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Neighborhoods Online - What’s the best way? What doesn’t work?
I am interested in research about the best ways to build sustained online relationships among those who live near one another.
I am highly skeptical that technological determinism (the cornerstone of web 2.0) will build much more than “virtual ghost towns” at the local level. Sites like Facebook are only “public spaces” if you accept the Mall of America as a democratic public space - what we really have are publicized private spaces and not public life reflected online.
I am interested in research that will take on this tool-oriented cyber-optimism and find out what really works online (and offline) to make local places work online.
Below is a post to our online community of practice for those building Issues Forums about the real world efforts required to create deeply engaged geographically-based communities online that last for years.
Steven Clift
E-Democracy.Org
Panel I: Defining Networks and Neighborhoods Today
This post is simply my observations of the panel and is by no means intended to be the definitive word on the subjects discussed. So please post your own blog or comment on this one if you’d like! 
The panel includes:
Laura Gurak, Moderator
Lee Anderson
Christine Greenhow
Alok Gupta
Steve Kelley
Joanna O’Connell
Nora Paul
O’Connell: We should think in terms of global teams without language as a barrier.
Paul: Changes in the technology is changing the form of storytelling.
Anderson: Creating a building or project requires a lot of people working together. For example, even though Frank Gehry is the “star architect” of many buildings, he has all sorts of architects, designers, construction crews, engineers, etc. working to bring a project to completion. There are other stakeholders as well (visitors, government, etc.). Is this multi-disciplinary?
Global teams of designers, architects, etc. are now working “round-the-clock” in different areas of the world and offering their expertise electronically. This worldwide base of knowledge allows for rapid prototyping and quick turn-arounds on all sorts of projects.
My thoughts: What are the implications of all this? How does all this influence the way we communicate? Is it good? Bad?
Greenhow: Today we have the ability to craft a viewpoint and disseminate it to a mass audience. This means that teenagers and folks in traditional positions of less power, now have more power. This shift in power has transformed political campaigns, etc.
How are youths using social networking sites? Over 55% of teenagers use online social networking websites. Popular media has portrayed this as a negative thing (kids posting photos of them drinking). But in her conversations with teens, Greenhow has discovered that they view it as a positive thing - that is to deepen and maintain existing social connections. They are more social and have a more positive sense of identity and community. This has (possibly?) helped to keep many kids in school - when students feel like they are part of a community, they are more likely to show up, hang around, and participate actively.
Teens are learning creativity, problem solving, and are becoming more open to different viewpoints.
SHOUT OUT is a project that Greenhow is working on that is more than just social. She is trying to learn if she can help students to learn how to network and share common interests and, ultimately, to stay in school at higher rates. Can we utilize online social networks to teach leadership skills?
Gupta: Online Markets Design and Consumer Behavior
Online marketing has been influenced heavily by online social networking (think Amazon.com & UPS.com - your ability to follow a package as it moves around the globe). Information goods can now be sold and downloaded (now you can instantly download journal articles).
On online auction sites, there are all sorts of strategies that people employ. Some people log in early and place one bid. Others might participate throughout, place a dummy bid at the beginning, or swoop in at the very end and try to win the auction. So how is this affecting design of websites?
What incentives exist to influence people to contribute online? When a site offered an award for sharing information online, people stopped sharing information with each other.
Kelley: Some folks are really tech-savvy and others are have never owned a computer. So city officials need to pay attention to the varying skill levels and needs of citizens. So, you see cities setting up public works and emergency phone numbers as well as websites.
Politics. Barack Obama is constructing a mass movement using web 2.0 tools (online fundraising, networking, etc.). His YouTube “Yes We Can” video has 3 million views. Ron Paul is also building his campaign using online tools, which make him the “idiosyncratic” Republican candidate.
Online labs at schools have raised questions about whether online learning really works as well as face-to-face, traditional teaching. The jury is still out on whether or not virtual tools are effective.
We need multi-disciplinarity. “Mash-ups” - tools that combine technologies on the web.
O’Connell: Older people say they “don’t have the time” to learn them. Younger people know how to use the tools. How can we help colleagues connect with each other when they are speaking a different language? How do we use technology to help these two age groups connect?
Most faculty are not trained teachers. Print culture changed ideas of nationality, etc. What will literacy technologies shape the way we view the world. How will new technologies inform old tools (books, talking, conversation, etc.). The viral circulation of Obama’s “Yes We Can” video has connected Obama supporters in an interesting way. What happens when people meet each other in person for the first time, online for the first time, and in person after meeting someone online?
How has technology been used to change/form political movements both in the past and present? How does past use of technology inform the current use of technology (blogs, mySpace, etc.)?
Paul: Digital Storytelling Effects Lab (DiSEL)
“How are new forms of connectivity reshaping relationships?”
There are lifecycles of talking about and collaborating on ideas (meet, talk, research, celebrate, etc.). How does online social networking influence these cycles?
Challenges:
- There’s still only 24 hours in a day.
- Generational differences (…yet another program to master).
- How does one go about learning Moodle when there isn’t a big interest in it (attention deficiency) or enough time in the day?
- “If you build it, they won’t necessarily come.” You can build great tools that nobody uses. Social networking can help get users!
- Many technologies and technology topics are fun and “irresistable”
“Can technologies facilitate collaboration? Blogging, Facebooking, Wiki-ing, Moodle, Dabble, Google Docs, etc.
COMMENTS
Gupta: Sometimes the tools that are created don’t have mass appeal.
Anderson: You have to determine what the function is before you build tools. What do we want to do, and how can we use technology to solve that problem?
Kelley: We need/will develop a common vernacular to discuss online stuff. The lack of consistency in discussions of online tools make it difficult for many people to connect on things that might be very interesting or useful.
Commenter: Organizations don’t always see the value of collaboration tools. Self-interest is needed sometimes to make organizations invest in certain technology.
O’Connell: In her experience, undergrad students are more willing to share online than grad students and, for some reason, have more motivation to do so. Grad students lacked the motivation.
Gurak: New technologies are often built in some sense of isolation. As technologies move forward in the development process, they change.
Anderson: Who benefits by using Google? (Google shareholders, advertisers, users, etc.) How does the profit motive influence the tools that Google makes?
Commenter (to Anderson): How is architecture evolving to accommodate and control the new forms of online collaboration?
Anderson: The profession of architecture has an established culture that controls the ways that people communicate online. But perhaps the new forms of communication are disturbing those controls. The main question seems to be: Which way will the controls sway - will the large corporation own the controls or will they be more democratized?
Commenter: How can we motivate researchers to conduct multi-disciplinary or inter-disciplinary research?
Gupta: There are support systems at the University that are working to provide incentives for networks to grow. There needs to be more done.
Commenter: Usability needs to be discussed more when we are talking about online social networking (blind, deaf, different languages, lack of tech knowledge and understanding).
Commenter: How do we create sustainability in online networking communities? (We’ve seen the rise and fall of Friendster.com)
Greenhow: Students would like to go to a safe place around a topic of interest. How do we integrate the different “pods” of interest?
Gurak: There comes a point when you are better off going with the mainstream product rather than developing tools in-house.
O’Connell: There is no searchable online database for faculty expertise! Faculty members invest a LOT of time figuring out what other people do. The existing tools are proprietary. We need a good, unified tool at the University.
