Rheingold (1993) uses the petri dish as a metaphor for cyberspace.

I love this analogy for the simple reason that it highlights the possibilities of cyberspace running parallel to offline reality. All too often there is the automatic expectation that all of our online experiences should be perfect simply because they are online, because they may materialize as bespoke as we shape them to be.

The idea of the social petri dish that mirrors our flaw-filled RL is refreshing.

[further elaboration on this over the next couple of days]

I had settled on the idea of looking at a grunge community for my ethnographic study. I must admit that I have found it pretty difficult to pick an online community for this activity.

After some pondering I think that one of the main reasons why this has been so difficult is simply down to the personal life structure that I exist in…a lot of my interests and activities are individual based.  Whole segments of my hobbies / interests do not involve anybody else. The ones that do tend to be face-to-face. This is neither bad nor good…it just is! My limited experience of community had shaped the decision making process in pin-pointing a study option. Bell’s (2001) Community and Culture helps to draw lines of distinction between subcultures and communities, suggesting that virtual community structure requires that  participants ‘imagine’ or self-identify with being part of the community itself.

This has got me wondering about how far common interest might be stretched to encompass this imagining?

“C’mon people now / smile on your brother /everybody get together/ try to love one another right now”

Territorial pissings – Nirvana [Nevermind] 1991

While I am certain that it is this common ground that pulls the group of individuals together I’m unconvinced that it is sufficient to create a community. How an online grunge grouping fits this description is still unclear to me. the common ground box is definitely there but how far this progressed to create community is not fully clear. I need to read and think further on this …

So in thinking about a culture I find my head a-spinning…so much choice.

I was reminded of a blog post that I had read recently. It considered the ramifications and avenues of undertaking an ethnography of robots. What caught my eye about the post was the application of culture to this group…