Provide the web address and the name of the community you are investigating
www.orkut.com
What is the brief or focus of this community
To connect with people around the world and share their photos, videos, own updates, add or create communities and put up posts called “scraps”.
What services are provided? How interactive is this site? How can people contribute?
Some of the services are mentioned above but on top of that, Orkut allows users to add links from different sites to put up fancy words, pictures, slideshows and videos, countdown timers, birthday wishers etc. People contribute by sharing inviting friends to join, sharing useful links and information, encouraging others, creating communities where people with similar interests or those from the place etc can meet together.
Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment on why people choose to contribute to this community. What is it they are seeking?
People who in this community are there for all sorts of reasons ranging from connecting with old friends, meeting new people to sharing their ideas, beliefs etc. Here anticipated reciprocity is evident where people expect to get a reply to their posts. People also have increased recognition and an increased self-efficacy from old friends and new ones or people they are not yet friends with when they share their views, photos etc. Members of Orkut share a sense of community as well as they belong to this particular blog site.
Cut and paste an example of the type of topics being discussed (you may have to provide a context to your excerpt).
Just catching up with a friend on Orkut after an online chatting session on Gmail.
Tutorial Six: The internet and online communities
Considering material presented during the course and make comment on the potential ethical issues that may arise in this community e.g. lack of identity and accountability.
The posts shared on Orkut are very casual and not credible. Anyone who has an orkut account can have access to photos and videos of people but one can choose to make their photos, videos and posts private to those who are not in their friends list. These information that is accessible to everybody could be misused as they can be downloaded or copied on to anybody’s computer. Another dilemma that is increasing is the number of hackers on the internet. If an account is hacked, their profiles can be destroyed and their personal information revealed. They could also get access to the computer they use. Publishing personal information is dangerous as stalkers are also on the rise. One has to be legally over eighteen but one could easily put in the wrong date of birth to join in.
Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment on the benefits this community holds over traditional notions of community e.g. communities reliant on geographic proximity
Communities are of geographical, cultural, organisational or nested (contain other communities within). Orkut is a huge online community that allows everybody to join. It contains nested communities within to group people with similar interests etc which is the notion of traditional communities mentioned above.
Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment what this community lacks or can not provide which traditional communities can.
Orkut covers the notion of people connecting with others from their own geographical area, culture and organisations and societies but this is limited to those who have access to the internet.
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