An important new type of community is emerging with the rapid advances in communication technologies: communities that cross cultural and political boundaries to engage in a commerce of information exchange. While there has been much research focused on the technological development of computersupported collaborative work, less is known about sociocultural attitudes and an understanding of how people perceive “belongingness” to a community in an environment where interaction is mediated by shared computer resources

Sudweeks, Fay

English

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C. Ess and F. Sudweeks (eds). Proceedings Cultural Attitudes TowardsCommunication and Technology ’98, University of Sydney, Australia, 127-128.CYBERSOCIALISMGroup Consciousness in Transnational CommunitiesFAY SUDWEEKSKey Centre of Design ComputingUniversity of Sydney NSW 2006 AustraliaAn important new type of community is emerging with the rapid advances incommunication technologies: communities that cross cultural and politicalboundaries to engage in a commerce of information exchange. While there hasbeen much research focused on the technological development of computer-supported collaborative work, less is known about sociocultural attitudes and anunderstanding of how people perceive “belongingness” to a community in anenvironment where interaction is mediated by shared computer resources.What, for example, defines a group whose members communicate in a“vacuum” unrestrained by time and space and never meet face-to-face? Canthere be a sense of shared identity? Marx writes that the development of “classconsciousness” - an awareness of an identification with a group of people whoshare like interests - is a precondition for a class existence. Weber writes that a“community” can exist for geographically dispersed individuals if there is asense of meaningful identity and shared experience. I argue that for members ofso-called virtual communities who are culturally diverse, geographicallydispersed and temporally asynchronous, there must exist a sense of groupconsciousness in addition to, inter al a, shared identity, purpose, communicationstyle, cooperation and cohesiveness.In this paper, I use a case study of a distributed collaborative group of morethan one hundred researchers whose goal was an examination of selectedquantitative characteristics of computer-mediated communication. Thecollaborators proposed a research study to satisfy a shared desire to understandmore clearly the nature of communication, culture and community on thenetwork. The group used asynchronous computer-mediated communication as atool for project management and for the distribution, collection and verificationof data. Participant recruitment, distribution of information, coordination,formulation of policies, decision making, encouragement and data exchangetook place through public and private email. The group was heterogeneous inage, qualifications, affiliation, research experience, culture, and nationality.128 FAY SUDWEEKSAfter the two-year project was completed, a survey questionnaire wasdistributed to and collected from the participants of the collaborative group viathe Web and email. The survey included seven open-ended questions and 37closed-ended questions which were constructed to determine if groupconsciousness exists, using the following criteria:§ the collaborative process§ task delegation§ interpersonal relationships§ participation patterns§ formal management§ informal management§ the mediumThe closed-ended questions were presented in a Likert-type scale, yieldingordinal measures. Qualitative analysis and quantitative statistics are applied toopen-ended and closed-ended responses respectively to find support for anumber of hypotheses.From the findings related to the hypotheses, collaborative group processes ina computer-mediated environment can be predicted, thereby integrating,facilitating and coordinating distributed communities. The results of the studyimpacts on the research in another emerging phenomenon of presentglobalization, that of transnational communities and their behavioral patterns.Contrary to collaboration in virtual communities, this form of groupcollaboration emerged from the globalization of capital and the differentials ofadvantage created by political boundaries, thus exploiting cultural differences asan organizing foundation of community activities. Paralleling Marx'sdescription of the proletariat as created and placed into the historical scene byits future class adversaries, so today’s roaming capitalist ventures have givenrise to the conditions and incentives for the transnationalization of labour.Research on these communities points to potentially serious social andeconomic problems based on cultural differences and entrenched inequalities.The findings in this research suggest that information and communicationtechnologies can amalgamate cultural and economic diversity, thus giving birthto a truly global culture.

Cybersocialism. Group Consciousness in Transnational Communities

Elektronisch archivierte Theorie - Sammelpunkt

C. Ess and F. Sudweeks (eds). Proceedings Cultural Attitudes Towards
Communication and Technology ’98, University of Sydney, Australia, 127-128.
CYBERSOCIALISM
Group Consciousness in Transnational Communities
FAY SUDWEEKS
Key Centre of Design Computing
University of Sydney NSW 2006 Australia
An important new type of community is emerging with the rapid advances in
communication technologies: communities that cross cultural and political
boundaries to engage in a commerce of information exchange. While there has
been much research focused on the technological development of computer-
supported collaborative work, less is known about sociocultural attitudes and an
understanding of how people perceive “belongingness” to a community in an
environment where interaction is mediated by shared computer resources.
What, for example, defines a group whose members communicate in a
“vacuum” unrestrained by time and space and never meet face-to-face? Can
there be a sense of shared identity? Marx writes that the development of “class
consciousness” - an awareness of an identification with a group of people who
share like interests - is a precondition for a class existence. Weber writes that a
“community” can exist for geographically dispersed individuals if there is a
sense of meaningful identity and shared experience. I argue that for members of
so-called virtual communities who are culturally diverse, geographically
dispersed and temporally asynchronous, there must exist a sense of group
consciousness in addition to, inter al a, shared identity, purpose, communication
style, cooperation and cohesiveness.
In this paper, I use a case study of a distributed collaborative group of more
than one hundred researchers whose goal was an examination of selected
quantitative characteristics of computer-mediated communication. The
collaborators proposed a research study to satisfy a shared desire to understand
more clearly the nature of communication, culture and community on the
network. The group used asynchronous computer-mediated communication as a
tool for project management and for the distribution, collection and verification
of data. Participant recruitment, distribution of information, coordination,
formulation of policies, decision making, encouragement and data exchange
took place through public and private email. The group was heterogeneous in
age, qualifications, affiliation, research experience, culture, and nationality.
128 FAY SUDWEEKS
After the two-year project was completed, a survey questionnaire was
distributed to and collected from the participants of the collaborative group via
the Web and email. The survey included seven open-ended questions and 37
closed-ended questions which were constructed to determine if group
consciousness exists, using the following criteria:
§ the collaborative process
§ task delegation
§ interpersonal relationships
§ participation patterns
§ formal management
§ informal management
§ the medium
The closed-ended questions were presented in a Likert-type scale, yielding
ordinal measures. Qualitative analysis and quantitative statistics are applied to
open-ended and closed-ended responses respectively to find support for a
number of hypotheses.
From the findings related to the hypotheses, collaborative group processes in
a computer-mediated environment can be predicted, thereby integrating,
facilitating and coordinating distributed communities. The results of the study
impacts on the research in another emerging phenomenon of present
globalization, that of transnational communities and their behavioral patterns.
Contrary to collaboration in virtual communities, this form of group
collaboration emerged from the globalization of capital and the differentials of
advantage created by political boundaries, thus exploiting cultural differences as
an organizing foundation of community activities. Paralleling Marx's
description of the proletariat as created and placed into the historical scene by
its future class adversaries, so today’s roaming capitalist ventures have given
rise to the conditions and incentives for the transnationalization of labour.
Research on these communities points to potentially serious social and
economic problems based on cultural differences and entrenched inequalities.
The findings in this research suggest that information and communication
technologies can amalgamate cultural and economic diversity, thus giving birth
to a truly global culture.


Cybersocialism. Group Consciousness in Transnational Communities

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Elektronisch archivierte Theorie - Sammelpunkt