Communities at Play

And finally, this should be the complete list of Communities at Play case Studies...

John McClaren

John's look at the MMORPG Project Entropia.


Thomas Larsen

Thomas chooses the First-Person shooter community of Medal of Honour: Allied Assault to ask the question Geek Factory or Virtual Community?


Mike Price

Mike takes us back to his experiences in the primordial ooze of Aardwolf MUD.

Shaun Choo

Shaun is one of a few people who chose to examine Blizzards highly successful MMORPG, World of Warcraft.

Sharn Anderson

An examination, of the Anime themed role-playing game, Gaia.

Sam Field

Sam discusses the gaming nature of the Halfbakery, a community "which uses words to plays with ideas."

Gerald Sim

Gerald takes a broader look at the MMORPG phenomena, particularly at the way online actions spill into the real world.

Farhana

Farhana leaps into the virtually violent world of Counterstrike: Counter-Terrorism Action!

...and finally, two more World of Warcraft case studies from Steve Perriman and Bryce Wojtowicz.

There are a few studies missing from this list which don't appear to have gone online yet, but this is pretty much everything. On the whole the case studies have been a pleasure to read through, especially given the diverse topics!
This will probably be my last post to this blog so I'd like to take the opportunity to thanks those who have contributed their time to keeping this 'experimental' format going - you will have your opportunity to give your views in the self-reflection so don't hold back! :-)

In the meantime,

have fun,
Stew

The Halfbakery: A Case Study

Hey All, my Case Study on The Halfbakery is up at

http://users.tpg.com.au/archflip/Net Studies 214

Post comments (please!) on this post.

Thanks,

I hope you get something out of it.

The Last of the Social Studies...

OK folks - my apologies for being a little behind the ball over the last few weeks, I can only offer the cries of a demanding infant as my excuse. Here are the last of the social community online presentation along with (hopefully all) of the Communities at Play studies. I am sure that you are all busy with your final assignments but if you can comment please do - in many cases interesting reactions have already begun to appear on the blogs.

Social Communities

Elizabeth MacLintock

Liz immerses herself in the (slightly murky) waters of online introduction sites.

Kym Badger

"This research presents information on two general Community systems created by the Microsoft Network. MSN Groups and MSN Spaces."

Claudia Valenzuela

Claudia looks at the Couch Surfing Project, "a social network designed to assist travelers worldwide who are seeking inexpensive accommodation".

Shabana Aishath

Shabz has been hanging out at Habbo Hotel, a social/play community for young people built on the Macromedia (or should I say Adobe?) shockwave technology.

Mamiko Aiko

Mamiko evaluates Meetup.com, a software tool designed to facilitate offline community.

Ying Tan

Ying examines yet another portal site, Hi5, concluding that trust is still a critical issue.

Syahrani Rahim

Yahoo 360 appears to be Yahoo's answer to the 'personalised services war' that brought up the EPIC 2014 link. Will it knock the competitors for six? Syahrani thinks so.

Belinda Wilkinson

Belinda offers another perspective on tribe.net.

Trevor Allison

Trevor takes another peek at social network analysis via Friendster.

As far as I can tell, that's all of the Social Community studies. If I've missed yours please email me and I'll correct that error! Next post is Communities at Play...

EPIC 2014

In the Year 2014, the New York Times has gone offline.

The Fourth Estate's fortunes have waned.

What happened to the news?

And what is EPIC?

While discussing in last weeks tute the rise of social software and the ongoing merger of individualised tools and services on the web, this animation came up and I promised to post it to the blogs. It's a 'future history' of personalised services - not precisely relevant to VC's - but entertaining nonetheless. (Kudos to Syahrani Rahim for finding this earlier in the semester)

Meanwhile, I'll post on Monday with the last of the social community case studies...have a good weekend,

Stew

multiple sclerosis victim finds intellectual stimulation in internet

Just a brief post about something interesting I heard today. My parent's real estate agents daughter (sounds as likely as the second uncle of my next door neighbours dog doesn't it?) has had multiple sclerosis for 25 years. She is incredibly bright, but can now only move her fingers on one hand, and as such she has found all her social and intellectual fulfillment through the internet. It must certainly be a vital social outlet for people with these kinds of disabilities, where people don't judge by looks etc.

Social Communities? More case studies...

Greetings all!

For those on campus it's week 1 of our look at social communities, whilst for OUA students, it's already week two (fewer breaks!) So, I thought I'd let everyone know what is already out there:




Stanley Carter



Stan uses his blog to take a critical look at social networking tools. As always, comments welcome..



Mai Kato



Mai takes on Friendster, including some interesting background on the beginnings of social networking software.



Seik Kun Chia



'J' claims it is the individual perspective which determines whether MSN Messenger constitutes a genuine community.



Desloehal Djumrianti (yanti)



Yanti looks at tribe.net, an online ad-driven portal which seems to want to be everything to everybody.



Muhamad Akbar



Muhamad uses an interactive slideshow to discuss Kaskus.com, a localised Indonesian discussion board.



Also, a couple of 'community of interest' projects that didn't make the last post:



Igor Palmer



Igor looks at AOK, (The Association of Knowledgework)



and...



Michael Bennet



Michael discusses the emotional investment that music brings to a community on his WebCT student homepage - Net 24 students won't be able to view this :-(



Finally, for those still working on thier 'communities at play' project, Trevor has started up a blog that looks at online gaming (with a clear explanation of what all those gaming acronyms mean)




Please take the time to comment on these projects as it is this feedback which drives the learning in this course. Also, keep an eye on the other blogs to see new projects as they are published...they are coming thick and fast!



This guy walks into a bar - Ouch!

Extraordinary Gaming Moments

My housemate is an avid player of the MMORPG World of Warcraft, a fee paying dungeons and dragons style game with a massive amount of players. Recently a friend of his who also plays advised him to login to the game: something strange was happening...
A well respected character who had been playing for a long time and was something of a celebrity, named 'Buffed,' had leapt from the tower in the center of town and landed splat in the middle of town. It was not however, the character's normal user. It was his best friend, who had got the password to the man's character from the man's wife, and come on to tell the World of Warcraft community that the man behind the character had actually died. The friend had chosen to tell the community by killing his friends character in a spectacle of suicide. Around the body of 'buffed' a number of players gathered, sharing stories of escapades with 'buffed,' such as hunting goblins in the forrest. It was, in a way, a real virtual funeral, and I would argue that in many ways this was a very real experience. Certainly it is interesting to wonder what the man's friend felt as he leapt from the tower in his friends avatar. Two worlds are merging... (see Sammyjo's virtual mortality post).

Blog awards 2005

This came out last month, but for those of you who haven't seen it, it's really interesting...

http://smh.com.au/articles/2005/03/21/1111253920074.html

Sammyjo

For anyone doing a case study on Communities at Play

Well, I've heard of Virtual Reality, so I guess you'd have to classify this as a case of Virtual Mortality...

http://smh.com.au/articles/2005/03/30/1111862451076.html

Sammyjo

Communities of Interest - Case Studies

As the first two weeks of case studies are (mostly) published, I just though I'd share all the relevant links so you can have a look at the enormous variety of studies that are online and awaiting comments. I've taken the liberty if mixing internal and external Curtin students with those studying through Open learning Australia so you can all benefit from each others work and contributions. The following studies have been up all this previous week:

Chai Yen Lin
Taking the position that for some making friends is an interest, Lin examines Freindster, Fakester and trust issues within social software. Lin's blog is open for comments.

Cho Chun Neng
Does aggressive and abusive argument constitute Rhiengold's 'sufficient human feeling'? A closer look at a newsgroup discussing English football team, Manchester United. Chun Neng is calling for feedback at Team Ochre's blog

Samantha O Hare
Samantha examines the individuals perspective of community at the rec.arts.theatre.musicals newsgroup. She is taking comments on the site and conducting a survey of responses to be published on Team Ochre's Blog.

The following case studies are now up for this week and are all awaiting comments.

Danny Burke
Danny Burke undertakes a debate with himself about the merits of newsgroup communities focusing on the use of the Macromedia animation tool Flash. This is in the form of a blog, so you can comment directly.

Nurhidayaty (Ida)
Ida looks at a bulletin board community focused on babies and parenting. You can comment on her presentation on the Team Scarlet blog here

Lynne Harding
Find out about the 'Great Spelling Wars' which led to the emergence of a community on the Cybermind discussion list. Lynne is open for comments.

Marius Johannessen
A study of the web-based community deviantArt, "a central location for artists to display their creations for feedback and public exposure. " There's even a flash summary Comments here at the team Aqua blog.

Shan-Chun Bella Chou (Bella)
Bella looks at The Thing! Comments on the Team Aqua Blog.

Roshan Weddikkara
Roshan explains and analyses Metafilter - a fascinating example of community blogging. Comments on the site.

Nicola Wright
Nicola has taken the unique approach of building a discussion forum about discussion forums. You can contribute just about anywhere in her presentation!

Elizabeth Spiegel
A broader look at communities of practice with an invite to mail any comments to Elizabeth.

Mohammed Chowdhury (Arif)
Again with a broader approach, Arif looks at the elements which go to make up communities of interest. Comments can be submitted to the Team Blue blog


Whoah! With a few more to be posted, there are already a huge variety of studies in only the first two weeks. I have to say that so far I'm very impressed with the academic and technical effort that has gone into the presentations. Thanks folks, the variety has made this assignment a pleasure to be assessing. I'd encourage everyone to explore these varied links over the next week and contribute wherever you can.


Have fun,

Stew

Case Study: Communities of Interest

Hi everyone,

Well, here's my Case Study...(I sure hope that this is the sort of thing that we were supposed to do).

I've elected to put it in html (on a website). Most of the case studies I've read as part of this exercise have been presented as websites, and the total 'ownership'
(both of the content and the medium it's presented in) appealed to me.

Just to give my case study some context - I found that there was SO much that could be explored in a case study that it was impossible to do an indepth study of everything in the word limit given. Therefore I've tried to go in deep on a couple of things, and really just make a passing reference to some of the other ideas that I would have explored if word-limits permitted. (NB: This isn't a criticism of the word limit Stew, just wanting to explain why I've done what I've done).

Also, there is some interactivity. Please do feel comfortable giving me your feedback... Not just directly on the Blog, but also through my site. Anything that comes through I will collate and publish here (no names however, so feel free to be honest!)

So finally, here it is...
http://www.users.bigpond.com/sammyohare/virtual_communities/


Be kind :)

Sammyjo

Half Bakery

Has anyone been to the site www.halfbakery.com? Its a really interesting form of community and the first one i've really found myself interested in joining. Its tagline is Birth of a Notion and its about putting up those strange or not so strange idea you sometimes have. I'm thinking of using it for my Communities at Play Case Study because its about playing with ideas. If anyone's got any thoughts on this please put them up and i'll make an effort to do so on yours if you post them. I don't think thats breaking the rules is it Stewart? But anyway, check it out. There's ideas on just about anything you could possibly search for.

A Few Questions...

A few folks from Team Ochre indicated that they'd like me to continue posting questions to the blog so here goes (From Monday's lecture)

Virtual Community Attraction: Why People Hang Out Online - Catherine M. Ridings & David Gefen

In this reading, Ridings & Gefen claim that 'information exchange' is the No. 1 reason people join virtual communities:

What does this suggest about the place of community in the 'information economy'?

Do you think this reason is a primary factor in the formation of 'real' communities?

A survey of current research on online communities of practice – C. M. Johnson

What is a community of practice?

How do you think it differs from what we have termed 'virtual communities'?

"Virtual communities are defined as designed communities using current networked technology, whereas communities of practice emerge within the designed community via the ways their participants use the designed community."

Do you think this distinction is a valid one?

What examples can you think of that demonstrate emergent practices in the formation of community?

Bridging Temporal and Spatial "Gaps": The role of information and communication technologies in defining communities – Paul Baker & Andrew Ward

"While we may join a virtual community because of an interest we have, unless that interest affects us in our daily lives, in our lives as physically instantiated and geographically centred individuals andcitizens, there is no good reason to believe that we will long continue an active membership in the virtual community."

What are your thoughts on Baker & Wards' conclusion?

Which communities do you think have 'physically instantiated' effects?

Which do not?

Relief

Are you tired of the dry 'assigned' readings? Is Rheingold getting you down? Does your case study need that spark of inspired insight?

Try here for 77 pages of fully-searchable up-to-date community focused articles, from blogs to well, a lot of other cool stuff.

Have fun,

Stew

(Yes, we are now officially overdue!)

Unplugging the Brain

I use my computer a lot, and I'm increasingly having moments where I step outside into the sunshine and realise that I've spent the last few hours with my brain plugged into my PC, not really 'being alive.' It seems to me that in the virtual or computer orientated world, we engage in our humanity in a very intellectual way; the world of ideals, ideas and technical prowess. In doing so however, we deny the animalistic side of being a human, which I think is equally, if not more important. Increasingly fleeting are those moments where we are just content to 'be' (in the Zen sense,) ie. not analalysing, debating, achieving, striving, communicating. I found I am happiest not when 'achieving' something on the computer, but instead when going for a walk by the river as the light starts to fail. I think there is a hidden danger in fulfilling too much of our need for community online; we could become too caught up in our cerebrial abilities and lose what it means to be part of nature. However, I myself am very much caught up in it... with so many interesting ways to use new technologies, its very hard not to be.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Eg. of an Instant Community

Hey, for those that may not have heard about it, the eBay Easter Treasure Hunt has created quite an interesting little instant community.

Discussion board pertaining to the Hunt is lit up brighter than a xmas tree!

Check it out:

http://forums.ebay.com.au/forum.jspa?forumID=3001

MUDs - communities or games?

I'll start this post by confessing that I'm VERY new to MUDding...

But I'd like to pose the question: do you feel MUDs are better defined as being communities or games?

I'm still thinking through my own opinion on this, but in case this is something that might be mulling over in other minds, I stumbled across this site which also explores this..

http://www.mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm

Thoughts anyone????