The Internet + Online Communities

Tute 6: The Internet and Online Communities

Hi Everyone!

For this post I will be looking at online communities. The community I have chosen is spinchat.com.

The focus of the community
"All about spinchat.com
spinchat.com is an extensive online community with thousands of men and women you can get to know. Here you can create your personal homepage with a free blog, guest book, photos and much more. Registration only takes five minutes and then you can start blogging, chatting and discussing immediately. Furthermore, we offer a big chat and many online games such as chess, backgammon and our chat games, for instance, our popular quiz chat.
You can chat immediately for free with many thousands of other people, no matter whether you are looking for a flirt chat or a general chat, if you are trying to find a partner, or if you are just bored, or if you want to meet people for serious discussions - you will always find nice people in our many chat rooms. Take part in our huge discussion board.
Since 1996, we have been trying to provide you with a good online community and chat. This makes us one of the oldest online communities on the internet."


What services are provided? How interactive is the site? How can people contribute?

- Find new friends
In our cosy online meeting point with many boards and great chats
-Free homepage
Create your free homepage with photos, guestbook and blog.
- Play together
Play chess, backgammon, Tetrinet and many other games. Exchange virtual gifts.
- Many extras
Groups, event calendars with party pictures, photo voting and much more.

Anyone can join up an contribute in any of the above ways, the site appears very interactive.

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 would choose to contribute to an online community such as spinchat.com as it provides an outlet for discussion, socialising and ways to meet interetsing people who enjoy the same interests as them. People can feel like they belong to a specific group and can relate to a range of people without the pressure of actually meeting them. This could be an incentive for people to join the community. Some also go on the community to play the games with friends, share their life stories and photos and singles go on to look for love too!

An example of the topics being discussed includes:

Announcements, Books, Chatrooms, Computers and Technology, Cooking, Food & Drink, Discuss, Entertainment, Features / Bug Reports ..., Funny Things, Games, Internal, Music, Off-Topic, Poems, Politics / Society / Religion, Singles or Searching Chat Friends, Sports, VIP Board

(go to http://www.spinchat.com/topics/ to see more).


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 potential ethical issues that may arise in this online community is that as it is so open and accessible, anyone can write anything about anyone -- this could lead to revealing personal information about others and the ability to bully people online without consequences. A person could post really offensive things in a discussion board and not be held accountable as it is simply a user-name they will using.

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

The benefits of this community is that people can relate and discuss with other people all around the world - in which they would normally have no access to very easily. This factor can be quiet benefical as it would mean increasing knowledge in specific areas, finding out about different cultures and finding out more about the world. It aids friends and families to share more information with each other (i.e. photos, stories) on a more regular basis even if they are geographically quite separate. It opens up a whole lot more opportunities for people to experience things with others that in the past was not possible due to distance.

Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment what this community lacks or can not provide which traditional communities can.

Things in which this online community lacks in relation to traditional communities include...

Information Technology and Ethical Issues

Hi everyone!

This second post is for educational purposes around the area of IT and what I have learnt so far from the first tutorial from Participation in Occupation 1.
We first explored the areas of Information Technology, and informed consent in relation to information capture, transfer and distribution via technology. We next looked at ethical issues related to infomation manipulation and presentation via technologial sources.
Lastly we looked at the implications of Information Technology to Occupational Therapy.

I needed to discuss the following questions in this post:

1. Provide a definition of Information Technology/Information Communications Technology (APA reference required):

'Information technology (IT), n. The production storage and communication of information using computers and microelectronics.

Hanks, P. (ed). (1989) Collins Concise Dictionary. Glasgow: Bath Press

2. Consider the definition of IT you have provided. How is this form of technology prevalent in our society? How common place has it become?

This form of techology has become extremely common in society today, within New Zealand and worldly contexts. Most people worldwide either own a computer themselves, or at least have some access to one. Houses often have more than one computer inside. Forms of IT (e.g. blogging, social connections - facebook, myspace and sharing photos e.g. flickr is becoming growingly common and used by a significant proportion of people. Computers/electronics can be considered rather dominating as we use them in a variety of everyday situations from calculators to shop assistant tills to advanced gaming consoles.

3. What IT devices or systems do you feel comfortable and competent using?

Computers, my laptop, cellphones, digital cameras, household appliances, gaming consoles (DS, PSP, PS1, 2 & 3, Xbox 360...)

4. Thinking about your own feildwork experiences consider how IT is beng used in Occupational Therapy Practice?

Computers were used for forms for equipment requests, client data, assessment and other databases used for Occupational Therapy purposes. Security systems were operated using computers to ensued the secured unit satyed locked, and could be checked via the screens who was entering/leaving the building.

5. What ethical implications arise from the capturing, sharing and transferring of information via IT devices (e.g. mobile phones) or systems (e.g. internet)?

People can share personal information and photos of people they know. People can meet people they do not know in person via social connectings sites e.g. myspace and form relationships with them not fully knwoing who they are and how old they may be. With mobile phones people can take pictures of people in everyday areas, and put them online within minutes of taking the photo which can be damaging and an invasion of privacy.

6. Provide a definition of Computer Ethics (APA required):

'Computer ethics is a branch of practical philosophy which deals with how computing professionals should make desicsions regarding professional and social conduct.'

Retrieved Wednesday March 3rd, 2010, from www. wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_ethics

7. Provide a definition of Intellectual Property (APA references required):

'Intellectual property (IP) is a term referring to a number of distinct types of legal monopolies over creations of the mind, both artistic and commercial, and the corresponding fields of law.^[1] Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. Common types of intellectual property include copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights and trade secrets in some jurisdictions.

Retrieved Wednesday March 3rd, 2010, from www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property

8. Provide a definition of Social Justice (APA references required):

'Social justice is also a concept that some use to describe the movement towards a socially just world. In this context, social justice is based on the concepts of human rights and equality.'

Retrieved Wednesday 3rd March, 2010, from www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_justice

9. Provide a definition of Informed Consent (APA required):

'Informed consent is a phrase often used in the law to indicate that the consent a person gives meets certain minimum standards. As a literal matter, in the absence of fraud, it is redundant. An informed consent can be said to have been given based upon a clear appreciation and understanding of the facts, implications, and future consequences of an action. In order to give informed consent, the individual concerned must have adequate reasoning faculties and be in possession of all relevant facts at the time consent is given.'

Retrieved Wednesday, 3^rd March, 2010, from www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informed_consent

10. In your own words briefly summarize why (or why not) a great understanding of ITC and the ethical issues it encompasses will help us in our practice and daily lives:

I believe that having a great understanding of the ethical issues around using ITC and ITC in general is a very vital thing to have. It can help not only us to know, but clients to be passed on our knowldge of these things in order to use computers and other devices to their full and intended purpose and potential. I believe that like most things in life there is a good side and a bad side, and computers are not without however despite the fact there is negative components overall the positive aspects of using computers and ITC outway the bad and we should not dismiss them because of it as it would be a loss to do so.

So that comes to the end of my second posting. My next post will cover what we did in Tute 2, and the questions I will need to address in it. Thank-you for reading!

Steph