I teach a course on digital communities, in which we explore the idea/l of a community, and look at theories of online communities. (if interested, take a look at my previous course blogs here and here).

While Fall 14 semester is still far away, I have already begun to plan the course — because of HONY – the photo blogging art/book/Facebook project based in New York.

I have decided that we will explore the issues of

 

gender, race, and class,

 

globalization and migration,

 

 

 

as well as states of alone-togetherness (as by Turkle)

 

‘cognitive surplus’ and generosity (as by Shirky),

 

 

and even some concrete lessons about social media, marketing, copyrights and crowdfunding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We will try to get to the bottom of why this multimedia art project / global Facebook debate forum has touched so many people all around the world. Why and how did HONY become a community?