So far this week I have been trying to decide which virtual community I should look at. On the discussion board I had suggested Methodspace http://www.methodspace.com/ as a possibility.
I thought of looking at Methodspace which was set up about 6 months ago by Sage Publications for academic researchers. They invited all the academics they publish to join plus anyone interested in social science methods can join. I think they have over 1000 members.
However, I thought as I am a member of the group it could be problematic.
Then I thought about looking at a YouTube phenomenon I found a few months ago – Davidsfarm.
He posted his first YouTube video two years ago and in June posted his 1000th. He has a worldwide following – with 55,872 subscribers. The video I embedded above has had over 91,000 views. His most popular video – extreme jeep jump – has had over 1, 600,000 views. He has produced many ‘how to’ auto mechanics videos in addition to his videos on ‘life on the farm’. But is Dave’s farm a virtual community? Well, there is a lot of interaction going on – and some people who found him on the net have visited him on the farm. It seems kind of like a male bonding site – ordinary guys who enjoy messing with cars, trucks etc, drinking beer and having a few high jinks. It is a completely public site so that minimizes the ethics issues we have discussed on the board. I am curious to understand what about it makes it so attractive to others.
I don’t know. I have looked at a couple of Flickr group sites – again related to something I had looked at before – Flickr craft groups. I found several scrapbooking sites in the past – and some people run courses through Flickr. I found a very interesting one and when I explored it I saw the teacher was a very talented teenager http://oldladyinateenager.blogspot.com/2009/02/life-story-class.html who has a blog http://oldladyinateenager.blogspot.com/ and an online shop http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6152942 The trouble is that while the photos of the people who take her scrapbooking class are public, I think they have all copyrighted them.
Decisions, decisions.
