Online Communities

This week was all about getting EME 6414 started up. During this online summer course, we are delving into what exactly Web 2.0 means and currently looks like through posted content and interactions within the whole online community.

One of our first course assignments is to observe online communities to consider how they are formed andwhat kind of interactions are occuring as a part of them. This will certainly be an interesting area to track information from and observe the variety of online interactions that result. Another facet with this assignment will be deciding to what degree (or not) I would like to contribute my own ideas, questions, and comments to participate further in these established communities. 

Beginning to read about and find various online community examples to follow is some pretty insightful research. There definitely are a number of places to look around for online as I continue to decide what information I want to gather more of in this upcoming assignment.

My readings and exploring so far with online communities has got me thinking about how unique each one can be from how it forms, what it is used for, who the main participants are, and what content users generally contribute to their online community. Another idea that I began to consider as I started viewing some online community examples is why users will/will not continue interacting with that online group. There are even a great number of online group types that can build these kinds of interactive communities. Sometimes online users engage in communities through blog pages or share ideas and comments in various kinds of Facebook groups. Other people are active on webpage forums that offer professional support topics. Users can share valuable resources in online content form. Additional individuals simply interact for social and recreational purposes through their online communities.