Community reproduction is important to any community of practice. In AGW I have recently noticed the community restructuring and reproducing itself. Reproduction, according to Lave & Wenger, is “…historically constructed, ongoing, conflicting, synergistic structuring of activity and relations among practitioners” (56). In the last week we have lost a member because she decided no longer had the time to devote to the community. She felt that her inactivity was harmful to the group and so she said her farewells and left. We also have increased in size by another two members, which follows last week where three members joined (one of them has already left). We also have about four other members that I still consider fairly new. Being new has a lot to do with how much you have participated in the community, not with how many weeks you have officially been part of the guild.
This play in the fabric of our community of practice has repercussions up to the members on council. This week we had another switch of leadership with one of the five council spots going to a member who joined about six months ago. This changing of the guard highlights the fact that with successful production of a community of practice roles of participants will change. Old-timers who were once in center of the community moved to the periphery because, with “the successful production of a community of practice, [it] also implies replacement of old-timers” (Lave & Wenger 57).
I know that from previous conversations with our guild leader that she does not like moving people off council unless it is at their request. But for a number of months she had been concerned about the stagnation of the current council members who were becoming less active. This is a normal part of the production and re-production of a community as Lave & Wenger explain, “Learning, transformation, and change are always implicated in one another, and the status quo needs as much explanation as change” (57).
Lave & Wenger also claim that reproductive cycles are also productive. I am beginning to notice the historical traces that are created and recreated as new members leave the periphery and become central. For example often you will see (((Jen))). When I first joined the guild I had no idea what all the parentheses were suppose to be. What I discovered is that some members would occasionally write (((huggs))) and it clicked. (((hugs))) somehow morphed into merely the ((( xxx ))). Our guild also uses fuzzles as a symbolic and physical ways. The joy of fuzzles (and dung for that matter) are passed on from one member to the next. In fact a couple of our guild layouts weave fuzzles and community members into the same space. But I need to get some of those pics to show you all so that will have to be a post for next time.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Monday, February 19, 2007
A community?
“A community is a multigenerational group of people, at work or play, whose identities are defined in large part by the roles they play and relationships they share in that group activity. The community derives its cohesion from the joint construction of a culture of daily life built upon behavioral norms, routines, and rules, and from a sense of shared purpose” (Barab et al. 18).
How does the community that I’m looking at fit this definition of a community? AGW is multigenerational – we have grandmothers and grandfathers, parents of teens, women that are pregnant, and those of us still dating around looking for love. Since Neopets is site for entertainment we are a community of play in large part but many of us take is quasi-seriously. People develop goals as far as what they are trying to accomplish in a day, week or year.
AGW community members often feel the need to get involved in the community to provide a service to its members. People carve out a standing for themselves by how often they are around, and what they do for the community. For example one member runs a game that is like Bingo and does a weekly treasure hunt. A few others work together to create new guild layouts and develop user lookups for interested guild members. Another member runs a game where the objective is to make the highest or lowest unique bid (1-100). Still another member is developing a team of pets that will fight in the battledome. Someone else posts the crossword answers on a daily basis. Personally I have become the advisor for the guild on the stock market and I am working on doing the web design for the battledome group (because the leader doesn’t know html). Being involved gives a sense of purpose in the group and identity. It seems like everyone finds a nitch for themselves if they want to be a central member of the community. People who are peripheral participants often get involved sooner or later, and sometimes those in the thick of things step away from such an active role. (Very recently council was reorganized to reflect who was actively leading. Those who had become busy in RL and couldn’t do as much stepped aside without anyone getting upset or any upheaval occurring in the group.)
There are definitely group norms that are at work in AGW. One example of a norm is the helpfulness of the group and expected behavior. For example while playing you might get a quest. The fire faerie will come to you and say something like “Where is my jingly bell?” and you are expected to find that object for them for a reward. The catch- you have no access to the shop wizard that you would usually use to find objects. If you try she tells you it is cheating. When I first joined AGW and I got such a quest I posted to the board asking for someone else to look it up for me. Instead people started giving me the object I had requested. The norm is someone posts a quest item, and other members will rush to find it for them. (It is almost like a race to get the object to them first.) The member with the quest will turn in the item to the faerie, find out the reward and copy the award notice to the guild board along with a thank you to the member who sent the object. The first time I got 2 of the same object I didn’t know what to do. Do you send one back? Keep it and send a gift? Thank both and and keep both? Common convention is to thank the first (giving a gift isn’t expected) and then thank subsequent givers and send them back. If you don’t know to post the your results you will get flooded with jingly bells. If you don’t send back extra ones you are considered sort of rude, although no one will say anything. And people will often give you expensive things that you need (at over 10K sometimes less wealthy players will post prices rather than give the item, which is acceptable). The reason for the great rush to give is because this system only works effectively if everyone takes responsibility for the good of each individual member. Getting expensive gifts compels you to also be generous because otherwise you feel as though you aren’t doing your part in the community. I have easily gotten 250K worth of stuff from my guild in the past year (this is not counting the stuff that were presents that were given to me by individuals that I didn’t request). This is only possible because all of us give liberally.
How does the community that I’m looking at fit this definition of a community? AGW is multigenerational – we have grandmothers and grandfathers, parents of teens, women that are pregnant, and those of us still dating around looking for love. Since Neopets is site for entertainment we are a community of play in large part but many of us take is quasi-seriously. People develop goals as far as what they are trying to accomplish in a day, week or year.
AGW community members often feel the need to get involved in the community to provide a service to its members. People carve out a standing for themselves by how often they are around, and what they do for the community. For example one member runs a game that is like Bingo and does a weekly treasure hunt. A few others work together to create new guild layouts and develop user lookups for interested guild members. Another member runs a game where the objective is to make the highest or lowest unique bid (1-100). Still another member is developing a team of pets that will fight in the battledome. Someone else posts the crossword answers on a daily basis. Personally I have become the advisor for the guild on the stock market and I am working on doing the web design for the battledome group (because the leader doesn’t know html). Being involved gives a sense of purpose in the group and identity. It seems like everyone finds a nitch for themselves if they want to be a central member of the community. People who are peripheral participants often get involved sooner or later, and sometimes those in the thick of things step away from such an active role. (Very recently council was reorganized to reflect who was actively leading. Those who had become busy in RL and couldn’t do as much stepped aside without anyone getting upset or any upheaval occurring in the group.)
There are definitely group norms that are at work in AGW. One example of a norm is the helpfulness of the group and expected behavior. For example while playing you might get a quest. The fire faerie will come to you and say something like “Where is my jingly bell?” and you are expected to find that object for them for a reward. The catch- you have no access to the shop wizard that you would usually use to find objects. If you try she tells you it is cheating. When I first joined AGW and I got such a quest I posted to the board asking for someone else to look it up for me. Instead people started giving me the object I had requested. The norm is someone posts a quest item, and other members will rush to find it for them. (It is almost like a race to get the object to them first.) The member with the quest will turn in the item to the faerie, find out the reward and copy the award notice to the guild board along with a thank you to the member who sent the object. The first time I got 2 of the same object I didn’t know what to do. Do you send one back? Keep it and send a gift? Thank both and and keep both? Common convention is to thank the first (giving a gift isn’t expected) and then thank subsequent givers and send them back. If you don’t know to post the your results you will get flooded with jingly bells. If you don’t send back extra ones you are considered sort of rude, although no one will say anything. And people will often give you expensive things that you need (at over 10K sometimes less wealthy players will post prices rather than give the item, which is acceptable). The reason for the great rush to give is because this system only works effectively if everyone takes responsibility for the good of each individual member. Getting expensive gifts compels you to also be generous because otherwise you feel as though you aren’t doing your part in the community. I have easily gotten 250K worth of stuff from my guild in the past year (this is not counting the stuff that were presents that were given to me by individuals that I didn’t request). This is only possible because all of us give liberally.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Eek! The devil's in the details.
I just re-read the assignment sheet and realized that I was suppose to be posting at least twice weekly about my community experience. Well oops.
Yesterday was a huge community day in our guild because it was Valentine's day. Our clan likes to party and we try to take any excuse to celebrate very seriously. A number of us had gift packs that were up in our trades and the council planned a number of activities. Games included pass or trade, scramblers, treasure hunt, romantic movie trivia, and a writing game about a secret crush. Scramblers are always a favorite. Rules are simple to that game - unscramble the word and use it in a sentence that includes a guild member's name. So the scramble "oceholtca" would turn in to a mad rush to post something like "Mandy really needs chocolate when she is cranky."
The guild was extremely busy with many of us spending a number of hours hanging out and chatting. We had good news from one member, her husband wants to get back together and told her on Valentine's day. We also had reports of a horrible day from another whose AS child was having problems breathing so they want her out of school even though she has a doctor's note explaining she is fine for school. (We all decided that forming a mob armed with darts that we could aim at the principal's rear might be a good way to show our dissatisfaction.)
What all this showed me is how much we are all involved in each other's lives. I know many things about people that live all over the place - Canada, Trinidad, Sweden, Australia, and all over the US: Nevada, Indiana, Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, Illinois, and Ohio and I'm sure I am missing many more places that are represented. The thing is that whether it is needing tips for playing a game on Neopets, having a personal problem, or receiving encouragement to tackle something as mundane as doing the laundry (someone sent me a washboard when I was dreading my pile of laundry), someone is always around with a word, a virtual hug or some other form of encouragement.
Next post will relate to some reading, but I wanted to get something up here to explain my lack of posting. Oops. :D
Yesterday was a huge community day in our guild because it was Valentine's day. Our clan likes to party and we try to take any excuse to celebrate very seriously. A number of us had gift packs that were up in our trades and the council planned a number of activities. Games included pass or trade, scramblers, treasure hunt, romantic movie trivia, and a writing game about a secret crush. Scramblers are always a favorite. Rules are simple to that game - unscramble the word and use it in a sentence that includes a guild member's name. So the scramble "oceholtca" would turn in to a mad rush to post something like "Mandy really needs chocolate when she is cranky."
The guild was extremely busy with many of us spending a number of hours hanging out and chatting. We had good news from one member, her husband wants to get back together and told her on Valentine's day. We also had reports of a horrible day from another whose AS child was having problems breathing so they want her out of school even though she has a doctor's note explaining she is fine for school. (We all decided that forming a mob armed with darts that we could aim at the principal's rear might be a good way to show our dissatisfaction.)
What all this showed me is how much we are all involved in each other's lives. I know many things about people that live all over the place - Canada, Trinidad, Sweden, Australia, and all over the US: Nevada, Indiana, Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, Illinois, and Ohio and I'm sure I am missing many more places that are represented. The thing is that whether it is needing tips for playing a game on Neopets, having a personal problem, or receiving encouragement to tackle something as mundane as doing the laundry (someone sent me a washboard when I was dreading my pile of laundry), someone is always around with a word, a virtual hug or some other form of encouragement.
Next post will relate to some reading, but I wanted to get something up here to explain my lack of posting. Oops. :D
Monday, February 12, 2007
Walking in mid-stream
I'm sure everyone has experienced walking into a meeting or class late. Sometimes there is a legitimate reason, sometimes it is just poor planning - sometimes it's both. With me it is both, and it will be a recurring theme all semester. For those of you that don't know the fates conspired against me and the only two classes that I'm taking this semester overlap by 50 minutes. Unfortunately, I'm am not Hermione Granger and the two places at once thing is not possible through magic. Aaron is being nice enough to tolerate my perpetual tardiness, and I hope all of you will excuse my untimely arrival.
In a classroom or a FTF meeting it is easy enough to get up-to-speed. Someone throws you a copy of the agenda, you read the board notes or someone whispers at you that everyone is on page 137 and you can figure it out from there. Pretty soon you have a good idea what is going on and you can contribute to the conversation.
This is not true when you sign on to a virtual class meeting late. When I walked in I was greeted warmly and told that we were on question number 4. Slight problem - I didn't know what the questions were. I went back to the main page to go grab the questions to find myself logged out of the classroom area. Unlike a real classroom where when you get there you are there the Web CT/Blackboard interface doesn't allow multiple logins nor can you be doing two things at once (which you can in a real classroom - looking for a book and listening to conversation or searching for a page and holding up your hand to comment). Going to find the questions was like me leaving the room to go to another to get the handout. When I came back the conversation had gone on without me and there was no way to get up to speed. I think with communicating online typing takes longer than writing so people are less able to tell you what is going on without taking a lot of time. I was told I would get a copy of the conversation (which was great) but it didn't allow me to participate in real time.
Part of this problem might occur because writing is more permanent than talking. Many of us use bulletin boards to communicate and we are use to being able to look back and follow a conversation even though we weren't there when the conversation started. Using this totally sychronous environment does not allow anyone to go back and see what happened in their absense. I have to admit that I hated not being able to go back and look. I was annoyed with the software that was so poorly designed that I couldn't have what I needed (that is a text of the running conversation). I felt irresponsible because I couldn't participate. And then I managed to kick the powerstrip in the computer lab and the computer turned off.
The second half of the class was a lot more beneficial to me. I managed to be there and an keep the lab computer on- so the whole class wasn't a bust. I do think that this method of conducting online classes needs to be improved because things do happen. People sign on late, have to step away for a minute, have power outages, etc. These annoyances shouldn't have such catastrophic implications.
In a classroom or a FTF meeting it is easy enough to get up-to-speed. Someone throws you a copy of the agenda, you read the board notes or someone whispers at you that everyone is on page 137 and you can figure it out from there. Pretty soon you have a good idea what is going on and you can contribute to the conversation.
This is not true when you sign on to a virtual class meeting late. When I walked in I was greeted warmly and told that we were on question number 4. Slight problem - I didn't know what the questions were. I went back to the main page to go grab the questions to find myself logged out of the classroom area. Unlike a real classroom where when you get there you are there the Web CT/Blackboard interface doesn't allow multiple logins nor can you be doing two things at once (which you can in a real classroom - looking for a book and listening to conversation or searching for a page and holding up your hand to comment). Going to find the questions was like me leaving the room to go to another to get the handout. When I came back the conversation had gone on without me and there was no way to get up to speed. I think with communicating online typing takes longer than writing so people are less able to tell you what is going on without taking a lot of time. I was told I would get a copy of the conversation (which was great) but it didn't allow me to participate in real time.
Part of this problem might occur because writing is more permanent than talking. Many of us use bulletin boards to communicate and we are use to being able to look back and follow a conversation even though we weren't there when the conversation started. Using this totally sychronous environment does not allow anyone to go back and see what happened in their absense. I have to admit that I hated not being able to go back and look. I was annoyed with the software that was so poorly designed that I couldn't have what I needed (that is a text of the running conversation). I felt irresponsible because I couldn't participate. And then I managed to kick the powerstrip in the computer lab and the computer turned off.
The second half of the class was a lot more beneficial to me. I managed to be there and an keep the lab computer on- so the whole class wasn't a bust. I do think that this method of conducting online classes needs to be improved because things do happen. People sign on late, have to step away for a minute, have power outages, etc. These annoyances shouldn't have such catastrophic implications.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
A leaderless community
A story about a tree is a reading that resonated with me as well as raised questions. It talks about the impact of a player that passed away but still has a presence in Ultima Online - a presence of enough strength that a person that never met her records her story. There is something that can be said about shared history of an online community. More than recording the history of a player, Designer Dragon constructs through his account a means to legitimize the experience of sorrow as a group. He defines it as a "real" experience and dares anyone else to challenge his interpretation of history.
As this happening has been iconized and becomes part of the community history, I wonder about how much community existed when Karyn was actively playing. I question this because of an experience in my online community where our very dynamic guild leader disappeared.
Our leader and her family were victims of mistaken identity by a group of drug dealers who were dyslexic and got the wrong house. Instead of shaking up and/or terminating the guys who owned them money down the street these hoodlums found themselves in the wrong house unsure what to do. She and her family were tied up and their house ransacked - fortunately her son got a call into the police before they discovered him and so they were rescued without sustaining personal injury. They picked up everything and moved into a hotel while they searched for a new house. However she was without a computer for the first while and basically disappeared.
Instead of the group slowly dissolving and losing focus another member of council almost immediately posted what happened to our beloved leader. People took up the slack and filled in doing things that normally she would do so the community would continue as normally as possible. It took a number of people to fill her shoes and they did an amazing job for almost six weeks during the summer when she wasn't able to look after us herself. Our community is more than just an online community that functions as an aspect of the game. Most of us know at least one other player personally because they are a RL friend. A number of us have met other guildies in RL when they had the chance. Many of us have MSN or AIM user names of other group members, and some of us have shared phone numbers. We have a MSN website where we share pictures and could still get to each other if Neopets went poof.
All this to say, our guild could have fell apart without our leader but it didn't. I think it is due the fact that we are a community rather than just an online group with hazy membership boundaries. Perhaps membership is a key to what makes a community rather than a transitory group of convenience.
As this happening has been iconized and becomes part of the community history, I wonder about how much community existed when Karyn was actively playing. I question this because of an experience in my online community where our very dynamic guild leader disappeared.
Our leader and her family were victims of mistaken identity by a group of drug dealers who were dyslexic and got the wrong house. Instead of shaking up and/or terminating the guys who owned them money down the street these hoodlums found themselves in the wrong house unsure what to do. She and her family were tied up and their house ransacked - fortunately her son got a call into the police before they discovered him and so they were rescued without sustaining personal injury. They picked up everything and moved into a hotel while they searched for a new house. However she was without a computer for the first while and basically disappeared.
Instead of the group slowly dissolving and losing focus another member of council almost immediately posted what happened to our beloved leader. People took up the slack and filled in doing things that normally she would do so the community would continue as normally as possible. It took a number of people to fill her shoes and they did an amazing job for almost six weeks during the summer when she wasn't able to look after us herself. Our community is more than just an online community that functions as an aspect of the game. Most of us know at least one other player personally because they are a RL friend. A number of us have met other guildies in RL when they had the chance. Many of us have MSN or AIM user names of other group members, and some of us have shared phone numbers. We have a MSN website where we share pictures and could still get to each other if Neopets went poof.
All this to say, our guild could have fell apart without our leader but it didn't. I think it is due the fact that we are a community rather than just an online group with hazy membership boundaries. Perhaps membership is a key to what makes a community rather than a transitory group of convenience.
Monday, February 5, 2007
A little background
It has been a long time since I kept a blog, but I find it an assignment I am excited to begin working. It is an opportunity to share my thoughts about the components of what makes a successful community with my friends and classmates.
First of all, for those of you that are unfamiliar with what Neopets is I welcome you to read Michelle’s first post that explains about it. As Michelle explains, there are many ways to communicate with other players and many activities and games available on the site. Membership in a guild is quite common for an established player. Guilds are of various sizes and some are more active than others.
Like Michelle’s guild, the guild I belong to, Adults Gone Wild, is a private guild that is over a year old. I have been a member since February 2005 and I currently serve as part of the guild’s sub-council (council and sub-council are the leadership team for the guild that are responsible for planning events and activities for the group). AGW has about 50 members from all over the globe. The two major membership requirements are being extremely active on Neopets and an adult (18+). To stay a member, active participation on the message board is expected/required.
I joined AGW when I was taking a class where we were discussing online communities. I had been involved in a couple of other guilds that had minimal activity and conversations. To say I was skeptical about the existence of true community online might be understating my feelings. I was pretty sure that “communities” were really just a way for a guild leader to get people to donate items and money to them. My tune has changed greatly with my experience with AGW – a small community in a big game.
First of all, for those of you that are unfamiliar with what Neopets is I welcome you to read Michelle’s first post that explains about it. As Michelle explains, there are many ways to communicate with other players and many activities and games available on the site. Membership in a guild is quite common for an established player. Guilds are of various sizes and some are more active than others.
Like Michelle’s guild, the guild I belong to, Adults Gone Wild, is a private guild that is over a year old. I have been a member since February 2005 and I currently serve as part of the guild’s sub-council (council and sub-council are the leadership team for the guild that are responsible for planning events and activities for the group). AGW has about 50 members from all over the globe. The two major membership requirements are being extremely active on Neopets and an adult (18+). To stay a member, active participation on the message board is expected/required.
I joined AGW when I was taking a class where we were discussing online communities. I had been involved in a couple of other guilds that had minimal activity and conversations. To say I was skeptical about the existence of true community online might be understating my feelings. I was pretty sure that “communities” were really just a way for a guild leader to get people to donate items and money to them. My tune has changed greatly with my experience with AGW – a small community in a big game.
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