Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Comment #1: Social Communities will not Fail

I've just commeneted on Spike's Blog, 'Why Social Communities will Fail'. Here is the URL:

http://brainsonfire.com/blog/2008/04/15/why-social-communities-will-fail/#comment-160243

and this is my comment:

Hey Spike, you prove an interesting point about that the whole offline vs. online community theory, suggesting that ‘community’ is surely based on physical interactivity between individuals. I do agree that the whole face-to-face and shaking hands concept has much more of a social feeling rather than communicating to people behind a computer screen. Offline communities are more traditional and are definitely more active (due to physical interactivity). However, why is it that people will continue to actively engage in connecting in the online community? The answer is simple Spike, humans can overcome physical challenges in the online world. The online community does not have any physical challenges, people can actively engage with one-another despite the long range of distance or the significant difference in demographics. For example, people can easily discuss reviews of movies in the comfort zone of their own chair, rather than having to deal with driving to a certain place, interacting with people that may find them social unacceptable and having to deal with basic human needs (e.g. food). And what does this mean in the long run? More users of who participate in online communities will surely increase the accumulated knowledge of certain topics thanks to more shared understandings.

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