Tutorial Six:

The internet and online communities

Either search online for a community which interest you or choose one of the provided online communities to investigate. Make sure your selected a community that comprises some form of online forum, discussion page or chat room. You may also wish to see if your community has a Wikipedia entry.

Provide the web address and the name of the community you are investigating

http://www.thelowdown.co.nz

What is the brief or focus of this community
The Low Down has a focus of Depression. It is a safe place where people can speak openly about depression and feel supported. Yes, The Low Down are on Wikipedia

What services are provided? How interactive is this site? How can people contribute?

There is a range of services on the website; There is a site guide that shows you everything that is on the website and which shell to find it. Depression fact sheets, Self test, help services and urgent help. Stories from those that have been through depression. Chat is a chat room where you can talk openly about how you feel and you can ask for help from others. Knowledge with frequently asked questions and fact sheets. Multimedia there are a quite a few music clips on the site as well

The interaction is great as there is a choice of navigators that you can choose to show you around the site, You can e-mail or text questions to the low down team anytime but between the hours of noon to midnight is when someone can reply to you.

People can contribute by joining in the existing chats or starting a new discussion themselves.

Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment on why people choose to contribute to this community. What is it they are seeking?

Some people will be seeking help for themselves and others will be trying to find out information to either better understand depression or to help someone they know. There are many reasons why people may visit this site it may be just to listen to the music clips or to take the self test on depression.

Cut and paste an example of the type of topics being discussed (you may have to provide a context to your excerpt).

I can not cut and paste exerts from the website but I can give you some ideas of the types of things people may be discussing. The topics may have titles like; Having a rough time, Feeling Low, My friends don’t understand me, Feeling useless. All of these titles discuss how the individual is feeling at the time they were writing it.

Considering material presented during the course and make comment on the potential ethical issues that may arise in this community e.g. lack of identity and accountability.

The Low Down has moderators watching the content that is placed on the website, making sure that it is safe and not offensive. They have a block of some sort that does not allow you to cut and paste any excerpts from the chats.
There is huge potential for ethical boundaries to be misused, as you can sign in with a different name and make up stuff if you wanted to. As well as what ever you write can be viewed by anyone so there is a potential that someone might recognise you by what you have written.

Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment on the benefits this community holds over traditional notions of community e.g. communities reliant on geographic proximity

It can provide a large amount of information that anyone with internet access can view and join in distance is not a factor (geographically). It can compliment real life communities and foster understanding and unity between users.

Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment what this community lacks or can not provide which traditional communities can.

The limitations can be not being able to talk to someone face to face, not knowing if someone is being honest as you can’t see them. If you do not have access to the internet you can not access the web site. There is not necessarily a follow up for the users that may need it. They will be limited rapport building with the moderators.