Tutorial Six: The internet and online communities

This week we were required to search the internet for an online community that interested us. I chose "Living and Raw Foods: The largest community on the internet for living and raw food information". The web address of this site is: http://www.living-foods.com/index.shtml

The focus of this community is twofold: firstly it is to inform the world about the benefits of raw food, following a premise that many health problems result from a diet that includes chemicals, preservatives, artificisal additives, pesticides and cooking. It's second focus is to support and inform its members keeping them updated with the latest resources and information.

This comprehensive site offers recipies and articles relating to raw and living foods. It has a central location page for resources for example it lists restaurants from around the world that offer raw and living foods, relevant books and magazines, support groups and organisations that support people in maintaining a living/raw food lifestyle.

The site is interactive with online discussions, and a realtime chatroom. People can contribute by posting notices, asking questions, supplying articles.

I imagine people would choose to contribute to this community because it draws those with similar thinking and beliefs together. It is a place where people can seek to expand or pool their knowledge, and gain or give support to others.

An example of the types of topics being discussed include:

1) Living and Raw Food Discussion eg

Can you eat kiwi skins? You know the fuzzy brown part? If so are there any essential nutrients in it? Seems silly for me to skin them before eating

2) Juicing, Juicers, Blending and Blenders Discussion eg

Hi, I just bought a citrus juicer and have been juicing oranges, tangelos, etc. averaging about 12 ounces a day. a bunch of oranges i have are going bad soon and im juicing them, meaning today i had about 20 - 24 ounces? is that too much acid?

3)Recipe Discussion eg

Hi guys,could you please advice on how to dehydrate tomatoes please ?

Hmmm interesting discussions but are there potential ethical issues that may arise in this community? Well I think so, there is no accountability, anyone can give advice, which may or may not be accurate so information may need to be verified from a reputable source.

There are benefits this sort of online community holds over the traditional notion of community that is based on proximity. For instance:

• People from around the world can contribute to this site, allowing a large diversity and volume of information.
  


• It brings together people who may live in towns and cities without raw/living food communities, enabling large numbers of people to connect.



• The alternative nature of this community means it may be difficult or limited to meet others with similar ideas regarding food.

Having said that, benefits of traditional communities include:

• The ability of members to physically meet everyone within its community



• Physical resources eg books for borrowing



• Inclusive of everyone regardless of computer skills