In the presentation, the concept of virtual community on the Internet was examined clearly with the case of Facebook. It included the features of online communities, such as embodiment, personal network, and its correlation to the real life experience. To some extents, we believe that online communities do help communication as it act as a platform for the interaction between people in the cyberspace, as mentioned in the discussion part. In which, it do change some of our communication practice in real life that we may more depend on online communication. For example, as said by some classmates in the discussion, even they don’t like Facebook, they also have an account in this online community and add into other people’s friend list, or say, network, for intercommunication. In this way, we can say that such online communication or communities have become a part of our life inevitably, as told in Rheingold’s reading.
Besides, some potential problems involving in online communities in aspects of privacy, anonymity and censorship are investigated in the presentation, with examples from news. Instead of these issues mentioned, the commercialization of virtual communities is pointed out as one of the problems and discussed in the tutorial discussion. Taking Facebook as a case, the commercial elements does not only refer to the increasing advertisement in the online community, but also applications such as quiz or questionnaire given by some companies. We think that those applications do have commercial purpose of collecting information and targeting the potential consumers as well as promoting. For examples, the psychological tests and the virtual gifts and applications of brand name like Starbucks and Gucci. In this way, Facebook may act as a tool for those companies rather than a pure communication platform. Moreover, the privacy may again become an issue to be concerned in this case, as the personal information may be transferred to the companies for commercial purpose without users’ permission.
In fact, the positive side and the ubiquity of virtual communities are realized obviously nowadays. But the impacts and potential problems involved in have also been disclosed gradually along with the increased online communities, and it should be put in concern.
Besides, some potential problems involving in online communities in aspects of privacy, anonymity and censorship are investigated in the presentation, with examples from news. Instead of these issues mentioned, the commercialization of virtual communities is pointed out as one of the problems and discussed in the tutorial discussion. Taking Facebook as a case, the commercial elements does not only refer to the increasing advertisement in the online community, but also applications such as quiz or questionnaire given by some companies. We think that those applications do have commercial purpose of collecting information and targeting the potential consumers as well as promoting. For examples, the psychological tests and the virtual gifts and applications of brand name like Starbucks and Gucci. In this way, Facebook may act as a tool for those companies rather than a pure communication platform. Moreover, the privacy may again become an issue to be concerned in this case, as the personal information may be transferred to the companies for commercial purpose without users’ permission.
In fact, the positive side and the ubiquity of virtual communities are realized obviously nowadays. But the impacts and potential problems involved in have also been disclosed gradually along with the increased online communities, and it should be put in concern.
For the presentation, there is a space for impovements. Paticularly, it may be better to give more examples, such as forums, to explain the ideas of online communities .
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