Larry Davies, EdD Candidate, St. Thomas University07-A3-MAN-725-11, Professor Hunt

Community DevelopmentJuly 11, 2007

A Roadmap for Developing Online Communities for Community Development

R.O.A.D.M.A.P

This mnemonic device will help me to describe seven facets of community development and building that are available in online environments. Knowledge of how these facets function will help supplement real world (or Real Life/RL) attempts at organizing communities of people to take a more active role in their community development.

R – Roleplay/Reality

• Secondlife (SL) vs. Real Life (RL)– Role play aspects of avatars in SL– Avatars are representations of alternative

realities of people’s lives in RL• The SL/RL LINE– Some are purely for fantasy, others are

exploring real roles for online based interaction

O – Online tools• Communication

– Chatting/Messaging– Public and Private– Synchronous vs. Aschynonus

• Movement– Walking– Flight– Teleportation

• Objects– Created by users– Limited by imagination– Scriptable

Multi-User Virtual Environment, usually represented by a three-dimensional space in which a representation of the learner, called an avatar, moves about in a virtual world and engages in actor/actor, actor/object and object/object activities.

A - Avatars

D – Design of 3D Spaces

• Conventional• Unconventional• Functional

M - Messaging• IM – Instant Messages (MSN, AIM)– Offline IM sent to email

• Groups and Group Messages (like chat rooms)• Friend’s conferences (personal chat rooms)• Notes

A – Asynchronous Interactions • Notice Boards• Advertisements• Related community websites and

webpages

P – Personal networks• Private

• Extendable

• Customizable

Examples of Online Communities activism

Conclusions and Future Directions

• People most adept at learning and using these tools will be at an advantage

• Reliability of the system is paramount for establishing and maintaining relationships

• Devices to access online environments will increase in functionality while decreasing in cost = democratization of online environments

The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses, behind the lines, in the

gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance

under those lights.

Mohammed Ali