Caught up in the web
It’s impossible to blow your nose these days without the news showing up on some online social networking site or other. Facebook, the most popular among adults, had one million members in Belgium last October and topped the two million mark last March, or 20% of the population.
Online networks help Flemish groups connect in the real world
If Facebook was a country, it would be, with its membership of about 200 million, the fifth largest in the world.
Aside from sheer numbers, Facebook is becoming more a part of people’s online lives: you can join a group to support your favourite couples in the TV show Mijn Restaurant!; politicians of every stripe have fan clubs in the run-up to the June elections; the facility municipalities around Brussels all have their supporters’ groups on Facebook.
Other social online media are also overwhelmingly part of the culture: MySpace has created a thriving market in independent music out of the reach of the big labels; Susan Boyle went from karaoke in the pubs of Blackburn, West Lothian, to international stardom thanks to YouTube. When Oprah sent her first update to Twitter, it made headlines across the world (though Stephen Fry has been doing it for ages).
The use of social networking websites can strengthen the cohesion of offline community organisations, according to research carried out by a team from the Interdisciplinary Institute for Broadband Technology (IBBT). A three-year, Europe-wide research project, Citizen Media also involved researchers from the Free University of Brussels’ (VUB) Studies on Media, Information and Telecommunications (SMIT) lab.
According to Bram Lievens of SMIT, the goal of Citizen Media was to see if the wealth of technology available today could be used to improve the social participation of ordinary people and groups, making it faster and easier for them to access and share information.
“The focus at present is always on online communities, but online groups have to go offline to meet for real,” Lievens says. “In the meantime, there exists a whole world of offline groups – and Flanders is rich in associations – so we wanted to turn the question around and see what the online world could do for them.”
The research looked at two contrasting interest groups and compared their organisation and activities before and after the creation of a dedicated networking website for each of them. The results show a marked influence of the online network on the offline group, and, in both cases, a majority of members found that influence to be positive.
One group was a neighbourhood organisation in Hasselt made up of about 85 families living in three adjacent streets and described as having an informal structure with no prominent leader. This group was defined by its geographical location, since all members were neighbours living in one particular area.
The second group was wholly different: an organisation of about 50 gay activists in Brussels, who take part in activities together, like hiking, cooking and weekends away. Action oriented and with a membership based on identity, this group has a strong committee structure with office-holders and clearly-defined duties.
Both groups set up websites with the social-networking site www.ning.com, which allows anyone to create their own network similar to Facebook or MySpace. Members can upload photos and videos, exchange messages and post announcements, but access can be restricted to group members only.
Research results show that the reaction of members of the groups to the new networks was largely positive. “I don’t know how it happened, but all of a sudden I’ve got friends,” commented one member of the gay group to researchers. A member of the Hasselt neighbourhood group, meanwhile, explained how the network had an influence on everyday life: “Now, whenever I see a video-clip from my neighbour on the website, I’ve immediately got something to talk to him about when we bump into each other. The barrier to conversation has been lowered.”
“The website shows what’s going on within the organisation,” said a member of the gay group. “You can see photos and videos of activities, and that encourages members to take part themselves.”
The online network responds to several concrete requirements of the social group, the researchers found. The website is personalised to reflect the group identity and “social heritage” is built up from photos and videos. “The community website is an entity that gives me identity,” a member of the Brussels group commented. “It gives me the chance, while sitting at home, to participate in something.’’
The different natures of the two groups is reflected in what is considered heritage: for the gay group, people and events, and for the neighbourhood group, views of the area from the past.
