Online Community Behavior Guidelines

Background and Purpose

Before we leap into the tools and practices of modern connection, let's review issues that need collective understanding of how digital behavior demands its own "netiquette."

• Online Community Behavior Guidelines

• Issues and behaviors that change when the conversation is digital.

• Privacy: How do we/can we keep ourselves safe on the Net? What are our obligations to each other in the public space?

Every online community needs to have a set of guidelines to live by. Often these guidelines are "unwritten rules" that evolve over time and are enforced by the members of the community. In most professional communities there are often written guidelines that reflect the culture of the organization.

How do we behave as an online community?

This week you explore the topic of netiquette. I'll ask you to develop your own standard that encompasses the issues you find most relevant to today's digital misunderstandings, issues, pitfalls. With technology changing so quickly, too often we do not have a chance to create rules - written, unwritten, or consensus-built. Based on the readings, and our course topic and expectations, develop your own standard for civil behavior in the spaces you will inhabit and build. We'll make them concrete later in the term.

Readings

The Core Rules of Netiquette from the book Netiquette by Virginia Shea

Great Social Media Policies to Adopt from Mashables

One just for Online Students

Activity

Establish guidelines you can later articulate. Are they different from Shea's original (now the gold standard) rules? Consider: