Sunday, July 5, 2015

Community vs. Network and Online Community vs. Social Network

After reading two articles about community vs. Network and online community vs. social network, I am a little confused.

Using my own understanding on the first article, I summarize differences between community and network, which is shown as below.

Community
Network
Small
Large
intimate
Anonymous
By nature or artificial
Artificial
Require whole parts of a person
Require a part(s) of a person

And for the second article, the author states that social media has two forms: online community and social network. And I also summarize differences between them based on my understanding, which is shown as below.

Online Community
Social Network
Each person could have many
Each person has one
Focus on shared things, e.g., interest and profession
Focus on connecting to other people
Have different trajectories
Centered by the person itself

When reading the two articles separately, I agree with both of them. However, after reading the two, I am a little confused.

The first one thinks that one common thing shared could form a network rather than a community, because a community requires higher standards, that is, "nurturing the whole person". And thus, a company that a person works for is a network rather than a community, because it is rare for the person to talk everything, e.g., politics, religions, and private life, in the company.

The second one states that shared things could form an online community rather than a social network. First, each person only has one social network. Second, online community just requires one common thing rather than "nurturing the whole person". Therefore, an online forum for higher-education instructors in Chinese as a foreign language is an online community.

Any points in the two articles and mu understandings are wrong? If not, how to explain the contradiction between them? The main point is whether merely having one common things could form an online community or it requires other higher requirements.

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