starlady: a circular well of books (well of books)
Electra ([personal profile] starlady) wrote2011-02-08 11:12 pm
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FOGcon!

So I am moderating a panel on Saturday March 12 from 13:30 - 14:45 at FOGcon, My City Goes to 1011:

Can an online community be considered a city? Why or why not? If so, how
does one define the community boundaries? If not, what are the
differences?

Who else is going to FOGcon? Also, [personal profile] oyceter is organizing a POC meetup at the con.

See you at the con, I hope!

I need a San Francisco icon, methinks.
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jesse_the_k: White woman riding black Quantum 4400 powerchair off the right edge, chased by the word "powertool" (JK 56 powertool)

[personal profile] jesse_the_k 2011-02-10 04:12 am (UTC)(link)
w00t!

Sounds like an interesting panel. I just read something that made me go "huh!" and shiver with new knowledge, which might be relevant to the panel. There's been a vicious blogswarm re: rape culture in gaming. One of the principal participants, a woman who psueds as kirbybits at WordPress and Twitter and Courtney Stanton in RL. Yesterday's info-rich entry Troll! Data! Analysis! crunches some intriguing numbers about the different communication styles of trolls and actual debaters.

I look forward to meeting you at the con!
starlady: Korra looks out over Republic City (legend of korra)

[personal profile] starlady 2011-02-10 06:09 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, I was thinking about this the other day--how do we define our community so that it's coherent, even though it does cross boundaries of space and culture? What are our norms that substitute for, you know, the norms of a physical city?

I'm looking forward to meeting you too!
wintercreek: Blue-tinted creek in winter with snowy banks. ([general] swanky '60s wintercreek)

[personal profile] wintercreek 2011-02-10 07:23 am (UTC)(link)
I'll be there! Not that I need to tell you that. *g*

[identity profile] corneredangel.livejournal.com 2011-02-09 07:45 am (UTC)(link)
I'm sure you've thought of this already, but in my mind, a city/polis/whatever is defined not by its residents, but by its power structure. If the online community has a defined ruling mechanism, a defined enforcing mechanism, and a defined set of rules, then it may be viewed as an equivalent to a physical city.

[...the other question, of course, is that with some obvious exceptions, a city is a subdivision of a country. So, an online community 'city' can only be valid if it is in fact one of a group of similar entities that are united by a common hierarchy. Just to throw out a hypothetical - would you have considered AOL chatrooms 'cities']

[identity profile] starlady38.livejournal.com 2011-02-09 07:49 am (UTC)(link)
AOL chatrooms! Natsukashii!

A city is a sub-unit in many cases, of course, but the thing about the online communities a lot of people are familiar with is that they transcend national boundaries. Obviously there is a hierarchy as well as commonalities of culture that unite us, but they're not necessarily nationally bounded or determined--so the question becomes, what is the determinant?

[identity profile] merin-chan.livejournal.com 2011-02-09 03:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh man, I wish I could go. The online community/city idea is right up my alley. If you take any discussion notes, I'd be glad to read them. Have fun!

[identity profile] starlady38.livejournal.com 2011-02-09 08:17 pm (UTC)(link)
I read your introduction Tuesday night, and now I am totally thinking about this panel in terms of your model. :)

[identity profile] merin-chan.livejournal.com 2011-02-10 04:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Glad to hear it's been helpful!
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