April 30th, 2009 by Anitale

What is a community?
Am I part of one community or am I part of several communities?
Is a network a community? Are my friends my community?
Is it important to be recognized as a member of a community? And why?

My first step in a social network was my subscription to orkut.com. That was so many years ago that I cannot remember when exactly that was.
My first blog I wrote in winter 2002/2003 to document my New Zealand trip.

Over the years I subscribed to hundreds of social platforms. Global, national and local, private, leisure, professional, photo, blog, discussion, video, forum and groups. Did I forget something?

Whatever is important (or even not important) to me I can share it online in my social network, in my community. Sharing is easy. Most of my networks are connected to each other. It must be easy and quick.

I know, I did not answer my questions above. I think I have no wise answer.
I think I am part of several online communities. Big ones and small ones and micro communities within a big community. Sometimes I am more active and sometimes less. I noticed that a community becomes my network when I stay active.
The word “friends” need to be redefined. Or we need a new word for “real-they-care-about-me-friends”.
So, are my friends my community? Probably.
And yes it is important to be recognized as a member of a community as long as I share and contribute, I need feedback. I need to know that people care about what I share. It can be positive or negative, but I wouldn’t share if I didn’t seek for recognition.