Tutorial 6: The internet and online communities

This session we have been looking into online communities. These are websites that various people contribute to. For a community to work, there must be an interest on the subject from people.

I have been looking more into Trademe (www.trademe.co.nz). Yes most people know about Tradme - and a majority of them have become addicts (high users of the community).

Trademe is New Zealand's version of eBay, a website where people can buy and sell items to one another. There are thousands of items on there, from clothes, to books, electronics, pets (who knows, one day people might even be putting adoptions up there...). Businesses also sell items on Trademe to hit a larger client base.

People can contribute to the site by creating a user profile. This enables you to list items to sell, bid on autions, ask questions. The site is interactive, but still offers the opportunity to be anonymous.

What people are seeking is generally quite obvious - they are wanting to sell something, or wanting to buy something. As I said earlier, some people have become addicts to buying online. It also offers interaction with those who have similar interests.

Ethics issues have arisen recently, with subjects such as buying guns without the seller checking for a gun license. There are also people buying tickets (concert, rugby etc) and then selling them at 3x the price. Some people do not really have any idea of the affect of their actions and that this shouldn't be happening, however most of the content is relatively safe. There is also the issue that there are not really blocks for younger viewers (e.g. accessing adult supplies, guns etc), because even though you are meant to be 18 to have an account, a drop down box of ages isn't that hard to make up.

An online community generally reaches more people than a 'real' community. For example, Trademe reaches all of NZ, where as selling in a newspaper only reaches the population that reads that paper.

You could say that an online community such as Trademe does not include 'real' contact between participants. The only contact outside of the website and email is if the seller allows the buyer to pick up their purchase, but again this can be avoided for both the seller and buyer to be anonymous (which I spose can be really good if you are buying something a bit embarrassing).

Trademe is really interesting to have a look at - you would be surprised at what you would find on there! Check out the link above and have a browse.