on community
One area I hope to work on is helping to shape what "community" means online.
Lots of people these days talk about "creating" community, in all kinds of contexts online, but I have to ask, does that really make sense?
Last summer, I helped organize a PoC conference, and one of the older queer activists said something that really stood out to me. I think about it still.
She said that you don't create community, you find it.
That may be a subtle distinction, but to me, it means a lot. We can create safe spaces for healing and connection, but we can't really create the people that form our communities, unless you happen to be god or the guy who designed The Sims (Will Wright).
A lot of technologists say today that they're helping to create new communities online. Forget that. I'm going to say, inspired by this woman, that I'm going to help people find their own communities.
They're already out there, people who sustain you, people who understand, people for whom you don't always have to explain.
It's not construction or creation. It's connection. It's finding our way, on a path that others have already tread, somewhere out there, over the rainbow web...
Lots of people these days talk about "creating" community, in all kinds of contexts online, but I have to ask, does that really make sense?
Last summer, I helped organize a PoC conference, and one of the older queer activists said something that really stood out to me. I think about it still.
She said that you don't create community, you find it.
That may be a subtle distinction, but to me, it means a lot. We can create safe spaces for healing and connection, but we can't really create the people that form our communities, unless you happen to be god or the guy who designed The Sims (Will Wright).
A lot of technologists say today that they're helping to create new communities online. Forget that. I'm going to say, inspired by this woman, that I'm going to help people find their own communities.
They're already out there, people who sustain you, people who understand, people for whom you don't always have to explain.
It's not construction or creation. It's connection. It's finding our way, on a path that others have already tread, somewhere out there, over the rainbow web...
posted by L. Wu @ 12:17 PM
2 Comments:
At 1:44 AM,
Elise Paradis said…
Lovely L,
I don't agree with you here.
I think there are different ways to understand the 'creation' of community. Web developers CAN'T create communities. As you say, they provide safe places where people can feel at ease and decide to take part in the said communities.
However, people who participate in those online communities DO create them. They give them identity, goals, orientations, boundaries. They provide support, suggestions, friendship.
If you 'build' a safe space online, and you 'bring' people in the space, you create community. You make people interconnect.
From the pov of the person who uses the web to partake in community, in a passive way, yes, there is the element of 'finding' your community. But as soon as you get active in a community, you build it, you create it.
Don't you think?
;) - e!
At 1:51 AM,
L. Wu said…
I agree that there are different ways to understand the 'creation' of a community.
If you'll allow me the chance to try to metacommunicate, I'll talk about what we mean when we say "community".
Some people, when they talk about community, talk about people, their connections, and the language they use.
Other people, who shall remain e-nonymous ;), when they talk about community, think of objects: abstract identities, goals, orientations, and boundaries.
I suppose I'm just saying that I like to think about finding people when I think about communities, as for me it often seems statistically harder than it is for some other folks, and I'd rather focus on "the people" than the abstract artifacts that are useful in thinking about and structuring a space or system for community.
So, I think we're both right!
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