[Air-l] Defining Versions of Reality

Steve Fox (NLG) stevef at microsoft.com
Thu Jan 24 10:45:26 PST 2002


I am struggling with the definition of reality in some of the online
community articles I have read. They seem to make a distinction between
physical and virtual communities, sometimes pulling in "imagined
communities" but fail to really discuss the perception of reality from
the point of view from the individual. Maybe I'm completely missing
something, and if I am please correct me or maybe point me in the
direction of some articles, but isn't this a very important distinction
to draw. Community in one sense is a perceived notion, possibly a
perceived connectedness with others. So let's say my reality as an
individual does not involve a high degree of face-to-face contact, then
I must have on some level a constructed perception of my community  -
something which dictates my behavior within and around those community
activities...to a certain degree wouldn't the same apply for online
communities? Maybe I'm digging to deep within the individual to gain a
clear perspective...

Steve




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