Posts filed under 'communities'
Home sweet home
Anouk Van Den Eijnde writes:
So here’s something I don’t do very often – I built a house, decorated it and put it up for rent all in one night. I wish it were that easy in real life. Last week at the Shunt, the (literally) underground exhibition space and late night bar under London Bridge station hosted an installation event called Home Sweet Home. For the whole week the arena space in the vaults was transformed into a community created by shunt members. A range of materials were provided to embellish your newly bought flat packed house – glitter, paint, play-doh, fake grass, you name it. There was a real buzz in the air, a feeling of togetherness while young arty Londoners sat around sipping beers and getting creative. You could listen to Residents’ FM and chat to the postman doing his rounds. On the last day there was even a street party.
It’s a world away from the highly digitised society we live in. One of our ‘cultural frequencies’ for d_Code, our youth intelligence research, is “Analogue Living”. It highlights this back to basics mentality that’s increasingly important to youth. The dynamics of Home Sweet Home – with its hand-made products, simplified forms of entertainment and media, and even traditional community structures, is right at the heart of this frequency.
Add comment 31 January 2008
Online couch potatoes
Becky Rowe writes:
Watching TV on your own or looking to indulge in the irreverent wit of a bunch of Guardian Unlimited readers? Then log on to the ‘Real time telly – talk about it now’ thread. The premise is that you can chat about what you are watching, whilst you are watching. Particularly good to spice up the solo viewing experience, or if your ‘witty’ comments have been banned by your sofa buddy, but you are still desperate to share…
This phenomenon came to my attention last Saturday when I noticed that the X-factor thread had become one of the most active on the GU discussion boards. Not only is a place to share observations about the contestants, or canvass votes for your favourite, but there is now a real sense of online community around the live Saturday night transmission. A perfect example of what happens when real (if you count X-factor as real!?) collides with virtual
Add comment 26 November 2007
Identity outsourcing
Jo Phillips writes:
A complication of identity as a result of the proliferation of online communities is identified today by the BBC. Some (particularly the famous) engage others to manage/update/improve their online presence on social networking sites such as Facebook or in MMORPGs. This goes beyond design services such as Pimp my Profile, to a more fundamental level of identity outsourcing. Another example is blog ’shadow writing’ – for example Sarkozy’s campaign blog was written by technology entrepreneur Loic Le Meur.
But there are some quite subtle issues here. Journalists routinely ghost-write celebrity autobiographies, and we are used to the idea that speeches and articles are drafted by others. The question seems to be about authenticity. In which case: what it is about online media which requires higher standards of trust and transparency than more traditional channels?
Add comment 2 July 2007
