The Online Community

Or, why Vengance.net?


Though I am sure the historical tracing of my choice of the online alias “Vengance” would surely captivate and inspire you all, that’s not what I’m talking about today. Today, I am talking about why I ever chose a “nick” in the first place, or the role of online representation in our community, and the “Online Community” that is being formed.

The idea of and participation in the community is essential to all human endeavors. Science, art, and philosophy are not excused from communal participation, as they might believe they are. Every action we take effects our community, and the fact that this should change the way we live our lives (though has yet to do so in the modern world) is an entirely different essay (against modern superstition.) The car we choose to drive, the career we choose to follow, and the person we choose to marry effects much more than just our personal lives. Even the food we choose to eat has communal repercussions. So the question of the day is, how does an online presence effect the community we live in, and is there a separate community that solely exists in the neither worlds of the Internet.

Online interaction within a small community speeds up and, more importantly, broadens the interaction between and within citizens and “governors” (those that establish, dictate, and uphold the rules of the community along with the common voice of the people.) Now people with valid concerns have easy access to information and answers about those concerns, and an easy way (if the city government utilizes the potential of online expression) to voice an opinion or stance. People are becoming better educating in an increasingly large number of fields. The net becomes a true forum, making it easy for all to participate in community decisions.

However, if fully relying on the written word to convey a message, the personality of a problem or discussion is lost, and face-to-face information is never picked up on or seen.

But is the impersonal written word incompetent of stirring the emotions needed to get or keep things moving, or real action being taken? Does an online conversation really have the power to change governing principles, laws, ideas, and procedures?

I think the open source community might quickly jump in and say “yes!” They have created a small democracy of people that have nothing in common, not even locale, other than their dedication to certain principles, which they hold of very high value. The majority of their communication, if not all of it, is online; yet, they are able make decisions about protocol, procedure, distribution and rights, and carry out plans and actions that really make a difference.

It is difficult, if at al possible, to be a member of more than one community. Usually the limitations are created by physical boundaries, but modern communications have removed those boundaries.

The important fact, however, is that while it is easy for the member of a local community to join an online community, it is impossible for that same person to leave behind all local communities and exist only online. He may succeed in not participating actively in the local community, but non-participation breeds ignorance and apathy towards local situations, and thus has a very real effect on the local community.

The questions yet remains, then, wither a person should establish an online identity separate from his real-life identity in order to not lose his connection to the local community, or if the person should represent themselves online as their normal identity only, thus never falling trap to being lost to an alternate identity.

I believe the validity and reality of online communities are unquestionable. What is yet undetermined is the effect they have local communities