Tutorial 6 The Internet and Online Community sites

Provide the web address and name of the community you are investigating.
My Space www.myspace.com

What is the brief or focus of this community?
The My Space community focouses on connecting people with their friends and family and allowing them to communicate via the net.

What services are provided? How interactive is this site? How can people contribute?
MySpace is a popular social networking website offering an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music and videos for teenagers and adults internationally Retrieved 28th May 2008. This site is very interactive as there are so many things to do as you have you own webpage with may different things you can add on it like a blog, comments, personal profile, music, videos, photos,groups and lots of other stuff. There are also alot of new stuff being added that you can do all the time. People contribute by making there own page then writing to their friends or addeding new thing

Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment on why people choose to contribute to this community. What is it they are seeking?
Many people choose to contribute to this community so they can keep in contact with family and friends. People can also meet new people. This can be great for people that arnt able to physicaly catch up with friends it gives them another way to communicate with them. People on my space are seeking social contact and the ability to keep in contact with others that could be half way around the world.

Cut and paste an example of the type of topics being discussed (you may have to provide a context to your excerpt).
I cant cut and paste from this site. But because you have your own page most people are talking to each other just about their everyday life. There are also groups that you can add to your page though for example there was one for people who had left kavanagh college and the ex pupils would talk about things that happend at there school and the memories they had.

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.
People can send abusive comments to other people. Some people can lie on it and pretend to be other people and there can be alot of problems with this as people can be in danger if they met up with them.

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 be alot easier meeting someone online then it would be when you met someone face to face. Also with this community you are able to communicate with anyone in the world you dont just have to be in the geographic proximity. This makes it easier for people to keep in conntact with family and friends and even catch up with old friends that you my find on My Space.

Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment what this community lacks or can not provide which traditional communities can.
Communicating with people though the net can sometimes not be alot less personal then meeting with someone face to face. Also people who dont have a computer or cant use a computer are not able to access this community. It can lack safety as someone could be lying about who they are they could say there 15 when really there 30 but if you see them face to face its alot safer.