What do acorns and oak trees have to do with online communites?

I think that all the debate about online community stems from the fact that we are comparing acorns to oak trees and forgetting about saplings altogether. We want to equate connections (acorns) between people with fully developed cities and civilizations (oak trees). At the same time, we overlook emerging communities (saplings).

The DNA exists within humans to form communities, but the right conditions do not always exist. Saplings do not have all the characteristics of oak trees. Emerging communities do not have all the characteristics of entire civilizations.

But to completely disregard the emerging nature of a sapling and it’s potential to become an oak tree is rather ludacris. Likewise, I think ignoring emerging online communities because they don’t look anything like mature offline communities is rather silly as well. What We Need I’ve discussed developing a three dimensional fluid definition of community here.

Additionally, we need a list of characteristics that help identify ... more.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.