"Community" in Cyber Space?

Is it possible for us to really 'belong' to a community that exists only in cyber space? This depend, in part, I think on how we define the word 'community' and what it means to belong.

Prior to the existence of cyber space as such, communities were physical co-locations of individuals who were gathered for some reason. The reasons for forming communities included residential, economic, child-rearing, safety, etc. Such communities implied a shared set of values and mutual obligations - though how strong these bonds were depended on the individual and on community pressure. In a sense these communities reflected an extended family that was sometimes a real extended family and sometimes an occassional or created family. The obligations and bonds between individuals were reinforced by the physical context and the forced intimacy of the communities. Physical presence and activities made it difficult to take on any alternate or new identities.

Cyber communities, on the other hand, are gathered from a common interest or from an artificial social network. While these gatherings share much in common with physical communities, these virtual communities do not share the same communal pressure or intimacy enforced or created by the physical context. An individual can be or become whatever he or she desires - merely with a few keystrokes and the joining of a new community. Identity is fluid and the possibilities of deception and the transgression of obligations and bonds an easy thing.

So the question must be asked, 'Is real community possible in cyber space?" If community is possible in this new space, do we need to define a new social ethic, new obligations and new bonds to one another?

The New Residential Academic Community: Virtual and Vital

The history of higher education shows academic institutions as both repositories of received wisdom and places where new knowledge is created. Historically, students attended to learn from faculty, both presuming that most learning occured in the classroom. The problem was and is, of course, that the majority of learning in residential institutions of higher education occurs outside of the classroom - in discussions, reading, studying and research.

So now that technology has thoroughly transformed what the current generation of undergraduate student thinks of as their "community," where and how does learning take place? And are we as academics aware of this new residential space where students live much of the time?

Social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, along with instant chat and other forums, provide a much wider residential area, not all of which is conducive to the aims of critical liberal education. Compounding the lack of intentionality in this new residential space of liberal education, most faculty are not a part of the "net generation" and are genuinely uncomfortable in the cyber community.

I think that we as academics need to create intentional space within this new residential space. This intentional space should be related to who we are, what we are teaching and the physical communities where we leave and breathe. Students should be engaged in both places, one connecting to the other and back again. But at the same time, we need to be aware of the larger community students have joined and learn from along the way. Students need to be connected to both communities, cyber and physical, with the clear understanding of the implications of one for the other.