I am a part of many communities. I'm a part of online communities, professional communities, and personal communities.
My online communities consist of MySpace and Weight Watchers. These are digital support systems for me and ways to stay in touch with friends and family. I would not mind anyone researching my interaction with these members on either community. In fact, it would be hard to prohibit someone from studying MySpace, unless I blocked their access. On Weight Watchers, I would be comfortable with being studied because I am provided anonymity via a screen name.
My professional communities are made up of various companies I've worked for and the professionals within them. I would welcome someone trying to study the group dynamics. I often find myself to be the youngest person in meetings, discussions, and decision making groups. It would be interesting for someone to conduct a study on how well this relationship does or does not always work based on age and gender differences.
Personally, I am a part of a running community, a biking community, and the Harbour Gates community (my apartment complex). I particularly enjoy my Harbour Gates community because it is made up of many different types of people. Again, it would be interesting for this community to be a research focus because there are many types of people here I interact with on a daily basis. There's the wonderful maintenance man next door, a quiet couple across the hall, a dear 80-year old couple a short walk away, a trumpet player below me, and a 5-person family above me. I would be comfortable allowing someone to study this community because I think it is an eclectic community that works well together.
In general, I would not mind my communities being studied so long as the group dynamics were not altered.
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2 comments:
I think the key is you wouldn't mind if the dynamics weren't taken out of context. What if they were?
Becky, that is a reallly interesting question. If the dynamics were changed or phrases deliberately provided a new context, then I would be against having a researcher study my site. I participate in sites because I enjoy them and the moment the joy gets taken away, I would no longer want to participate.
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