@Insight, you skate across some very interesting points. Your opinions seems to be founded around the concept that a community needs structure regulation/formal govenrment in order to maintain freedom and dish out justice. In general this is a popular enuff belief. I would urge you to challenge that though in respect to online communities.
An online, virtual or web, community is an opt-in community. Members don't really have to join in the same way you have to join a community in a physical place--ie a city or a club or some sort. Online is really something unique as you can manage your persona, be who you want to be and find a place to participate within. What is amazing about online is that as we all have many facets of our rl personalities we can have the chance to build personas that focus on aspects, some that maybe that in rl cannot happen. Their is a fundamental issue about trust within the community to know for example that the er, "escorts" are acting with some level of their own determination and not being forced or unfairly manipulated. But in general this is the same in rl. Openness is therefore more useful that regulation and transparency more critical than law and order.
So with respect to the need for structured government in an online community--I would hope you are not right. I thinks we will see more self-regulating communities/groups where the owners, admins, contributors, visitors actually can grasp what is acceptable and then opt-in to whatever role they choose--for as long as they choose to participate. Individual people are always gonna be smarter and more sensible than any government.
@Insight, you skate across
Sat, 05/23/2009 - 15:33 — RightAsRain Rimbaud@Insight, you skate across some very interesting points. Your opinions seems to be founded around the concept that a community needs structure regulation/formal govenrment in order to maintain freedom and dish out justice. In general this is a popular enuff belief. I would urge you to challenge that though in respect to online communities.
An online, virtual or web, community is an opt-in community. Members don't really have to join in the same way you have to join a community in a physical place--ie a city or a club or some sort. Online is really something unique as you can manage your persona, be who you want to be and find a place to participate within. What is amazing about online is that as we all have many facets of our rl personalities we can have the chance to build personas that focus on aspects, some that maybe that in rl cannot happen. Their is a fundamental issue about trust within the community to know for example that the er, "escorts" are acting with some level of their own determination and not being forced or unfairly manipulated. But in general this is the same in rl. Openness is therefore more useful that regulation and transparency more critical than law and order.
So with respect to the need for structured government in an online community--I would hope you are not right. I thinks we will see more self-regulating communities/groups where the owners, admins, contributors, visitors actually can grasp what is acceptable and then opt-in to whatever role they choose--for as long as they choose to participate. Individual people are always gonna be smarter and more sensible than any government.