http://www.facebook.com also known as Facebook.
What is the brief or focus of this community?
The focus of this community is to share and stay connected with friends, new and old. You have control over how much you share with other Facebook users.
What services are provided? How interactive is this site? How can people contribute?
Facebook allows you to share your thoughts with friends, like a blog, on your own personalized home page. Like blogger you can have a profile picture and have up to date personal information that your friends can access. You can also communicate with friends by writing on their personal blog. Your information and blog page can be as private or public as you wish- you can set your privacy settings so that only people you have approved as your "friend" can see all of your information. On your Facebook page you can upload photos, videos and links to share with your friends. There is also a 'chat' and 'message' service where you can instantaneously chat with friends who are on Facebook at the same time as you, or message them privately like you would an email. Facebook now has a mobile phone application so you can do all of the above while on the run or when unable to access a computer. Games or 'applications' can also be used on the interactive site.
Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment on why people choose to contribute to this community. What is it they are seeking?
To keep in contact with others in the most efficient, non-time consuming way possible.
Cut and paste an example of the type of topics being discussed
can everyone help me settle a dispute in our flat? who is hotter, Heidi Klum or Rachel Hunter?? much appreciated :)
Considering material presented during the course and make comment on the potential ethical issues that may arise in this community
Facebook uses advertisement to create revenue for the developers as it is free to join. This has created spam advertisement, and users are susceptible to scams and viruses.
Confidentiality & Identity theft is a huge issue with social networking sites such as Facebook. As the default privacy setting is open to everyone, if you do not change this then anyone has access to all of the information you share on your page including occupation, hobbies, photos, where you live, even your phone numbers (depending on how much you share).
People can also take photos that you display on Facebook and 'steal' them, claiming them as their own work or even manipulate them. It is also common for employers to search for their potential employees on Facebook, giving them a personal view on the person where they can see the types of relationships/social behavior etc via photographs on the employees page.
There is also the risk of people stalking you on Facebook, which can lead to more serious concerns such as cyber bullying, child abuse, rape & theft.
Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment on the benefits this community holds over traditional notions of community
Facebook fosters an online community, creating links and connections with people that you may otherwise not communicate or be in contact with. Facebook breaks down the geographical barrier that separates us from some friends & family making it easier to stay in touch. It is a convenient way to communicate as it can be done from the comfort of your home, at work, school or even on a mobile phone. There is no fee to join Facebook and therefore there are no big phone bills at the end of the month, as there would if you called someone to keep in contact. The only disadvantage I see to Facebook is the fact that the face to face communication is lost, and your community becomes slightly isolated. I think the next generation will lose important communication skills due to this.
Consider materials presented in this lecture and make comment what this community lacks or can not provide which traditional communities can
I have kind of answered this above, Facebook lacks the face to face communication that a traditional community provides. Some sort of programme similar to 'Skype' (a video conference programme requiring a webcam so you can see and talk to another person with the programme and vice versa) would be a good addition to Facebook.
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