CITATION AND COPYRIGHT INFORMATION:
Cite as: Schaefer, D. J. (1997). Rethinking online community: Making sense of an ideal speech situation. Unpublished manuscript.
© David J. Schaefer (1997).

ABSTRACT:
In the final years of the twentieth century, the growth in popularity of computer networking has been widely reported. In the U.S., almost forty percent of households now own personal computers, while fifteen percent subscribe to an online service (Searcher, 1997). The number of Internet users worldwide has expanded to more than thirty million and shows no sign of leveling off until well into the twenty-first century (Attwood & Parker, 1997; Kantor & Neubarth, 1996). Meanwhile, by most accounts, corporate intranet (internal network) growth has skyrocketed: it has been reported that at least fifty percent of surveyed corporations will install internal networks by the end of 1997 (Cyberatlas, 1997). Telephone companies in metropolitan areas have rapidly activated new area codes to alleviate shortages caused in part by increased modem usage (Siskos, 1997). Further, Schuler (1996) points out that the growth of internetworking in other countries is occurring at almost twice the rate of that in the U.S.

Proponents assert that these technologies can be usefully employed to create online communities characterized by free and equal participation by all members. Hiltz and Turoff (1993) argue that through computerized conferencing

[w]e will become the Network Nation, exchanging vast amounts of both information and social-emotional communications with colleagues, friends, and “strangers” who share similar interests, who are spread out all over the nation . . . . It will offer major opportunities to disadvantaged groups in the society to acquire the skills and social ties they need to become full members of the society. (pp. XXIV-XXV).

However, despite reported successes of various projects, current research on computer-mediated communication (CMC), group decision support software (GDSS), and other computer conferencing technologies suggest that significant barriers to the creation of effective online communities still exist. Many of these difficulties stem from that fact that little work has been done to develop theory for online conference design. Typically, current designs encourage the free exchange of information among users within a “marketplace of ideas” but do not assist users in negotiating contextual and interpretational differences in meaning. Such differences tend to be exacerbated in online environments that restrict the amount of contextual information that can be transmitted from user to user.

In this paper, I suggest that an online environment that approximates a Habermassian-style ideal speech situation can alleviate some of these difficulties. In such an environment, all participants would be able to freely and equally negotiate the context as well as the content of their discourses. A useful approach for this endeavor is Dervin’s (1983, 1994) Sense-Making methodology, which prescribes procedural techniques that can be used in the design of information systems to facilitate user negotiation of context and meaning. In the sections that follow, I explore the historical development of online communities, summarize key research trends in CMC, GDSS, and interface design, and propose a new model for local, national, or international collaborative communities.

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