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Online community as modern-day neighborhood
Posted By katie allison granju
Cathy offers some lovely examples of how her Twitter community has supported her in the past week. It’s a great tale, but I’d argue that it’s not so much about the specific social networking tool - in this case, Twitter - as about the mostly untold story of online community: it’s real people finding a new way to connect in real life.
You hear a lot in the media about problems online: Internet gambling , online identity theft, and horrible online child pornography, but how often do you hear about the dozen or so Knoxville neighborhood-specific e-mail lists where real neighbors share plant cuttings and babysitting and hints on finding the best doctor in the area? How often do you hear about the online fundraising for Knoxvillians-in-need that happens pretty regularly through Knoxcentric forums like Knoxblab? And have I told you that I met my husband through my blog? And I am not alone, recently, two commenters at KnoxNews fell in love and were married!
I even wrote a chapter for a published anthology on online community about how an e-mail list for moms to which I belong was there for me when my son was hospitalized. And online community isn’t necessarily a flighty or a fleeting thing. My son was hospitalized in 1998; that particular group of online pals and I are still together on the same e-mail listserv today.
Online community is a Good Thing. The technology will change - Twitter today, maybe Seesmic next week - but the connection will remain the reason for the technology.
And let me add that I am VERY excited that as a huge fan of online community, I am very excited that my job has recently evolved to include guiding and facilitating the just-launched social media network at WBIR.com. I have no doubt that we’ll soon offer the sort of online neighborhood that Cathy encountered with her Twitter neighborhood this week.
May 17th, 2008
