Online Identity

As online communities exist in a virtual world, the identity of the people, or participants of the communities become less obvious. The degree to how the participant displays their identity is mainly down to how they choose to, and less the technology being used. The technology only constrains the extent of someone’s identity with its interface boundaries.

Any online environment can be manipulated to present ones identity inaccurately. The motivation for doing so is likely to be an unscrupulous one, so caution should always be applied when participating in an online community, especially by children who are vulnerable to the threat of paedophiles. Even when presenting ones identity truthfully, too much information can lead to the possibility of identity fraud.

Because of the motivations of these types of people discussed, enough emphasis on online awareness can’t be stressed enough, especially because there’s more of a lack of online familiarity by older generations not brought up with the Internet.

I recently joined Google Groups to view and participate in the forums on there. One concern over people’s identities I found was from people giving advice. Members have no real identity and can give any advice out which may need a professional’s opinion, e.g. electronic repair. This has the potential for someone seeking advice and taking someone’s response as truth, which may put them in danger.

Only where community members know each other in the ‘real world’ can they confirm their identity and be sure of each others member status. Where people don’t know each other in the ‘real world’, a strong, trustful bond can be formed where they have a strong common knowledgeable interest.

What’s an online community?

As I’m going to be writing about online communities in forthcoming weeks, getting some context of what an online community is would be a good start. A definition of a community is “a group of people living together in one place or sharing a religion, race etc.” (Oxford English Dictionary). Part of this definition uses the word ‘sharing’. In relation to this, looking at online communities it’s clear that they are born out of a common ‘shared’ interest.  

Like ‘real world’ communities, online ones have many forms (bloggers, social networks, gaming etc.) which make them difficult to describe as one single entity. It’s clear though that online communities share common themes -  

-         Each has shared interest.

-         Have no geographic boundaries.

-         Use an interface as a medium.

-         Have some self-governance. 

Participation of an online community can be between anonymous users or with people who already know each other using online interfaces as just another medium of interaction.

Observing online communities I think that they are just a ‘virtual’ representation of the real world. With the exception of online gaming I can’t see how online communities can exist without real world events. What makes online communities form is the ease of access to the networked medium, and the human appetite for social interaction and expression of opinion.  

Whilst online communities have the unique trait of having physical distance between group members, they are not without the downside of being venerable to crime.

Hello world!

Hello World!

I’m a final year BSc(Hons) Computer Communications student at Leeds Metropolitan University. One module I’m undertaking is COOL (Communities Online), which as part of I have to complete an online blog each week, regarding my activities with online communities (this is it!).  

As a ‘newcomer’ to blogging, and to some degree online community participation, I had given little thought to the subject. During this first week I have spent sometime observing a range of blogs made. After some considered thought, I came up with a few questions to which I hope to answer during my online community participation and final conclusion -

Why blog in the first place?

Are people more ‘open’ during blog participation?

Can an online community bring about change?

How safe is online community participation?

Do people accept blog literature as truth?

What makes a good blog? 

I look forward to forthcoming weeks and invite others to make comment on my weekly blog as I will with others.