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The importance of communities

Apple Fans Pull for Jobs

News of Steve Jobs' cancer surgery has unsettled the Mac community like nothing else in recent years, resulting in a flood of forum postings and get-well cards.

I picked this from a news source, and it is very relevant to some ideas I have recently:
The importance of a group and its odd formalities, and sociological occurence.

Myself, I belong to several 'groups'
And I started to think the first time of its oddity when driving my motorcycle.
Who doesn't know the bikers, always saying hello to each other. And yet, under the helmet of the other biker might be hidden a personality that wouldn't fit in my life, that might fight all my ideas.
To put it into the strangest contradictions: a right winged guy might say hello to a lesbian girl, just because they are bikers.
And this guy will even help this girl any time, just because they are bikers.
It is the strange bound of a group.

The same thing happens with gay people, or to foreigners from the same nationality abroad, or the corporate businesses like Randstad, or to many other existing groups: they will always help each other.

PhotoBlog is the perfect example of such a 'group' online.
These groups become more and more important.

The funny thing is that by being in a group the other group seems to be forgotten. As is the example: the gay girl and the right winged man, in other groups they belong to they would fight eachother.

The importance of the group* can not be underestimated.
And I believe that in the near future it will gain more importance.
An interesting research can be found here

The key elements in this definition of community are that:

* you believe you belong, you are a member
* they involve meaningful social interaction
* there is a belief in 'common ties' or shared beliefs between members
* people 'share time' with each other

Should do some more research though...

(*A group is something different than a network)

Posted on August 5, 2004
in Limit of my knowledge

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