Caroline's E-learning & Digital Cultures Blog

Looking back at this mini ethnography and Bankeyfields in general I had one aim in mind, to find evidence that this virtual comminity actually acted together as a community. I was slightly biased as this is a physical community I already knew so I was aware of the prominent physical community already in place. Looking at the email I received from the administrator of Bankeyfields, and a resident of the community, he points out that this virtual community has strengthened the physical one even further,

“Where I knew just my neighbours before, I now know and chat to most most people in my street and streets away. I wouldnt say its the heart of our community, thats the people, but it has done a fantastic job in bringing us together”.

I think this says a great deal about how virtual communities can be used for the good. This is a very positive example of how cyberculture has bridged the divide between physical and virtual.

References.

Bell, D (2001) Community and Cyberculture, chapters of An Introduction to Cyberculture. Abingdon: Roultedge. pp92-112

Clari, M, A Flickr Ethnography, Unpublished.

Hine, C (2000) The Virtual Objects of Ethnography. From Hine, C. Virtual Ethnography. pp41-66, London: Sage

Rheingold, H (1993) Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier, Reading MA: Addison Wesley

Bankeyfields users are very much a supportive group. Support for one another is essentail as it builds upon the feeling of belonging to a community. The users support for one another is apparent in the way that there is a shared concern for each other and the communities well being. Not only does Bankeyfields raise issues of concern but people are also invited to social events and to share in social conversation with one another. This could be seen as what Bell (2001) refers to as “social cement”. Without the presence of both social interaction and support for one another I do not believe they would be as successful as an online and physical community.

Participants in this particular forum have constructed a sense of community in their online environmnet. It may be said that this was in fact inevitable as they are already an established community. BUT, the postings to this forum simply strengthen their sense of community, physical and virtual.

Bell (2001) talks about the emergance of social codes as a means of constructing a sense of community. Users of Bankeyfields are asked to regularly contribute to forums and blogs, it is almost like an unwritten rule of the site. The moderator seems to regulalry prompt people to give feedback on issues discussed. This will be a method of allowing the communication to flow and to keep the community online intact.

The users construct a sense of community by having a shared interest in protecting their own physical space and that of the others around them. As one of the posts to the forum says,

“Thanks for the info, do we need to inform the police about this as they have a zero tolerance on teenagers with regard to this sort of thing” (Bankeyfields, 2009)

It can be said that users constructed a sense of community from the off set by establishing this website, the community was already in place.

“When people carry on public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling to form webs of personal feeling” (Rheingold, 1993)

First of all, looking at the Bankeyfields site overall it markets itself as “Tunstalls community website”. It has the aim of inviting local people to discuss neighbourhood issues, blog, post or read crime alerts and contribute to a local directory. It also informs residents of neighbourhood watch meetings. You get a sense of community spirit from the users of this site as they share what Bell (2001) refers to as a “shared interest”. Each of these people have set up accounts on the Bankeyfields site as they feel it will allow them to contribute to local cohesion and will bring them together with like minded people. Bankeyfields has been set up as a means of supporting the sense of physical community already in place. Many have argued the value of virtual spaces as a means of developing online communities. Many support online communities as a way of creating a true sense of community. For example Kollock $ Smith (1999) believe,

“Not only are online communities real, but also that they have the potential to support face to face communication and helphold local communities together”

This is very much the case with Bankeyfields. The online users are there to support the physical community.

Looking at the particular forum thread I have decided to focus upon (http://www.bankeyfields.co.uk/forum/beware-trick-or-treat-threat-bankeyfields-neighbourhood-watch) it is apparent that the users share an online community spirit or a shared interest as discussed earlier. The Timeline, located here http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/27969 gives an indication of the frequency of the postings. Many of the forums and blogs on this site have a similar amount of actual written responces although they have a significantly larger amount of people who viewed the thread or posting. The forum tile I am focusing upon is “Beware- Trick or Treat threat” so far there have been six postings and I am expecting (hoping) there may be additional posts to come. Reverting back to the research question fo this section “Does this forum show evidence of there being a virtual community”? I would have to answer that with a resounding yes. Whay have I reached this conclusion? Well, it is apparent from the first blog posting that the users support one another. The first post has been written to advise and warn fellow users and those who share the same physical community about a bunch of rogue trick or treaters acting in the area. This shows a shared interest in keeping the area safe. The threads then go on to share similar expreiences of this incident, reinforcing a shared experience. There fore it is evident that the users of Bankeyfields act as a community on as well as offline.