Tools for Communities
by Jacky
Tools for Digital Spaces
Given that there are so many different types of digital spaces, I wanted to explore how different tools are supporting and facilitating different sorts of digital human interaction. Can we use urban planning to help us plan digital spaces ?
The hope is to be able to move away from the ‘feed’-based model of browsing the social internet and to create safe spaces to interact at different scales.
The “feed”–an archaic form of content consumption that is effectively just a direct visual manifestation of the data structure that powers it – is a medium that is effectively designed to be consumed alone. –Humphrey Obuobi
Town Square
Many-to-many relationships like clubs, families, larger interest groups.
Questions
- How do we ensure that people feel connected in large groups and find what they are looking for?
- Should communities be gated or public? Does this matter?
- How do we moderate content while ensuring individuals feel safe?
Tools
- Forums: Gathering based on interest
- Game lobbies and public squares: A temporary bringing-together of otherwise completely unrelated individuals
- Meeting rooms and Gather.town: Intentional spaces to meet and mingle with coworkers and friends
Parasocial Relationships
One-to-many ‘broadcast’ relationships.
Questions
- How do we ensure these relationships are healthy for all parties involved?
- Should content be moderated in this relationships? Is this the responsibility of the individual, the platform, or the viewer?
Tools
- Twitch, Celebrities, and Internet Figures: Gathering around a single person because of personality/content
- Newsletters and personal sites: Public places of exploration and self-identity, self-owned corners of the internet
Private Channels
Spaces for one-to-one interaction.
Questions
- Almost all of these mediums are on a sliding scale of how ‘realtime’ the medium is, yet none of them are obsolete. Why is that?
- Who has power in the channels? What tools are there for safety?
Tools
- Letters and Mail: Completely asyncronous text based communication
- Messages: Instantaneous text or audio based communication with a history log. No immediate urgency to reply
- Calling: Audio/video based live communication