As someone involved in a few projects both virtual and in the digital community, many of the folk that i meet and that 'come along' to the things myself and others create, also 'belong' to other types of communities like a 'church' or 'cell group'. There is a sense that some folk identify or belong to a whole range of things. So can we say that people own it in the its 'MY' Church sense? or are people saying i dip in here and i dip in there to get what i want? Do we need to have a more flexible and lose understanding of what the phrase 'belong' means? New technology offers us more scope and problems to create things that people can engage with and that they belong to.
One of the problems with the digital world is that you can find yourself only being exposed to like minded blogs or websites where you come into contact with things that you agree with rather than on things that may stretch or challenge your perceptions. So whatever Digital communities we engage with they need to find a balance... and that's a tough call.
One of the problems with the digital world is that you can find yourself only being exposed to like minded blogs or websites where you come into contact with things that you agree with rather than on things that may stretch or challenge your perceptions. So whatever Digital communities we engage with they need to find a balance... and that's a tough call.
I'm also involved in a project that hasn't 'gone live' yet on Facebook, we are calling it FacebookNE (NE - North East) - watch this space! One of the conversations we are having about this is - is it enough to just 'meet on line' or as a digital community? Our thinking on this is in its early stages, but we feel there is a few small physical groups that meet (Sunday@thepub) and others, that are doing some things around the themes that Simon raises in the behave, belong believe idea that he poses in his post. Maybe there is an opportunity to not just create a digital place for folk to meet, so they sign up and become a follower or they join a Facebook group or whatever. But maybe there will be opportunities for a face to face meeting. So a digital community decide every now and again to meet up and 'do' something. There needs to be more reflection on this, but the kind of idea we had was to meet around a campaign and worship.
So do Digital communities need to still be based around geographical areas to allow for potential face to face gatherings?
Wow... two posts in a week... whats happening!
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