In 2000, the beloved family dog passed away and my parents brought home the cutest little Jack Russell puppy ever! Okay, I am a little bias because I was the one who pointed out that we should choose the shy, apprehensive brown and white puppy who hunkered in the corner of the puppy pen and was constantly picked on by the other puppies. She needed someone who would pick her for once. My parents were concerned she would be too shy and not energetic. Little did we know what Jack Russells are REALLY like! We brought the puppy home and promptly named her Sunny, after seeing her perk up and claim her territory at our home within hours of setting her on the living room floor. We had no clue what life would be like having a Jack Russell dog, so I started doing a little online research about this particular dog breed.
Not knowing what Yahoo! Groups really were or why they were set up, I came upon a Yahoo! Group with people who also had Jack Russell dogs. I joined the group. Each member in the group was passionate about the dog breed so they posted tips and quips on what life was like having a JR. I read their posts, looked at their dog pictures, and visited their recommended websites that had more information about JRs. In this case, I was the “Consumer” by Derek Wenmoth’s standards and a “Linker” by David Lee’s standards. I visited the Group often to view new comments posted by other contributors, but I didn’t participate by posting questions or commenting by our own dog.
My other notable virtual community encounters have been little online communities that I’ve set up as a way to keep groups of friends and family connected. I have a group of eight friends that are all scattered around the Twin Cities, but we get together once a month to catch up and get together. I created a Yahoo! Group four years ago that includes all of our information, birthdays, get-together locations, etc. While it’s closed community and not available for outsiders to join unless asked, it’s the best way we keep up to date because anyone can send updates to the email address we’ve set up. Not everyone in our group is on Facebook, but we’re all heavy emailers. In this situation, I’ve definitely been the Commentator because it’s important that I help keep the group connected with one other – if only by virtual means.
I was a late bloomer to using MySpace and Facebook, since I just created a Facebook last summer and only in the last few months have a lot of my friends started using Facebook. I think Facebook and the other social network only work if you’re a constant user. If you like it because you can express your opinions and share your updates and photos with your friends, then it’s only beneficial if your friends are members of the same social network. I’ve been stepping out and acting as a contributor to several special interest groups I’ve joined on Facebook.
mstephens7 said,
February 15, 2008 @ 12:32 am
I really like the example of your local group that you built a community for. Sometimes when we talk about VCs, I forget that the little, more personal groups are just as important and useful.