Last night at a Miami/We Media bloggers dinner (hosted by Alex deCarvalho of Scrapblog)  Andy Carvin and I got into a discussion about how we got blogging…which got us thinking:  how do bloggers get to be bloggers?  Why do we take up self-publishing?  Where did the passion for media–that’s evident in so many of us–come from?

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Communities exist in many forms, from chatter on a forum or bulletin board through to multi-player 3D virtual worlds. But what engagement models work and how can media companies nurture communities without alienating them as devices of corporate interests?

In our open discussion on Thursday at 12.30pm at the WeMedia conference in Miami we hope to engage the community sitting in the audience in a discussion of the different ways of working with communities – without alienating them!

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For the past twenty years, P.O.V. has presented groundbreaking documentary films on PBS, working with filmmakers both emerging and established to present their perspectives to a national audience. The series has always challenged the notion of television as a one-way medium by pioneering innovative projects such as our Talking Back and Community Engagement campaigns, which promoted the idea of “two-way TV” by featuring on-air viewer responses to films and fostering dialogue within communities in local screenings. Since 1996, P.O.V. Interactive has created companion websites for P.O.V. films, providing articles, interviews with filmmakers and experts, innovative interactive features, and acting as a destination for viewer feedback and discussions after broadcast.

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Broadly speaking, “community” can mean a locality, a school, a vocation, even an entire ethnic group or religion – any group bound by a common interest or condition. It may be small, it may be big. The fact is, we all belong to many communities at the same time. Some even overlap because they share a common vision, idea or platform. Conversely, this overlapping could also be because of disagreement.

A community on the Internet is likewise a group of people with something in common, getting together or collaborating in a particular area of cyberspace.

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If you’ve been a little bemused or underwhelmed by the goings-on in Second Life (Swedish embassy, Reuters news bureau) this Get a First Life parody will probably hit the spot.

First Life is a 3D analog world where server lag does not exist. Find Out Where You Actually Live! Go Outside!  Membership is Free!

What’s especially notable, other than the dead-on humor, is that Linden Labs, creators of Second Life, responded with a direct anti-”seize-and-desist” letter. It’s nice to see a company that allows, even encourages, parody and derivative creativity — though given Second Life’s ethos, I’d have been surprised by any other response.

 Coming from the perspective of both a technology person working on international peace-building campaigns and a professor teaching a video-conferenced course entitled “Globalizing Social Activism and Information Technology,” I have been concerned both practically and theoretically with what it means to build community. Community in a connected world all too often means a broad range of connections with questionable depth. While information technology has enabled transnational networks of activists to build campaigns that would have been unimaginable before 1990 – the International Committee to Ban Landmines, the anti-MAI campaigns, and the Zapatistas just to mention the most famous – the experience of many activists and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is that they are talking with a wider range of people, but having less success in mobilizing in their own local areas. While local activism and global connectivity are not necessarily contradictory, many organizations have experienced this dilemma in trying to determine how to allocate their resources and how to be accountable to multiple constituencies.

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If you have some time, check out the webcast of Jan. 27th’s Web 2.0 session from the World Economic Forum, called “How Web 2.0 will mould the future.” The panelists focused on social networking and some discussion of the emerging 3D avatar worlds like Second Life and World of Warcraft. . .

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I’m not sure there’s a better-defined “community” than the members of a college or university. Student, faculty, staff, alumni and friends generally have strong feelings and ties to the institution where they teach, work, study, play and spend (or spent) a good part of their adult life.

With ready access to computers, cell phones, personal data devices and the like, this community has the potential to be one of the most “connected” of communities and benefit from the shared ideas and goals from those both physically located on campus, to those who share a virtual connection.

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The modern world powered by technology has drastically altered our traditional understanding of what a community is. However, in a shift from physical to the virtual, the term “community” has retained its validity, contrary to the gloomy predictions of doomsayers terrified by the atomization of individuals and the disaggregation of communities that never happened. Instead, many new communities sprung up to take advantage of the wealth of information that became available thanks to the Internet. And although “bowling alone” has often morphed into “blogging alone,” the latter manages to amplify and stimulate a truly global conversation in unprecedented ways.

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From The World Economic Forum comes the news that YouTube will start paying those who upload videos.

First of all… at the World Economic Forum… a YouTube announcement? Shouldn’t the folks there be talking about, I don’t know, currency trading or real estate speculation or climate change?

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In my opinion, a community in a connected world is a group of people who effect collective actions through active participation and communication. Generally, communities in an unconnected world are not created and maintained through voluntary participation; families, friends and colleagues are representative examples of communities in the unconnected world. Compared to the unconnected world, the connected world enables people to share ideas and information without limitations of speed or space. As a result, numerous communities are created based on participation of people who share common interests. Furthermore, the network infrastructure enables the communities to dynamically evolve through active communication. Through voluntary participation and active communication, communities in the connected world can grow dynamically, can strengthen their solidarity, and can create collective actions.

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I find the phrase “citizen journalism” is in some cases far too weighty a label for the most interesting examples of the activity. Not every CJ site is about global warming or local democracy in action. . .

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Yahoo was downgraded today by S&P to “sell” from “hold.” Why?

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