For Harry, the day of reckoning is here. The waves are crashing and the tide is rising. He can see it, a shiny purple, empty shell. It's even roomier than he could have ever imagined. Will it be worth the sacrifice of leaving the sanctity of his own shell? With a speed somewhat slower than a
dash, he moves his soft body into the new abode. He parades down
the beach wearing his new shell that he handpicked to fit
his attitude.
We're all hermit crabs in this world, but for us our forms of
expression aren't limited to the shells we find on the beach or
the clothes we wear. Our soft, sometimes vulnerable, bodies consist
of those interests, hobbies, and special projects that we all
hold so close to our hearts. So how can we share these ideas
with more than just those whom we live with? It's simple. Just
a find a shiny, new shell and move in. There are thousands of
shells out there just waiting for us.
Case in point, virtual communities. There are tons of vacant
virtual "houses." Currently, a special project for
me is the video documentary I am producing on the Texas Theatre.
Due to the nature of the project, some day it will be on home
video or even television somewhere, but how do I share with others
what I am learning as I progress in the project? I picked an
empty shell in an online community called Geocities www.geocities.com.
When I arrived at the geocities homepage, I was able to browse
through neighborhoods of interest (for me, the neighborhood called
"hollywood"). Once I found a suitable neighborhood,
I went househunting (looking for a
place to post a web site). I was able to browse through the suburbs.
I could literally see each house in the suburb (in the form of
a house icon). If a house was occupied, the sign out front gave
the name of the occupant, if not the sign read "vacant."
From here it became a matter of selecting the simplest house address
to remember. House "5789" was vacant so I moved in
with a click. Within a day, I was approved for furnishing my
new house along as I agreed not to post offensive material. I
used some basic web publishing software to build my furniture
(Adobe Pagemill, free at www.adobe.com). My house is now the
home of my special project, and anyone across the world can enter
the front door at any time of the day to find out where I am in
my project.
I also instantly made thousands of neighbors, and I am eligible
to receive a free daily online newspaper sent directly to my email
and an online community newsletter.
But you don't need a special project to move into your own virtual
house free of charge. Perhaps your church or community organization
would like to post information about upcoming events or goals.
Maybe you would simply enjoy telling the world about yourself,
and you would like to see if anyone out there has the same interests.
A man who hasn't lived in Seguin for decades found the video documentary site on accident one day "stumbling" through the web, as he called it. Now, he is booked to provide his testimony about the theatre.
This is a great way for anyone unsure of their Internet capabilities
to find a place on the virtual frontier. You don't have to go
to Geocities, you can use search engines to find other communities
with the key words "online community" or "free
web sites." In many cases, your local Internet provider
will give you access to a homestead on their network, but you
might miss out on the sensation of being a part of a community
which is formed by people from all over the world.
In a modern world which cherishes its physical separation from
others, we are being given the chance to forge relationships with
complete strangers (usually ones that share our interests) and
a minimum amount of danger. Your new online neighbors can't reach
out of the screen and choke you.
This unfolding trend to find community through your computer might
very well be a social wave of the future, as we finally extinguish
physical and cultural boundaries. The Internet doesn't have to
be the cold, intimidating monstrosity that many of us have made
it out to be. It can be a gateway to finding people that think
just like you.
Shortly later, Harry stumbles onto a whole group of purpleshelled
hermit crabs. Confident of his credentials, Harry crawls into
the midst of the group and takes a nap.
Recommended reading: "The Virtual Community" by Howard
Rheingold published
by Harper Perennial 1994.
Chris Elley owns and operates Chris Elley Productions and is a
Communication Studies senior at Texas Lutheran University. You
can learn more about his video documentary at www.geocities.com/hollywood/studio/5789
or you can email him at cep4u@msn.com .
If you are interested in submitting an article, Internet Beat column coordinator Gloria R. Rivera can be contacted at:
303-4764
riverag@connecti.com
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