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 Fundamentals
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Governance |
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Cyberspace Innkeeping: Building Online Community
John Coate and Hilarie Gardner
- Based on years of experience in the 1980s and 1990s as a founding member of the Well, John Coate wrote "Cyberspace Innkeeping: Building Online Community" to gather his thoughts about creating community on-line. In short order, it became and remains one of the cornerstones of on-line sociology. "Innkeeping" addresses the question of how on-line community works, and what tools are appropriate to support and nurture human connection through computers. Hilarie Gardner's appendix "General Advice for the New Online User" concisely and specifically outlines privacy and other considerations crucial to smart on-line life.
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Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet
Michael Hauben and Ronda Hauben
- Michael Hauben, working in collaboration with Rhonda Hauben, examines the concept of "netzien," someone who contributes to the collective and cooperative character and functionality of the 'net. This extensive netbook looks at the history and development of Usenet and the Internet and speculates on the future implications of Net citizenship, concluding with a proposed draft Declaration of the Rights of Netizens.
- A Rape in Cyberspace
Julian Dibbell
- "A Rape in Cyberspace: How an Evil Clown, a Haitian Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database Into a Society" by Julian Dibbell, was first published in _The Village Voice_ at the end of 1993. As the title indicates, Dibbell's piece analyzes the effects that a virtual rape had on the LambdaMOO community. The piece delves in to specific and well-written detail about the particulars of the actions that were construed as rape, and the community's subsequent reaction. In so doing, he teases out some of the more subtle challenges that a virtual community faces, such as the need for government and decision-making, the problems that are when people use terms that mean a distinct thing (i.e. rape) and apply them to the cyberspace realm and, ultimately, the necessary task of delineating the self (where does the mind stop and the body begin?)
Dibbell eloquently points out how the reality of a MOO exists in the gap between "real life" and cyberspace; "A Rape in Cyberspace" is a good read and a useful case study in managing virtual community conflict. As an interesting follow-up, check out Dibbell's "My Dinner With Catherine MacKinnon And Other Hazards of Theorizing Virtual Rape".
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hduggan said:
One thing about the power divide is that it is created
from both sides at once--powerfulness is created by
powerlessness is created by powerfulness. You can tear
down the divide from either side by simply failing to
assume the role. Not fighting it against, but seeing
your way around it. Seeing your own power in the larger
scheme of things. Seeing this place as a piece of your
context, rather then the other way round.
Join the conversation!
Most Active Topics:
Topic 37 Problems of Conflict Management in Virtual Communities
Topic 43 Mine is a culture of conflicts
Topic 5 Books On Cyberspace -- The Good, The Bad, The Incredible
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