i have started with a chapter out of jenny preece’s book, Online Communities: Designing Usability, Supporting Sociability. the chapter dealt with social networking analysis of online groups. there were some very interesting points made, such as an interesting comparison between the virtual world and the physical one. in the physical world, there is little reciprocity between weak ties. in the virtual, however, this seems to be the opposite case. weak ties are more easily maintained through accepted patterns of reciprocity and due to the lack of physical cues, which can make participants more willing to share personal information (hmmm, am i not the only one with a way too personal category!). “as long as people return to the group, which is often achieved by ensuring fresh information, reciprocity is likely to occur” (181).

jenny also talks a bit about critical mass (community only worth joining if there is sufficient people to make it worthwhile and interesting). i think that bloggers achieve critical mass, not through a visible community of participants (not really that many comments if you consider it in ratio to the number of posts), but through the posts themselves which not only provides fresh content, but also through alluding to other blogs and through various styles of linking, giving the illusion of a present community, which in actuality is dispersed in a network of separate URL’s.

the idea behind critical mass is not anything surprisingly new, but it is nice to have some terminology to begin to associate with weblog communities that i had not thought of using beforehand, but turns out to be surprisingly fitting. i also really find her analysis of the behaviors of weak and strong ties in a community very useful in the way webloggers communicate/reciprocate (with) each other.