The gist of this project is to examine a virtual community and see what aspects places it under this category. In order to examine the Eons website successfully, first, we have to determine if the site is actually a community. During the semester, we have reviewed several definitions of the term community, and below, we will see how Eons relates to each of these philosophies.
Martin Buber, the author of Paths to Utopia, states,
“A real community need not consist of people who are perpetually together; but it must consist of people, who precisely because they are comrades, have mutual access to one another and are ready for one another.”
If Buber were to examine Eons, he may agree that the network includes some aspects of a community. The network is structured in a manner that allows members to post messages to their own blogs, as well as respond to the blogs of their fellow Eons members. Members also have the advantage of joining specific groups with other members and discussing certain issues. These aspects appear to fall in line with Buber’s idea of “people having mutual access to one another.”
Thomas Bender, the author of Community and Social Change in America, states,
“Community is best defined as a network of social relations marked by mutuality and emotional bonds.”
Bender may also find Eons to represent a community. Eons is made up of a select group of individuals who represent the Baby Boomer’s generation or an earlier age. These individuals have the potential to carry some commonalities simply because they are apart of the same age bracket.
While these definitions of community appear to include Eons as one, we must take it a step further to see if this network represents a virtual community.
From Into the Blogosphere, it was discussed that in order for a virtual community to exist, a virtual settlement must be present. Quentin Jones states that a virtual settlement exists when there are a) a minimal number of b) public interactions c) with a variety of communicators in which d) there is a minimal level of sustained membership over a period of time.
Evaluating Eons from this stance, we see that members are interacting with each other, and they each help make up a diverse atmosphere. All of the members’ individual blogs are aggregated to create Eons’ community blog, which receives posts on a daily basis. Members can comment on each other’s blog, and they can post comments on the message boards of the various groups that they are apart of. Since the community is new, the only issue that we cannot fully examine is if Eons maintains a minimal level of sustained membership over a period of time. Yet, basing our conclusion off the aspects we have available, it appears that Eons is a virtual settlement.
Into the Blogosphere further reports that a virtual community must have a sense of community (SOC). McMillan and Chavis define SOC as consisting of the following four characteristics, and through these, we shall see if Eons contains a sense of community:
• Feelings of membership: Feelings of belonging to, and identifying with, the community;
o The members of Eons have expressed the belief that they have found a place where they belong and that they are able to identify themselves with others of the network.
- Good
• Feelings of influence: Feelings of having influence on, and being influenced by, the community;
o By examining the posted comments, we can agree that members are having an influence on the thoughts and decisions of their fellow members.
- Good
• Integration and fulfillment of needs: Feelings of being supported by others in the community while also supporting them;
o The Eons community is all for inter-support. A comment from Eons member Jim Hannah is proof of this characteristic, “I like to learn, I like to teach, and I like to be of assistance to anyone I can.”
- Good
• Shared emotional connection: Feelings of relationships, shared history, and a “spirit” of community.
o The members of Eons have a connection, and they share information with each other when certain topics interest them. However, some members may only be users of the site to gain individual knowledge.
- Good to a certain degree
From this analysis, we can say that Eons is a virtual community. Now, let’s see if this community offers any trust.
