Communities

Virtual Community A virtual community is a community of people sharing common interests, ideas, and feelings over the Internet or other collaborative networks.The term virtual community is attributed to the book of the same title by Howard Rheingold published in 1993.

The first online community:
The first example, known as The WELL, began with a meeting between Brilliant and Stewart Brand, then editor of the Whole Earth Catalog, an early green-living manual.

Online communities

Community -- from a sociological perspective
we can not see a whole community, we can not touch it, we can not directly experience it, a community may come in one of many shapes, sizes, colours, and locations. a community is not people who are in it. a community usually was already existing when all of its current resident were not yet born, and it will likely continue to exist when all of the people in it  have left. It is something that beyond its component, its members and its residents. a community in some senses may not have a physical location, but be demarcated by a group of people with a common interest.
http://www.scn.org/cmp/whatcom.htm

Iran and Social Networking

Social Networking’s Impact on the Iranian Protest

This event was happened after the Iran’s tenth presidential election 12 June 2009, there are 30,000 to 40,000 people were gathering in Iran city center to protest the election. When the protestation broke out, huge amounts of video picture and text which relate to unsatisfied with the results of election were continuously sprung up online. Citizen takes advantage of the online social networks, like twitter facebook to convey the messages. The government attempted to block network access, and the protesters fought back in kind, crashing government Web sites. It was reported that online sites and blogs were used as the vital tool for this political campaign. 

Twitter Facebook and Flicker
Outside of the country, ordinary people are connection via Twitter, show the support and aid the revolution, setting up proxy IPs and trying to confuse Iranian security services. Facebook, too, provides information, the fan page for "Tehran Bureau," an independent news source, posts regular update and commentary, and allows  others to post thoughts and commentary.Flicker has in the past served as an up-to-the-minute repository for the breaking news images taken by amateur photographers.

Iranian Revolution on Digital Media

sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_presidential_election,_2009
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31409312/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/
http://www.slideshare.net/fredap/social-networking-and-protest-movement-in-iran

What is culture?

Culture, what is it? Given a clear complete definition is always a difficult question. Nearly 200 different definitions exist in academic area so far. The culture itself is an interesting and diverse topic.

EB Taylor an anthropologist from England once mentioned in his book: “culture or civilization which is multiple integrality, include acknowledge, religion, Art, virtue, Law, country convention, and as member of part of the society who hold an ability of learning other things and his behavior to act.” Clyde Kluckhohn, another anthropologist from America said from his book: “people get culture by learning; culture has structure; culture is divided by different aspect; culture is dynamic; culture is changeable and has its own regularity; culture is tool for individual to adapt the environment, is a way to express their creativity.”

For me, I think culture can be distinguished from the what food we eat, what kind of clothes we dress, communication of the language, the TV program we watch in the leisure time, the online instant chat tool we use (MSN, QQ etc.)

Culture defines people identity which makes them unique and different from people of other cultures. Culture is something we learn from our family, college, and society.  Culture is so important because culture is a part of us, and tell others "who we are".

source:
http://www.china.com.cn/xxsb/txt/2004-04/15/content_5545593.htm
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/what-is-culture.html

moral panic and social media

Internet suicide in Japan
Today I am going to talk about the internet suicide in japan, this moral panic beginning with the appearance of online suicide chartroom in japan, a group called ”NEET” is the group of people who chat online and plan to suicide together.

This case first happened in November 22, 2004, Tokyo - Six people have died of carbon monoxide poisoning by burning charcoal stoves in their cars, in the latest of the growing number of suicide pacts in Japan, police said on Monday. Three people -- a 21-year-old university student, a 25-year-old man and a 20-year-old woman with a part-time job -- were found dead in a car in the southern city of Fukuoka on Sunday, police said. The suicide pact was suspected to have been arranged over the Internet as the three came from different parts of Japan.

One month later, Police found seven young people dead in a deserted van outside Tokyo in what was believed to be Japan's biggest-ever group suicide, while also finding two women dead in an apparent suicide pact in a car at a temple. The cases -- involving young people in their teens and 20s -- raised alarm over suicide agreements, many of which are made by people who meet over the Internet.

After these group suicide happened, amount of messages were shown on the online suicide chartroom, the words like “people who want to kill themselves use charcoal stoves and pills, let’s go together” “I can’t do it by myself, I need partner!!!” The procedure of make suicide appointment was very easy. Two people get know the address from each other, one person said:”that’s not a joke, we will commit suicide together.” Then another said:”so when you suppose to do, I am serious.” then they will accompany to carry out their plan.

In the present Japanese society, the incidents causes by the net suicide still continuous happen. The event has been reported through various media, all the newspaper, TV program, radio etc.

The major of research worker from government said:”Japans weak economic growth and a high rate of unemployment can be attributed as the primary reasons behind it.” 


Sources:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2004-10/16/content_2096860.htm
http://news.163.com/05/0207/12/1C0784260001122C.html
http://current.com/138te4c
http://www.newprophecy.net/japansuicide.htm