Community and Global Society

The group was formed as a way for people who make their living from creative pursuits to meet with other creative professionals for socializing and friendship. One of the main activities that this group does on a regular basis is meeting up to attend First Thursday Art gallery walks on the first Thursday of every month. This group is interesting to me because it is a local group that relies on global communication technology to make connections. It is the mix of local community facilitated by global communications that fascinates me.

            Smith and Doyle discuss the concept of de-localization that can be caused by globalization. In this process things that have traditionally been handled or conducted locally can now be done on a global basis, because of the ease of communication facilitated by global technology. I think the Meetup group I am studying makes an interesting counterpoint to this idea. Technology that makes it possible to build a sort of community across great distances can also be used to facilitate community building locally.

            William Galston’s discussion of the early effects of the Internet on community applies to what is happening at Meetup.com as well. His description of scientists trying to evaluate the impact of television on community in the early 1950s describes what it is like trying to judge the impact of the Internet on community today. It is too early for us to see what the real impact will be, because the technology is developing far more rapidly than we can analyze it. Meetup.com is an experiment in internet community that has developed because the technology to support it was available. It is a logical next step from social networking, allowing people with mutual interests to find and get to know each other on-line, with the goal of deciding if they want to meet in person. It is hard to say how successful this experiment is or how it will develop, but it is interesting to observe.

            Social Capital seems to be the most difficult part of building community on-line. The Northwest Creative Social Group has a lot of members, over 400, but only about 25% have been active on the site in the last six months. The social events organized by the group get very small attendance and the group has gone through several leaders, who seem to get discouraged and quit every few months. The problem may be that the group is too loosely defined and that the people who sign up for it really don’t have enough in common to actually come together as a community. Meetup.com has several groups with different interests and some of them seem to be more successful at building community.