Final Blog

At the start of the module I came up with six questions on blogging and online communities in general, to which I hoped to find answers to during the module. Each question can now be addressed –

Why blog in the first place? People either blog because they either have to (e.g. professionally), or because they have an interest to which they wish to share their views (E.g. blogspot (2008)).

Are people more ‘open’ during blog participation? This question I meant to apply to general online communities. Participants of certain communities I have found are more open than others. Having anonymity when interacting gives a sense freedom to expression as in is impersonal, unlike social networks where there is a greater chance of repercussion from a controversial view.   

Can an online community bring about change? Yes – as demonstrated in my ‘Online Community Business Models’ blog with the example on open-source collaboration. It is said that individual values don’t change things; but multiple collaboration online of people with shared values has been proven to work.

How safe is online community participation?  Participation is as safe as you make it. Education on these issues is two-fold; First that of posting sensitive information which could be used against oneself (e.g. an address) and also actions during participation, such as children being targeted by pedophiles.

Do people accept blog literature as truth? This was meant as a rhetorical question to me, as I initially assumed that people would question content posted by a blogger. In my blog on political communities I found myself posting inaccurate information. I followed up this with a post on online defamation, which altered my own naive perception of literature. 

What makes a good blog? Something worth reading and with a structure to it will help. No blog will appeal to all, but if it is of interest to its reader and thought provoking it can’t be bad.  

As the module has gone on, I have been able to apply the skills learnt in lectures and tutorials in my blogs; this I hope has shown progressively throughout the module. The most difficult aspect I have found is to show deep theoretical underpinning on topics within the module’s word count limit. I also recognize that there are many community aspects I didn’t have room to discuss.   

One aspect of the module I found helpful was the rapidly evolution of communities in general, giving plenty to discuss and write about.  

Overall I have enjoyed my participation in most communities during the module and in some cases, hope to continue.

Online musician/fans Community

This blog focuses on the famous indie/rock band Radiohead and their fans, and how they both utilise the Web to create a community mesh.

Several dedicated fan sites have emerged; the award winning www.ateaseweb.com being one of the most popular (I’m a long term member). As well as providing much information on the band and its history, the site has message boards allowing its global community to discuss all aspects of the band and more. The site provides latest news on the band daily, to which a lot of content comes from its members (including myself on occasion) who report to the host news stories via email.   

www.youtube.com has been utilised by members posting music videos original or created by the members, self-covers of songs, and live clips.     

Radiohead have embraced the web with their website www.radiohead.com. The site has evolved into a blog where the band posts random general messages and pictures; nothing unusual here. Recently though the band split with their record company and decided to release their latest material initially via download directly online from themselves. Also the band’s new US record label has recently started a Radiohead Youtube channel, and put the band a profile on Facebook where they post videos, news and have over a million fans.  

Before the albums release the band posted cryptic messages on their blog, which whipped the message boards into frenzy. From these messages it was worked out that they were about the new album which had yet no release date.  

The band uses their site www.radiohead.tv on occasion to web-cast performances and other art. Most recently at 12am New Year’s Day they web-cast a performance of their latest album, amongst other things   

Comparing the two approaches it appears to me that the direct accessibility that the band gives its fans via its blog and web-casts, as well as the direct purchasing of music fuels the fans online activity. The cryptic messages were an example of the band making announcements to their fans directly, and not straight to the media.