Welcome into week 3! Did you start your digital journey this week? I want to share my digital writing experience for week 3 with my fellow writers. This week we covered participation with virtual communities. Participatory culture covers how much you are engaged with the online author and readers. Also, creating content that helps the community. I admit before this class I have never created content, it has been exciting, and it allows me to explore something new. Creating content can be an outlet to express yourself, while sharing your knowledge to help someone else in the community. It's also a way to build social connections, become a mentor, and create a positive virtual environment. I learned that a virtual community can lend support, exchange ideas, and offer encouragement with groups of people with common interest. Also, we covered the difference between social networks and virtual communities.
Honestly, I haven't considered the difference before this week. Sure, I have social networks where I communicate with people I know and I like and share their content. Whereas with virtual communities you would actually create, coordinate, and collaborate as a group to share ideas, solve problems, and create content. I am apart of several virtual communities where we share the same interest. The one that I share the most with is a home decor group, we share decorating tips, pictures, and designs. It's nice to communicate with people of the same interest. Cultivating a culture of participation means I/we have to participate, engage, and create content. I was definitely just receiving information without realizing that by not actively engaging and creating, I was doing myself and my community a disservice. Also, while creating content we must be mindful of the content we make public. We have to ensure it's proper for our audience, ethical, and culture diverse. Keep in mind that whatever you place online leaves a digital footprint, which is a digital account of what you have posted that does not go away.
What I thought was interesting is the percentages of engagement amongst the community. I think the four levels of community engagements are spot on about audience participation. So, I will breakdown the levels. Majority, 80% of the audience are Lurkers, I like to call them lookie-loo's, where they (me included) are just reading and clicking on content. Then you have the Opportunist, this group sits at 10-20% level where they may ask questions or offer feedback. At the Contributors level which is fairly lower at 3-10%, this part of the audience shows interest in the group by giving a large number of reviews and answering questions. The last level are Creators which accounts for a very low percentage of 0-3% (Steffen, 2025). This small percentage of a audience will create new content to establish an engaging community. "Full participation in contemporary culture requires not just consuming messages, but also creating and sharing them" (Rheingold, 2012).
I was hesitant when I first read the assignment to create my own blog, now it's another tool to have in my toolbox. What does it take for people to move from Lurkers to Creators? I think people have to feel comfortable in a particular setting, have a passion, and be knowledgeable in a subject matter. Lastly, the class touched on having a public versus a private voice. A public voice is offering content through posting new ideas, leading, and offering tags (other sources for information) that is relevant to the group. A private voice is established when the creator shares private information and takes on a personal tone with the audience. I want to thank everyone for joining in on my digital writings this week. I'm learning a lot! For further information on participation with virtual communities please check out Howard Rheingold's book Netsmart: How to thrive online, chapter 3 pages 111-141.
Question of the week😊
What would you consider to be your level of participation a Lurker, Opportunist, Contributor, or Creator?
Rheingold, H. (2012) Netsmart: How to Thrive online. MIT Press
https://canvas.odu.edu/courses/195854/pages/03-%7C-overview?module_item_id=8635621
Steffen, V. T. (2025) Participatory Culture [Module 5] Canvas.
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