The online 'pub crawl'

In the latest edition of First Monday (here) there was thought provoking article by Nancy Baym entitled 'The New Shape of Online Community: The example of Swedish independent music fandom'. In line with my own research, it was interesting to read about how the online Swedish community mediated their music related fandom through the online community. I also particularly enjoyed how this article avoided the common diversion of lingering on a definition of terms like 'community':

Ultimately it matters less what we call it than how well we understand it.

This article concludes with an interesting development on how we study the intersecting nature of social networking technology. This has many implications for future research as already many authors are concerned with the different social aspects of Myspace compared to Facebook. The question is how can we study a range of different online communities empirically? To do this we need a method that transcends a range of different online communication practices.

Another interesting point that Baym draws upon is how are we could understand each of the social networking communities collectively. As it is not simply a case of representing how each online community works, we need a way to understand how people manage their (potential) identities in each social network.

This requires a methodology that understands how each person represents their commitment to a social network in individually significant terms. Therefore, including the use of photoblogs. I would have typically campaigned for a discursive approach, however, it would struggle to account for the impact of photographs.

A form of interactional matrix could be used to empirically study the way each user is tied to a network of differing socially organised communities. The 'pub crawl' metaphor that Nancy uses explains the way individuals effortlessly glide from each online community to the next. Therefore, to study each community in itself, misses the individual significance of being able to transcend a number of different social networks.

Mediation could be an interesting point to begin a discussion on how each person connects with a range of social networks. In Nancy Baym's article the particular online community under scrutiny is connected by an interest in Swedish music. Perhaps, one way we could begin to discuss online communities is how each person manages online relations by mediating different online identities in an appropriate skill and manner. Therefore, at any moment we are searching to empirically reconstruct the affordances that are interactionally meaningful in a range of social networks.