Since I want to get my blog posted before class begins, I think I will start with Rheingold’s article, The Virtual Community.

In the opening pages of the Rheingold article, Rheingold discusses the virtual community he belongs to, WELL, as being grounded in real life. However, it is in fact more so, since he meets the people he interacts with online in real situations. Much of the research I have been conducting over the past couple of years has been grounded in building virtual community at CGU. Since many users already have interactions around the campus, this too would be a hybrid model where the online environment (Claremont Conversation Online) fosters greater face-to-face and virtual collaboration.

Like many social applications today, Facebook is looking to bridge this gap between the physical and virtual. When a user logs into Facebook, they can immediately set their status “What are you doing right now” to be whatever the user wants. Some users put something provocative that represents neither a virtual nor physical state such as “Brian is contemplating the Big Bang”, while others place themselves in an actual physical setting, “Brian is hanging out at Star Bucks.”

Over the past couple of years I have encountered a lot of creative research into this phenomenon. One of the cooler projects is being done @ NJIT where 500 (I think) students are outfitted with RFID. When they start up their mobile applications (i.e. social networking tools), their status is updated immediately. Although I’m not exactly sure if it’s the wave of the future, I am definitely interested in finding out more about the project and how students ‘TAM’ with the idea. In any case, it beats another Second Life study.

Lastly, as an interesting fact, according to Wikipedia  Craig Newmark started his original Craigslist mailings through WELL.