Research Online Communities TEDx Talk by Mark Wills - 275 Words

Research Online Communities: TEDx Talk by Mark Wills (Essay Sample) Content: NameCourseTutorDateOnline CommunitiesTEDx Talk link: /watch?v=OhOUNsATofUIn module 11 we learned about online communities. The advancement of the Internet allowes people to interact primarily online. In the module, we covered the basics of online communities. In order to explore the topic, I listened to a TEDx Talk by Mark Wills entitled, The Online Community-A New Paradigm. Mark is one of site administrators for an online community known as Experts Exchange, which is a Question and Answer forum for people who are in need of answers for their technological problem.In the video, Mark outlines how the concept of online communities challenges our understanding of what a community is. A number of factors like age, geographic boundaries, ethnicity, and age do not exist in an online community. The community exists because of a number of factors. To begin with, members have a set of shared values and they come to the forum to address their problems. Secondly, there is commun ity management where every member is an active participant. Furthermore, there are terms of use which every member is expected to uphold. Moderators are appointed to help in enforcing the terms. The last aspect is trust among the members. The experts must be trustworthy to allow people to ask questions freely.Nonetheless, online communities like Expert Exchange have some ch...