Online Communities

"Facebook"
www.facebook. com

What is the focus of the community?
Facebook is an online network that has been designed to link friends and families to one another, throughout the world. Facebook encourages participation and socialization. Facebook is privately owned by Facebook, Inc

What services are provided? How interactive is this site? How can people contribute?
Facebook allows you to design and create your own profile page. You can add personal information, photo's and comments ab our yourself. You can also be tagged in other peoples photos, join fan clubs and groups, add videos, play games and do quizzes.

Facebook is a very interactive site. You can talk to other members of facebook live through facebook chat, which is like an instant message that is only between the two members. You can also place comments on both your own page and on other peoples pages, or you can send a private message.

Facebook allows you to choose who views your profile, by letting you control who you accept to be your facebook friends, and allows you to delete and block other users. Abuse can also be reported.

Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment on why people choose to contribute to this community. What is it they are seeking?
Facebook users choose to join the facebook network to increase their social interactions, to gain a sense of identity and belonging. Users feel they can truly express themselves as an individual and communicate their opinions and everyday thought freely. Through the acceptance of facebook friends it gives a sense of community. Also through the joining of fan clubs and groups they can form a sense of belonging and be able to communicate with other users that have similar beliefs and religious/cultural characteristics as them.

Cut and paste an example of the types of topics being discussed
The following page has been designed to make people aware of the unnecessary slaughter of horses and the abuse that they are subjected to. Page is called STOP HORSE SLAUGHTER

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000371830014&v=info&ref=profile#!/pages/Dubai/STOP-Horse-Slaughter/36593282409

Considering material presented during the course and make comment on the potential ethical issues that may arise in this community, eg. lack of identity and accountability
There has been a large amount of criticism in regards to facebook and its usage, especially in relation to the privacy of its users, use of advertising, child safety, inappropriate pages and photos and the inability to deleting content before terminating the account. Identity theft is another major issue that surrounds facebook, as users disclose personal information, and attach photos. Facebook users may also fake who they really are when setting up a profile, this subjects other users to false of identity. There is also ethical issues with groups that are promoting concepts/issues such as anorexia, i hate...., disrespecting individuals with disabilities, and discrimination of races and cultures. The people that create these pages can not be held accountable for setting up these pages and do not face punishment. Though facebook.Inc does have the power to delete pages and users can report pages that are offensive.

Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment on the benefits of this community holds over traditional notion of communities ,eg. communities reliant on geographic proximity. Facebook can influence users lives in many ways and holds great benefits for them. Facebook's benefits include allowing users to keep in touch with family/ friends that they would otherwise not be able to contact due to geographical issues- eg, overseas, isolated areas. Facebook connections are instant, the information they would view is up to date. Facebook allows connections and relationships to be formed and as it is a free service is an accessible service throughout the world.

Consider material presented during lecture and make comment what this community lacks or can not provide which traditional communities can.
Facebook is an online community and therefore does not have the same personal aspect as traditional communities. Traditional communities involve face to face, personal contact which allows people to interact on a deeper level. This aids them to communicate more fully through their body language, facial expression and tone. While facebook only allows the users to communicate through written messages, which are often mis-interrupted and not understood, which can change relationships.