CASE STUDY A: MySpace, a Virtual Community
Introduction
I chose to study MySpace because it is the virtual community I use most often; however I have never examined it from the perspectives we are gaining through the readings and discussions of this course. I have used MySpace to stay connected with distant friends and to reconnect with old High School friends. I routinely post comments, send messages (which are more private as the comments are visible to anyone on the individual’s friend list), upload photos of my family and our activities, and update my status so friends can see what is currently going on in my life.
Analysis of the Community
MySpace is a social community site which offers users a completely customizable profile page. On this page, photo slideshows and music players can be created, backgrounds and fonts can be changed, users can share their music, literary, and cinema interests, and store photo albums. The profile page contains a blog feature and a comment wall, along with applications too numerous to mention from bulletin boards to daily bible verses.
Users may set their profiles as private or leave them open to the community at large. Private profiles cannot be viewed until the owner approves a friend request. This is an added safety feature that allows users to more freely post private information and photos; thus increasing activity and membership. While I am often hesitant to upload photos of my children to other websites, we have a family photo album slideshow as well as themed slideshows on MySpace to share our lives and the growth of my girls with distant friends. In turn, I am able to watch my friends’ children grow and change and read about their development in their blogs. Several of my friends have decreased their use of email since we have all been on MySpace and can leave comments and send messages within this community.
Users are also able to search for friends by entering school sites (both public schools and universities) to search existing profiles and scan new members. Another search tool allows participants to search music sites to learn more about musicians and add them to a friends list. In this instance, the participant regularly receives updates about the musician through the new blog updates and bulletin space on the user’s home page.
While I have been a member of the MySpace community, improvements to the system, new functions and applications are consistently made in response to the needs of the community. For instance, when I first joined, members could only have one song on their profile page, but an upgrade was made so members can create a song list that plays continuously.
Conclusion and Implications
MySpace continues to be a force in virtual social communities because of responses to the needs of members and the security of the profile pages. Varied methods of searching for friends and lists of recently added profiles allows users to continue to build friend lists, contacts, and activity levels on the site. The membership shows consistent growth and high levels of participation.
CASE STUDY B: Ning in Education, a Virtual Learning Community
Introduction
I visited the Ning website (http://www.ning.com/). Ning is a site that allows individuals to create their own social networking site for anything. There are Nings for truck drivers, new media job hires, and subsets of religious groups to name a few. I soon found a Ning expressly for educators. The site is Ning in Education (http://education.ning.com/). This is a community of people who are exploring the uses of Nings in Education (NE). I created a profile page for myself, customizing my page to reflect my personality a bit, then dove into the forums seeking answers to the question, “How can I use Nings to enhance my online courses?” In my search, I found a useful thread with several links to offsite information. I also replied to the thread hoping to get further information about how people have used Nings specifically for college courses.
Analysis of the Community
NE is a practice-based learning community. Its members all share the same profession and join voluntarily. Mentoring and apprenticeship behaviors occur as members pose questions in the discussion forum and contribute to the shared group knowledge by posting prior experiences, pedagogical ideals, and suggestions for practice. While any member can set his or her participation level as desired, there do not seem to be identified leaders in the community, such as forum managers, etc.
The site contains a main menu containing the following choices:
Main – This choice takes the member to the main page of the group where he or she will see the latest forum and blog posts along with information on new members.
Invite – This selection allows a participant to invite a colleague into the community.
My Page – The “My Page” button displays the group member’s personal page which contains the member’s latest activity within the Ning, profile information, and a comment wall where other members can leave messages.
Members – This is a directory of members with profile information along with any photos or videos each member has uploaded to the community.
Forum – The forum functions as the discussion board for the community.
Groups – Within NE, members can form subgroups based on shared interest. These groups are listed here.
Blogs – Each member has a NE blog. Unfortunately, the site does not allow a member to connect an existing blog here.
Ning Help – This is a help area with frequently asked questions.
While I was initially excited about the possibilities of a Ning, I noticed that the forums were not especially busy. Posts that were a month old only had two to three replies. As I continued my exploration, I found and requested to join group within NE specifically for college instructors; however, I have not received a confirmation of the acceptance. Since several days have past, I assume this is not an active group.
Within the group forum, a discussion thread exists for users to request new features. Some users are asking for statistical tools that D2L and Blackboard currently have, showing student user’s data and grade book options to name a few. These are useful suggestions if Nings are to be used for educational purposes; however, I did not see a reply from a Ning administrator, only various professionals voicing their wish list of new features. I wondered if this thread was monitored by a site leader who could pass along the requested upgrades. It seemed to only add fuel to the fire, so to speak, to open the thread without monitoring and responding to the requests.
After clicking on the tab for blogs and reading through several pages of blog posts, I found many advertisements for political ideals, fad diets, etc. that were listed as blog posts. I wondered what kind of security measures are available to make a Ning closed to advertising, but later read that educational groups could get ad free sites or users could pay for an upgrade to an ad free Ning.
Conclusion and Implications
The features of the site are comparable to MySpace or Facebook, but on a professional level, allowing more constraints on the shared knowledge and interests of the community members. While the site allows the user to customize a personal page with design features and photo uploads, allowing users to create an online identity, it does not address user suggestions and concerns. Without the personal attention to these aspects, the community participation has decreased and the site is not being utilized to its full potential.
Perhaps removing unwanted advertising in the forums and promoting the most active members to thread administrators would encourage active participation. With thread administrators, threads are monitored more closely and posts receive a greater number of replies as the administrator leads and directs the discussion. Knowing the importance of consistent assessment and meeting the needs of group members, I do not believe this particular Ning will continue to grow and retain active membership.
Introduction
I chose to study MySpace because it is the virtual community I use most often; however I have never examined it from the perspectives we are gaining through the readings and discussions of this course. I have used MySpace to stay connected with distant friends and to reconnect with old High School friends. I routinely post comments, send messages (which are more private as the comments are visible to anyone on the individual’s friend list), upload photos of my family and our activities, and update my status so friends can see what is currently going on in my life.
Analysis of the Community
MySpace is a social community site which offers users a completely customizable profile page. On this page, photo slideshows and music players can be created, backgrounds and fonts can be changed, users can share their music, literary, and cinema interests, and store photo albums. The profile page contains a blog feature and a comment wall, along with applications too numerous to mention from bulletin boards to daily bible verses.
Users may set their profiles as private or leave them open to the community at large. Private profiles cannot be viewed until the owner approves a friend request. This is an added safety feature that allows users to more freely post private information and photos; thus increasing activity and membership. While I am often hesitant to upload photos of my children to other websites, we have a family photo album slideshow as well as themed slideshows on MySpace to share our lives and the growth of my girls with distant friends. In turn, I am able to watch my friends’ children grow and change and read about their development in their blogs. Several of my friends have decreased their use of email since we have all been on MySpace and can leave comments and send messages within this community.
Users are also able to search for friends by entering school sites (both public schools and universities) to search existing profiles and scan new members. Another search tool allows participants to search music sites to learn more about musicians and add them to a friends list. In this instance, the participant regularly receives updates about the musician through the new blog updates and bulletin space on the user’s home page.
While I have been a member of the MySpace community, improvements to the system, new functions and applications are consistently made in response to the needs of the community. For instance, when I first joined, members could only have one song on their profile page, but an upgrade was made so members can create a song list that plays continuously.
Conclusion and Implications
MySpace continues to be a force in virtual social communities because of responses to the needs of members and the security of the profile pages. Varied methods of searching for friends and lists of recently added profiles allows users to continue to build friend lists, contacts, and activity levels on the site. The membership shows consistent growth and high levels of participation.
CASE STUDY B: Ning in Education, a Virtual Learning Community
Introduction
I visited the Ning website (http://www.ning.com/). Ning is a site that allows individuals to create their own social networking site for anything. There are Nings for truck drivers, new media job hires, and subsets of religious groups to name a few. I soon found a Ning expressly for educators. The site is Ning in Education (http://education.ning.com/). This is a community of people who are exploring the uses of Nings in Education (NE). I created a profile page for myself, customizing my page to reflect my personality a bit, then dove into the forums seeking answers to the question, “How can I use Nings to enhance my online courses?” In my search, I found a useful thread with several links to offsite information. I also replied to the thread hoping to get further information about how people have used Nings specifically for college courses.
Analysis of the Community
NE is a practice-based learning community. Its members all share the same profession and join voluntarily. Mentoring and apprenticeship behaviors occur as members pose questions in the discussion forum and contribute to the shared group knowledge by posting prior experiences, pedagogical ideals, and suggestions for practice. While any member can set his or her participation level as desired, there do not seem to be identified leaders in the community, such as forum managers, etc.
The site contains a main menu containing the following choices:
Main – This choice takes the member to the main page of the group where he or she will see the latest forum and blog posts along with information on new members.
Invite – This selection allows a participant to invite a colleague into the community.
My Page – The “My Page” button displays the group member’s personal page which contains the member’s latest activity within the Ning, profile information, and a comment wall where other members can leave messages.
Members – This is a directory of members with profile information along with any photos or videos each member has uploaded to the community.
Forum – The forum functions as the discussion board for the community.
Groups – Within NE, members can form subgroups based on shared interest. These groups are listed here.
Blogs – Each member has a NE blog. Unfortunately, the site does not allow a member to connect an existing blog here.
Ning Help – This is a help area with frequently asked questions.
While I was initially excited about the possibilities of a Ning, I noticed that the forums were not especially busy. Posts that were a month old only had two to three replies. As I continued my exploration, I found and requested to join group within NE specifically for college instructors; however, I have not received a confirmation of the acceptance. Since several days have past, I assume this is not an active group.
Within the group forum, a discussion thread exists for users to request new features. Some users are asking for statistical tools that D2L and Blackboard currently have, showing student user’s data and grade book options to name a few. These are useful suggestions if Nings are to be used for educational purposes; however, I did not see a reply from a Ning administrator, only various professionals voicing their wish list of new features. I wondered if this thread was monitored by a site leader who could pass along the requested upgrades. It seemed to only add fuel to the fire, so to speak, to open the thread without monitoring and responding to the requests.
After clicking on the tab for blogs and reading through several pages of blog posts, I found many advertisements for political ideals, fad diets, etc. that were listed as blog posts. I wondered what kind of security measures are available to make a Ning closed to advertising, but later read that educational groups could get ad free sites or users could pay for an upgrade to an ad free Ning.
Conclusion and Implications
The features of the site are comparable to MySpace or Facebook, but on a professional level, allowing more constraints on the shared knowledge and interests of the community members. While the site allows the user to customize a personal page with design features and photo uploads, allowing users to create an online identity, it does not address user suggestions and concerns. Without the personal attention to these aspects, the community participation has decreased and the site is not being utilized to its full potential.
Perhaps removing unwanted advertising in the forums and promoting the most active members to thread administrators would encourage active participation. With thread administrators, threads are monitored more closely and posts receive a greater number of replies as the administrator leads and directs the discussion. Knowing the importance of consistent assessment and meeting the needs of group members, I do not believe this particular Ning will continue to grow and retain active membership.
Stephanie, do you think having a passive "interaction" as in a lurker, is a valuable experience. Consider a round table discussion, the participant who just sits and listens doesn't get as much out of the discussion as someone who speaks and discusses. You made some very salient points, I particularly liked the eight points you made. Thanks! Linda
ReplyDeleteStephanie,
ReplyDeleteYou seem to be very knowledgable in this area. I enjoyed reading about MySpace and Ning. I have refused to let my daughter have a MySpace, but after reading your posting about how it works and security, I may reconsider. What are the major differences you see between MySpace and Facebook? Just curious? Tomi
Linda,
ReplyDeleteI think lurkers still learn through the internet, but it is more akin to traditional classroom learning...sitting and listening passively to a lecture rather than the active learning that is part of best practices. Having said this, I am often a lurker! /blush/
Tomi,
MySpace is more customizable. You can make a page really cute and I think there are more apps...but I haven't played around on Facebook much, so I could be off. My MySpace is more like a scrapbook page to me...a billboard to tell people who I am. My Facebook (so far) is more generic because I'm not sure if you can change the background and fonts, add photo slide shows, etc. Maybe someone with more Facebook experience will chime in.