Class 11: Building Communities with Hypertext

Held Tuesday, September 28, 1999

Summary

• Experiment/demonstration: MOOving around
• Central issue: How do the Internet and hypertext create and affect community?
  • What is a community?
  • What types of communities are there?
  • Can hypertext help build communities?
• Readings
  • The Internet Paradox.
  • Carlstrom, Eva-Lise (12 May 1992). ``Better Living Through Language.'' Senior Thesis, Grinnell College.
  • Curtis, Pavel (1992). ``Mudding: Social Phenomena in Text-Based Virtual Realities.'' From Proceedings of the 1992 Conference on Directions and Implications of Advanced Computing (DIAC).
  • Dibbell, Julian (December 21, 1993). ``A Rape in Cyberspace.'' The Village Voice, 36-42. Warning! The last reading contains some fairly offensive material. If you would prefer not to read or discuss it, please let me know. (If anyone prefers not to read or discuss it, then we won't discuss it.)

Handouts

• Daily handout:
  • Outline of class 11
  • Assignments:
    • Explore cultural webs and chats
    • ``Pictures of Us''
• Palattella, J. (1998). ``Pictures of Us.'' Lingua Franca, 8, 5.

Notes

• On Friday at noon in Science 2413, Rich Salter of Oberlin will be talking about ``History Mechanisms'' and ``Trails'' in educational hypertexts. I encourage you to come.
• Once again, I was sorry to see so few of you at the convocation talk. These talks are particularly valuable, and it would be good to see more of you there.
• You don't need to come up with any questions for Thursday's reading.
• Don't forget that your drafts are due on Thursday.
• We won't do anything with Williams today, but will consider him again on Thursday.

MOOving Around

I thought it might be interesting to start class by visiting a MOO (probably LambdaMOO). I'll admit that the first time that I used a MOO was Monday, so I'm no expert, but we might try anyway. Otherwise, we'll just spend more time on discussion.

Discussion

Today, Rebecca and I thought we might discuss the impact of hypertext, the Web, and the Internet on communities. How do these technologies support new communities or affect existing communities? Today we will begin by considering types of electronic communities. We will continue this discussion on Thursday.

Types of Online Communities

• Web sites. Often emphasize collection of resources.
• Chat rooms. Synchronous chat.
• Bulletin boards. Asynchronous chats.
• MUDs and MOOs. Primarily synchronous virtual realities. Often textual.

Questions on the Readings

Your message headers suggested some fairly negative reactions to the readings. I'm sorry to hear that, and I look forward to some more discussion as to why the reactions were so negative.

Questions from: Adam, Ellen, Jake, Kevin, Marti, Sean

• How does greater use of electronic mail associate with depression?
• How does one walk from one room to another in a 'mansion'?
• Getting right at the heart of the text: are MUD's and MOO's hypertext? Are they merely chat-based games? Are they a combination of the above?
• The World Wide Web allows for communication with people and systems all over the world. If interaction with other emotional beings contributes to our mental and physical health then why do people become more depressed and introverted with increased online time?
• The APA article claims that increased Internet social activity generally tends to cause depression and withdrawal from the social environment. I, however, have spent over three years involved in the Internet in some way, and I have found that Internet activity actually qualifies as social activity. Why do I say this? Several of my best friends have been people thousands of miles away, and, in fact, my fiancee found me online and things developed from there. (this person is not one of those who lived thousands of miles away) I have found that Internet social activity is a valid form of social activity and should be treated as such; however, I am curious as to what the rest of the class feels on this matter.
• I do not see online alter-worlds as a hypertext. I see these ``simulives'' as a reflection, or perhaps a refraction, of real world life. These are real people having real thoughts interacting in a fully real way exept that its not 'real'. Their thoughts and conversations (the base of this existence), just as in real life, are connected, associated, related, interacting, reflecting, contradicting, affecting, and otherwise interrelating. Perhaps if we look at society and human interaction itself as a form of hypertext then these online alter-egos and simulated worlds are simply a small sub-web of the great interconnected hypertextual existence that is humanity. I see online alter-worlds as a hypertext.
• The ``Internet Paradox'' experiment only applies to several varied households in Pittsburgh. What happens when households in small towns, farms, other cities, etc. are studied?
• If participating in a vulgar online conversation bothers you, then why do it?
• Does participating in a Mud conversation sound pointless, boring, and annoying to anybody else, or is it just me?
• If lambda or the others who were raped needed counseling, should they seek it in RL or VR? Could something like that that occurred in VR be understood in RL terms, especially by someone who has never been in VR?
• Although some may feel more connected through VR than through RL, what does this say about the lack of interactions and truth in our society?
• Does the development of a governing body have implications that anarchism can't really exist? (It can exist until something outrages the participants?)
• Are people who are already depressed and/or lonely more likely to seek weak friendship on the Internet?
• Have any studies been done on the affects of Internet use in the office? i.e. communicating through email instead of the phone?
• Is the Internet putting people in less contact physically? Is that healthy?
• After reading about the effects of Internet use in ``Internet Paradox'', how similar would you say the home computer is to the television?
• What is the future of Internet law? Will the Internet develop an independent code of laws, will current law expand to cover the Internet, or will it become an ungovernable medium?
  • Will virtual societies, such as MUDs and MOOs, develop their own formal and enforceable laws?
• In the Curtis piece, he mentions that he was/is still working on an application of the MOO technology that would ease telecommuting. Is there a more modern analog to the MOO, either in the entertainment world or, as Curtis was working on, in the business world?
• Wouldn't you agree that, in the scheme of things, the computer (and the internet in particular) is less detrimental to our development than TV? (TV is merely a passive entertainment form -- raw stimulation -- with no interaction. In a computer game, we at least have to think and develop some skills.)