There is great emphasis on the commercial and
entertainment values/opportunities brought about by the
development of the Internet. This type of focus may blur the true
potential of the Internet as a toll for social development, or,
in other words, the 'Developmental Internet'. The ability to
converse, play Quake in 'real-time', exchange files with persons
known or unknown on the other side of the planet via various
computer-mediated means has opened whole new possibilities and
realities for human social networking. This ability to
communicate as never before has seen the emergence of so-called
'virtual communities' (VCs) to cater for human interactions in
cyberspace. Some claim to actually provide a sense of community1 which others
argue has come to take digital form through the breakdown of
location-specific communities. The issue of what actually
constitutes a community and whether such a concept can be
represented in cyberspace has provoked much discord among
literati.
Many VCs take the form of 'interest groups' as forums for
synchronous discussions at a communal meeting place (commonly
known as a 'chat room') on the Internet. Others are equally
'groups' of individuals who communicate asynchronously by email
via a discussion list, or even posting to a message board on a
web page. These and similar types hold a number of things in
common: by virtue of the mediating technology they interface with
they are groups of networked individuals; they all have a common
interest particular to their group, be it social, cultural or
otherwise; and their communication invariably takes the form of
text-based discursive gestures.
Of focus in this study are the VCs whose interactions take place
in the asynchronous environment of discussion lists via email. Of
particular interest are the so-called 'Communities of Practice'
(CoP) whose name implies more than a computer-mediated network of
people. My interest in this came out of my university placement
experience in the Dominican Republic working for FUNREDES2, whose role as host to the
MISTICA discussion list introduced me to the dynamics of VCs
which was all the more impacted by my attendance and faciliatory
role during a physical reunion of the MISTICA VC in March 2001. I
have also subscribed to the Community Informatics discussion list3which has proved
to be an unrelenting source of rich information and informed
comment concerning CoPs and the application of ICT (Information
and Communication Technologies) to physical community settings.
I begin with an exploration of semiotics as a way of describing
the communicative processes which take place in the interactions
between the participants of CoPs. This involves putting
communication in the context of information systems. I move on to
discuss the particular style of such communication and how its
adoption has brought about the emergence of a new oral mode of
communication which takes on board Habermas' theory of
communicative action as the basis for pragmatic communication.
In the next section I examine the need for meaningful
communication in relation to the interactive groups which deploy
this mode of communication. I use a recently published holistic
approach to investigate the environment of CoPs and their use as
Knowledge Management Systems.
Next, I distinguish between interaction and participation. I
explore potential barriers to participation in a CoP, as well as
to the flow of knowledge within the CoP. I then explore the
artefacts produced by the activities of the CoP and investigate
Kollock's concept of 'generalised exchange'4.
Finally, I conclude with a critique of my approach and its
limitations; and carry out a synthesis of what I have explored.
Section 1: Semiotics and its role in meaning creation in the context of discussion lists