I had an interview with Richard Watts from Triple R radio, a fantastic community radio station here in Melbourne. There were a couple of things raised in the interview that i felt were interesting.

The idea of mobilisation of an online community is a strange one. The use of the word 'community' for people who are essentially on their own behind computer screens is an intriguing one. Do people really feel like they belong? feel collected and connected?

Personally I feel like my engagement is limited and very 'me' focused. I go online, get the information I need, access that which is required and log off. I am very aware of help communities like dv creators, vj forums and the Macworld forums, but again these are usually "OH MY GOD MY COMPUTER HAS CRASHED AND I HAVE A VIDEO TO MAKE BEFORE 2PM" type situation. You go there  - you get what you need and you leave again...its kind of selfish really....I have never answered a question for someone else, after all.

SO is this idea of an 'online community' actually a misnomer? I am aware of MMORPG's, online dating/chat sites and Second Life which definitely has a sense of many people being involved in discussion and activity in the online realm, so perhaps it does exist and I just don't have access to it.

I think one question for Kate and I during this process has been how can we access these diverse groups of individuals and to mobilise them to think differently about the real world and real world activities.



One particular example of this sort of mobilisation for us has been the case of Neda during the Iranian election protests this year. Her death which was videod and then put onto You Tube became a rallying cry for the disaffected voters in the allegedly rigged election. During a furious Twitter campaign, both Iranians and online activists worldwide used the hashtag device #Neda to bring awareness of her and of the plight of the protests.

So from the streets the fight was taken online and then back onto the streets again...somehow this makes me interested in the future of social media and confident in the ability of humans to use the technology to overcome the censoring ability of governments and corporations. Although the fight in Iran was lost, the future of the protesters has been buoyed by the possibility of resistance.