What is community?

"A group of people who form relationships over time by interacting regularly around shared experiences, which are of interest to all of them for varying individual reasons."

“What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.”

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. quotes (American Writer, b.1922)

In biological terms, a community is a group of interacting organisms sharing a populated environment. In human communities, intent, belief, resources, preferences, needs, risks, and a number of other conditions may be present and common, affecting the identity of the participants and their degree of cohesiveness.

In sociology, the concept of community has led to significant debate, and sociologists are yet to reach agreement on a definition of the term. There were ninety-four discrete definitions of the term by the mid-1950s.^[1] Traditionally a "community" has been defined as a group of interacting people living in a common location. The word is often used to refer to a group that is organized around common values and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household. The word can also refer to the national community or international community.

The word "community" is derived from the Old French communité which is derived from the Latin communitas (cum, "with/together" + munus, "gift"), a broad term for fellowship or organized society.^[2]

Since the advent of the Internet, the concept of community no longer has geographical limitations, as people can now virtually gather in an online community and share common interests regardless of physical location.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community)

Below is a very interesting site that I came across when I was researching the idea of community from a social perspective.

WHAT IS COMMUNITY LINK

(An excerpt from http://www.scn.org/cmp/whatcom.htm)

The Social Perspective of Human Settlements:

A human settlement, or community, is not merely a collection of houses. It is a human (social and cultural) organization. (The houses, which are cultural products of humanity, belong to one of the six dimensions of society or culture, the technological dimension, as explained below).

Also, it is not just a collection of human individuals; it is a socio-cultural system; it is socially organized. This means that you need to know some things about society ─ things learned in sociology.

The community has a life of its own which goes beyond the sum of all the lives of all its residents. As a social organization, a community is cultural. See Culture. That means it is a system of systems, and that it is composed of things that are learned rather than transmitted by genes and chromosomes. All the social or cultural elements of a community, from its technology to its shared beliefs, are transmitted and stored by symbols.

VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES

Why Do People Join and Build Virtual Communities?

People have been using online spaces since the beginning of the Internet to communicate. That includes prior to the World Wide Web, when BBS, or electronic bulletin boards and email loops connected folks across time and space. (For a good short history of the Internet, see http://www.dsv.su.se/internet/documents/internet-history.html). Many found that they began to form bonds of one sort of another. Today, the online forum tracking service, ForumOne (http://www.forumone.com) had more than 270,000 distinct communities and forums registered at their site in 1999. (The site no longer lists total numbers.) And many more remain unlisted.

Here are some of the types of activities people have enjoyed through these online connections.

• Socialize - meeting people, playing around, sharing jokes, stories and just taking interest in each other. Communities like this often focus around bulletin boards and chat rooms. An example of such a community is Electric Minds at http://www.electricminds.org
• Work together (business) - Distributed work groups within companies and between companies use online community to build their team, keep in touch and even work on projects together. A very detailed description of how online work groups work can be found at http://www.awaken.com and http://www.bigbangworkshops.com .
• Work together (community - geographic) - Freenets (see the Freenet Directory) have offered local communities ways to communicate and work together. Some have even combined this with ISP service. Community groups such as soccer teams, school groups and others have used online community to provide forums for information and discussion, helping bring groups together.
• Work together (issues) - Virtual communities have been very important to people who share interests in issues and causes. Support groups for people dealing with certain diseases, causes such as politics or the environment, or people studying together, all can form a nucleus for an online community.
• Have topical conversations - Online salons and discussion forums such as the Well (http://www.well.com), Salon's TableTalk (as of mid 2001 a paid subscription model) (http://www.salon.com), Cafe Utne (http://www.utne.com) and others have formed communities of people who enjoy conversations about topics and shared interests. ForumOne noted in 1999 that the top ten topics for forums registered at their site are around the topics of (in order): relationships (16%), "mega sites (diverse topics, aggregations of smaller conferences - 11%), business and finance (8%), health (5%), hobbies (4%), religion (3%), music (3%), international (3%). It would be interesting to revisit those stats at the start of 2002.

Community Examples

The communities noted above and others across the Internet represent a wide range of interests and motivations. We asked a few community owners why they set up their communities and how it has turned out for them. Here are their stories.

· Case History: A Community of Purpose - John Aravosis

· Case Study: the IBM/Electric Minds'Kasparov v. Deep Blue

· Nancy Rhine and Women's Wire

· An anonymous parent at the neurology web is concerned that the anti-oxidant vitamins have too much copper for her 60 lb child with Tourette's Syndrome. Bonnie responds - "Copper increases the action of tryptophan 2,3 dioxygenase, thus breaking down tryptophan to kynurenine. In TS some studies have shown an already reduced level of tryptophan and increased level of kynurenine in the blood. Some copper is needed for the antioxidant action of superoxide dismutase and one of the cytoshromes, but the normal diet should provide enough copper without supplementing it further. Copper water pipes alone provide plenty (and sometimes too much if they are new) of copper."
- From Neurology Web, Tourette Syndrome forum, http://neuro-www.mgh.harvard.edu/forum/TouretteSyndromeF/2.19.994.55PMQuestiontoBo.html

· Jen CA9-Sunset19 worries about the leafless Butterfly Bush in her yard "I haven't under- or over-watered, etc. I planted it last fall. I guess I'll have to wait til spring really arrives (TRUE spring, not our pseudo/spring-wannabe winter) to see if it starts to come back. I know I could just get another one but I really don't want to have to do that." Within a day, she has four responses - Wanda's butterfly bush is in full bloom, Denise's is limping along. Gardening Gal and Kelli think it may be too cold. - From the GardenWeb, California Gardens (formerly at http://www.gardenweb.com/forums/load/calif/msg0210504717260.html?5)

· Over in the Rock Hall of Fame forum, Robert Wilcox is hopping mad that AC/DC still hasn't been inducted into the hall of fame. "Let us not forget that the often forgotten AC/DC has sold more albums than the Stones. Yet for some reason, millions line up in droves to see the glorified British bar band perform the same antiquated riffs that Eddie Van Halen could play with his feet and a carboard pick." He falls into a dispute with Pay Attention, who insists that AC/DC is already an inductee.- From Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 500 Songs Forum, http://forums.rockhall.com/forums/get/songs/504.html

(Taken from the following site of interest -http://www.fullcirc.com/community/communitywhatwhy.htm)

FANDOM- Live long and prosper

So just what is Fandom? According to wikipedia it is
"is a term used to refer to a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of sympathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the object(s) of their fandom and spend a significant portion of their time and energy involved with their interest, often as a part of a social network with particular practices (a fandom); this is what differentiates "fannish" (fandom-affiliated) fans from those with only a casual interest.

A fandom can grow up centered around any area of human interest or activity. The subject of fan interest can be narrowly defined, focused on something like an individual celebrity, or more widely defined, encompassing entire hobbies, genres or fashions. While it is now used to apply to groups of people fascinated with any subject, the term has its roots in those with an enthusiastic appreciation for sports. Merriam-Webster's dictionary traces the usage of the term back as far as 1903.^[1]

Fandom as a term can also be used in a broad sense to refer to an interconnected social network of individual fandoms, many of which overlap."

In this case I wish to explore the fan culture based around the popular sci-fi television show Star Trek. This is mainly due to having being brought up in a home that also houses an avid "Trekkie"- my mother. Although my mother does not have the time or resources to get as deeply involved within the Star Trek fan community, I have no doubt that she would if she could. It is interesting to note the different levels of involvement and commitment based around fandom. From researching it is intriging to see just how far fans will take their interests in comparision to others.

I myself am not a die hard fan but I wish to explore futher and greater understand its fan culture and the involvment it has in its participants daily lives, social interaction and gratification.


As it has been stated that Star Trek fans are likely the most analyzed fan communities in popular culture over the past several years, there are a lot of very interested articles. One of which is Lincoln Geraghty's piece "A Network of Support: Coping with Trauma Through Star Trek Fan Letters," who uses these fan letters to try and understand the way fans believe membership in some idea of a fan community has "helped them in daily life." Geraghty writes that he intends to try and understand "how far one might regard the Star Trek fanbase as a collective network of support.

Particularly, Geraghty examines ways in which the Star Trek is used as a way to deal with personal devastations, such as deaths in the family, and how the fan community can help cope with such tragedy. He writes about ways in which the Star Trek text and fellow fans are used as a form of encouragement or a way of recovery.

As with any fan culture they use there chosen interest and its outlets in an attempt to connect both intellectually and emotionally.

One fan attributes his creation of scifispace to Star Trek.

"Star Trek has had a long history - which I�ll write about here! For me, it�s a very personal thing as I got hooked on science fiction when I first saw the original Star Trek series when I was 12 (in re-runs - I�m not that old!). So you could say if it wasn�t for Star Trek, there wouldn�t be a Scifispace.com website!"

http://www.scifispace.com/html/sthistory.php

He goes on to detail a lot about Star Trek in the beginning, the lack of information and what it was like to be a fan before the invention of the internet. His writings give a very good insight into an example of fan culture, and just how in this particular case it began. The site displays in my opinon just how fan culture can be used to connect, share intellect and gain emotional satisfaction and support.

In researching about fan culture I found an interesting article which I would like to include.

In Convergence Culture Jenkins writes that fandom, as displayed within convergence
culture, is characterized by these five things:

  1. Appropriation; A person appropriates in their own life a
particular text, work, and practice relating to their fan object. Often these
objects are reinterpreted in their own life.
  2. Participation ; There is an openness for people to participate
at all levels within the community. They are so inspired by it they write music,
create events, etc.
  3. Emotional Investment – People become really invested in this
this object, topics, etc. It is something they are really into and something they
want to talk about.
  4. Collective Intelligence (rather than the expert paradigm;
There is room for everyone to have something to say and contribute to the collective
understanding of the group. Collective intelligence
doesn’t need credentials, degrees, etc., experiences and insights are
beneficial to the community and conversation.
  5. Virtual Community; These are communities that
are not necessarily built around face to face meetings. Some of these people know
each other and some are unknown, but more often than not these groups will have
times to meet face to face.

As well as this I discovered a very interesting book based around fan culture, star trek and women.

http://www.amazon.com/Enterprising-Women-Television-Contemporary-Ethnography/dp/0812213793#reader_0812213793.

WHAT'S THE PANIC?

Moral panic is an interesting social phenomenon that can have tragic results. The term is used todescribe a state of panic induced in a large group of people, who feel that a societal norm or an aspect governing the safety of people is being seriously threatened. The term is the creation of sociologist Stanley Cohen, who examined the way that Mods and Rock and Roll fans were perceived as a threat to society in the 1960s and early 1970s. Moral panic clearly existed prior to Cohen creating the term. Virtually every dance style introduced in the 20th century created such panic; even the waltz was condemned much earlier as a sure path to sin because the couples embraced each other. Most new music styles, and the fans of such styles, have induced — at least in small scale — moral panic. From ministers condemning the evils of rock and roll to significant news coverage of the hippie culture and from Kurt Cobain’s death to the Goth movement, people may become significantly afraid that a corruptible influence is likely to cause harm to their children and their way of life. These concerns are often inflated by excessive coverage in the media of a few events that would indicate all children who picked up a Nirvana album would commit suicide, or all children who donned black eye shadow would decide to worship vampires. Moral panics often result over activities which, before their suggested link to juvenile delinquency, have received little or no media coverage. They become a part of youth culture, freely adopted by a community willing to try new things. The new form of entertainment remains foreign to the older generation, who was brought up without it. It is this older generation who panics and who also controls the news media. If youth culture was represented from a youth perspective in day-to-day journalistic media, moral panics might not be so apt to occur. (Excerpt from the following- http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-moral-panic.htm) The media plays a vital role in creating this moral panic. It tends to isolate and sensationalize certain events, groups and behaviours, creating links between them and negative moral standings that then pose to threaten the very fabric of society and normalcy. This ultimately creates a moral panic within the public. One such example can be seen in the moral panic around youth and video gaming culture. In our contemporary world video games are blamed for youth violence, much like comic books were previously accused of causing youth aggression and crime. "Comic books had been seen as a waste of children's time. The appearance of crime comics in an industry a decade old contributed to the suggestion that comics could be linked to juvenile delinquency." To outsiders gaming appeared to highlight crime, horror, monsters, and killing which threatened social values. One of the most notable cases around video games and the creation of a moral panic can be seen in the reportings and events after the tragic Columbine Shootings. "On April 20th, 1999, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, two students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, went on a shooting rampage, armed with shotguns, assault rifles, grenades, and pipe bombs. After killing twelve students and a teacher, Klebold and Harris turned their weapons on themselves, leaving the nation with no answers to their many questions. What could have caused two adolescents to do so much harm? The media's answer: video games." (http://www.gamebits.net/other/mqp/#30) The media portrayed a natural cause-and-effect scenario involving youth and video games, similar to a natural disaster or a disease. Lt. Colonel Grossman, in his book Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill, described the effect video games have on kids as "Acquired Violence Immune Deficiency Syndrome", or AVIDS. The media supported this theory and omitted facts about Harris and Klebold which may have suggested a predisposition to violence. Instead quotes were seen like this one in the Denver Post,April,2001 stating this of video gaming, "It is guaranteed that more monsters will be created and more school killings will occur" After Columbine, President Clinton requested a report from the Surgeon General on the effects of media violence on children. When the press received word in January 2001 that the report was nearly finished, The Charlotte Observer (19 Jan. 2001) ran a story with the headline "Surgeon General to Declare Violent Media Harmful to Children". The article goes on to say the report would fuel the side of politicians and parent groups pushing for legislation against video games, calling them as much a health hazard as cigarettes. The Los Angeles Times predicted the report would find that "repeated exposure to violent entertainment during early childhood causes more aggressive behavior throughout the child's life." The actual report, released a few days later, was contradictory to these advance news reports. According to the report, media violence plays only a minor role in the violence of pre-adolescents, and almost no role in older children. The report ranked video games as the tenth most significant risk factor, placing poor upbringing and violent parents, poverty, substance abuse, and natural aggressive tendencies as more likely factors. Though the results of the report were often predicted in the media, the actual results were omitted from wide coverage. "The representation of video games in both the media and, consequently, in the minds of concerned parents fits all the characteristics of a moral panic, as defined by Cohen and other authors. Facts about youth culture have been omitted and exaggerated and the situation has been likened to a natural disaster. Other explanations of how youth culture affects children have been ignored, as have the questions of if the entertainment form affect children at all, or if children affect and use their culture to suit their own needs and desires. The panic preceded any actual research or evidence to either confirm or deny society's fears about what youth culture was doing to the youth. What society didn't need evidence for was to know that the activity in which their children were engaging symbolized something their parents found threatening and frightening." Links of interest: http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/impact/myths.html