Are attendees at a sporting event a community?

Wesley and Glenn's Lecturette - How to Create an MP3

So, here is our video tutorial explaining how to create an MP3. The actual presentation will be in class on Wednesday, September 23. This is JUST to be used as a reference for everyone else.

"Tech Tower." Photo. gatech.universityvisitorsnetwork.com. 21 Sep. 2009.

Is the Internet destroying real life (RL) communities?

There are two main arguments for whether or not the internet is destroying real life communities or not. One argument would be that the internet is creating a substitute for real life communities, which is in turn hurting real life communities in that one may stay at home and communicate with others they may or may not know without them physically being in the same presence as one another. This can be seen as a social or unsocial event depending on how one views internet conversations, but it can be agreed that the time spent by people on the internet can seriously affect the way they interact with the outside world and the amount of time they spend out in public with others.

There is no real comparison for the amount of time people spend online as opposed to being out. In many cases this is age related as many younger teens are unable to get out and about because they are not old enough to drive. In this way, many of their lives may actually center on the internet and online relationships with school friends and others. For others who find it difficult to make real life connections with others, the internet is good outlet for meeting others due highly to the anonymity the internet creates.

Others believe that the internet can be used to augment real life communities and interactions. For example, many people work online or get educations online and this prepares them to enter the workforce or to work from home. This way of doing things allows one to contribute to the community through making money from one’s home with which they can contribute to the community economically. Many people also meet others via online relationships which turn into real life relationships. These are ways in which the internet is contributing to real life communities.

Is the online group you are regularly participating in a community?

The online group I regularly participate in, the Ultimate Guitar discussion forum, is a community. Ultimate Guitar is a website that features sheet music for electric, acoustic, and bass guitar and also has reviews for guitars, amplifiers, and guitar oriented music. Part of the Ultimate Guitar website is their forum which features discussion of different genres of music, instruments, and a chat room known as “The Pit”. Most of the conversations that happen on Ultimate Guitar come from The Pit because it is open ended discussion forum with no specific subject other than what the users deem to post.
While all people visiting the site share a common interest, playing guitar, many do not contribute in ways that are associated with or that relate to topics about the guitar. In fact, as mentioned earlier, most discussion that happens on the forums are related to things such as politics, sex, and current events. Going back to the discussion over whether this is a community or not, the site has regular users and moderators who monitor and censor them. This is one way in which the website is like a community. The moderators, or leaders, are tasked with keeping the forum a safe place and can also serve as a way to keep the discussions flowing by locking out and keeping the same topic from being posted many times over.
The reason why this online group should be considered a community is that while its original focus was on music and guitar education, which it still tailors to in a lessened format, it has really evolved on its own into a place where free discussion is welcome. Everyone who uses the forums is contributing to at least a few of the conversations. Some may contribute more than others and will be eventually granted the title of moderator and some users may become inactive after a certain amount of time. This is similar to real life in which some people do more and are rewarded and where some people just faze out and die.