Week 11 Lecture and Reading Reflection

This week’s lecture was given by Marcus Foth and focused upon social capital, networks and communities of place. My basic understanding of the concepts presented is that the ‘traditional’ form of social capital was on the decline but with the rise of the Internet and computer mediated communications social capital is being facilitated in a more unconventional form. I don’t know if this is right this is just how I interpreted it. Marcus described it as 'Hobbiton' as old and 'urban tribes' as new…'community as a collective' is old and 'community as a network' is new.

This week’s reading was written by Marcus Foth as well; Connectivity Does Not Ensure Community. I must admit that I didn’t really take it in…perhaps it was a little dry or I just wasn’t in the frame of mind to absorb information. Basically it was along the same lines as the lecture.

I apologise to Marcus if for some reason you stumbles across this (just as Andy Carvin - the author of week 10's reading - stumbled across my post from last week that was about him). To both of you...it's not that I don't appreciate or have enthusiasm for your work, rather it is that I don't have enthusiasm for blogging. As this semester progresses I am losing interest in my blog so my posts are becoming very brief. I haven't done too bad though. I only had to maintain it for 6 consecutive weeks and I'm now up to 11.