What is Community Informatics (and Why Does It Matter?) by Michael Gurstein
From Internet: Knowledge and Community
Stephanie Kallwass
Key Term: Networked Individualism
While reading Michael Gursteins, What is Community Informatics (and Why Does It Matter)? the part that I found most interesting had to do with Networked Individualism. Finding the self withing the network. Gurstein says, “individual action takes place...within and through the individual networs where the self is able to (or available) to act (or interact) with others.” (18) I like the idea that the self is not how the person acts themselves, but it is percieved through interaction with other people. And the fact that, as Gurstein later say, social networks have restraints on the amount of individual action that is able to take place. He gives the example of MMORPGs, massive multi-player online role-playing games. I have participated in a number of these games, however I never thought about how deep the definitions of individual can go when in these contexts. In reality, we might define an individual on their gender, orientation, personality (which I believe is judged on their ineraction with other people). However in these games, physical characteristics have no meaning, and personality can not be trusted because someone playing with strangers can be compelled to act different than in real life. All the different characters and personalities one can assume while playing an MMORPG is similar to a person participating in multiple different social networks. Gurstein describes “linking together fragmented identities/ individualisms,” and perhaps that is the only way to find a solid self while networking, by finding the overlaps in the digital personas we create for ourselves online.
