of our communities and problematizes our identities. This paper examines how experiences in virtual interactions affect people’s real lives and what impact computer mediated communication has on the formation of a virtual community and its relation to individuals’ identities. Virtual communities stimulate experiences that redefine the basic concepts and contexts that have characterized the essence of human societies. They offer new contexts for rethinking the concept of identity and provide a new space for exploring the extent to which participation in computer mediated interaction modifies the subject in terms of identity, leading to a reconstruction and a reconstitution of self.

Networking Identities

2013 ◽  
pp. 235-246
Author(s):  
Lhoussain Simour
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Virtual Community ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
New Space ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Virtual Interactions

Electronic connections allow the individual to be at various global sites while sitting in front of his or her computer. By being electronically connected, one’s participation in virtual worlds raises important questions about the nature of our communities and problematizes our identities. This paper examines how experiences in virtual interactions affect people’s real lives and what impact computer mediated communication has on the formation of a virtual community and its relation to individuals’ identities. Virtual communities stimulate experiences that redefine the basic concepts and contexts that have characterized the essence of human societies. They offer new contexts for rethinking the concept of identity and provide a new space for exploring the extent to which participation in computer mediated interaction modifies the subject in terms of identity, leading to a reconstruction and a reconstitution of self.

Sense of Virtual Community

2011 ◽  
pp. 101-115
Author(s):  
Blanchard ◽  
Blanchard
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Virtual Community ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Virtual Groups ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
To Come ◽  
Or Organization

Sense of virtual community is an important component of successful virtual communities. Defined as members’ feelings of belonging, identity, and attachment with each other in computer-mediated communication, sense of virtual community distinguishes virtual communities from mere virtual groups. Sense of virtual community is believed to come from members’ exchange of social support as well as creating their own identity and learning the identity of others members. It is believed to lead to positive outcomes such as increased satisfaction and communication with the virtual community as well as to greater trust and social capital in the larger face-to-face community or organization. Future research will be able to further develop the theoretical and empirical contributions of sense of virtual community in computer-medication communication research.

Sense of Virtual Community

2011 ◽  
pp. 325-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita Blanchard
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Virtual Community ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Virtual Groups ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
To Come ◽  
Or Organization

Sense of virtual community is an important component of successful virtual communities. Defined as members’ feelings of belonging, identity, and attachment with each other in computer-mediated communication, sense of virtual community distinguishes virtual communities from mere virtual groups. Sense of virtual community is believed to come from members’ exchange of social support as well as creating their own identity and learning the identity of others members. It is believed to lead to positive outcomes such as increased satisfaction and communication with the virtual community as well as to greater trust and social capital in the larger face-to-face community or organization. Future research will be able to further develop the theoretical and empirical contributions of sense of virtual community in computer-medication communication research.

Mobile Learning and an Experience with Blended Mobile Learning

2009 ◽  
pp. 548-553
Author(s):  
Michelle Pieri ◽  
Davide Diamantini
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Mobile Learning ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
The 1960S

Pownell and Bailey (2001) identify four “technological trends” in the relationship between Information and Communication Technologies and educational environments. In the 1960s the first computers, which were very large and extremely expensive were rarely used in the educational area. They were only used to help in administration and in management. In the seventies with the arrival of the personal computer, schools in several countries, as in the United States, introduced computer basic courses to help students learn the use of this new technology. In the nineties the large-scale diffusion of Internet and the World Wide Web lead to a huge number of people who communicated through a computer mediated communication. At last in 2000, extremely small computers were sold on the market and the era of wireless connections began. These two factors in the educational field encouraged the beginning and the development of mobile learning.

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