Thursday, October 27, 2011

COMMUNITY

A community is a social group that share many of the same characteristics. A community might be under a single government. They may practice similar religions. They are all on the same technological level. In more general terms, it's just a group of people who share the same ideas, interests or beliefs. They all are working towards the same goal or place. Everyone shares resources and ideas, which can lead to new advances or ideas among others in the same community. All of these ideas and beliefs are different compared to everyone outside of their community; those aspects are mostly only in the community, but not necessarily the larger society which the community exists within. Online, community can be brought up or organized through many sites such as Facebook. Groups are created and easily found. Material and other content, like on YouTube or Twitter, can be tagged so people can search an interest and find relevant material. Online communities are not necessarily like in-person communities that focus on government or religion, although they can be; they usually focus on a similar hobby or interest. If you use a search engine looking for an interest, you might come across blogs or other user-content that is relevant and interesting.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Defining culture

http://www.blurtit.com/q470255.html
Blurtit
is is a question-answer site where anybody can ask or answer, so validity may be a little questionable. On this answer, the author includes where the word "culture" comes from, mostly focusing on the origins of the term.

http://madisonian.net/2006/12/20/defining-culture/
The Madisonian is a website that focuses on technology and society. There are multiple references and seems very reliable. The authors are all highly-esteemed professors at universities, or someone else within the administration of the schools.

http://www.roshan-institute.org/474552
According to the to headline,
this website "promotes cultural understanding through education and communication". It includes bulletpoints on the various aspects of culture, along with succinct details for each point.

http://www.carla.umn.edu/culture/definitions.html
This is under a program at the University of Minnesota, so seeing as it is from an academic institute it is very reliable. The article focuses on strictly defining the term of culture, with multiple definitions from different people, all together on one page.

http://www.anthrobase.com/Dic/eng/def/culture.htm
This site is a dictionary for anthropology. This specific page uses little sources, mostly referencing others works already on the site, with scarce external references. However, it seems put together very well, and many of the other references have external sources. It is loaded with useful information.