what are
virtual
gatherings?
Gatherings are an exchange of space, time, presence, knowledge. Taking away the physical aspect of gatherings, it becomes an abstract of that communication that gets split into levels of privacy and transparency. Your participation and presence is recorded in the internet.
what are
virtual gatherings?
Gatherings can be said to occur in the exchange of time, presence, and knowledge within the same space. When we communicate with each other over the internet, it is as if we are all gathering in a shared digital space.
What is a virtual gathering?
"The Internet and social media are redefining the spaces in which we live, our relationship to objects and to each other. Social media is a new form of urbanisation, the architecture of how we live together.'
- Are we Human?, Beatriz Colomina & Mark Wigley
What Is a virtual gathering? It is the general consensus that gathering is a form of community and the virtuality of such a community is the lack of physical presence. However, many different people and studies had distinct opinions about these virtual communities. One distinct opinion was that a virtual community was fundamentally a traditional community, albeit without the actual physical contact; in ‘cyberspace’ (Peter Kollock & Marc Smith, 2003, Communities in Cyberspace, Routledge London) In literature, they share a similar stance, that it is almost like an idealist traditional community, imbued with positive moral values.
There are some fine nuances that debunk this opinion. Virtual gatherings share common major points with traditional gatherings but the technology, knowledge and usage of such spaces make up the finer points that arguably places virtual gatherings in its own category. One distinct behavioural difference is that these virtual gatherings tend towards are more lax and neutral forms of communication, probably largely due to the lack of personal identity immediately visible to the community. The gatherings virtually occur largely from shared common interests through the mediation of bulletin boards and networks. The human behaviours from such interactions would be based on humanity and not technology (i.e. hardware and software). Moreover, the realisations of such gatherings are through the ‘uniquity of world telecommunications network together with information-structuring and storing capabilities of computers’ (edited by Linda M. Harasim, Global Networks: Computers and International Communication, 1993, The MIT Press)
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The virtual gathering is a intersection of humanity and technology where people meet in a cyber-situation where geography, ethnicity, gender and culture are not constraints. Alternately, humans manifest, through technology; words, human relationships, data, wealth and power. Aggregation of cultures are realised through consistent random interactions in this virtual space, solidifying congregations of specific or abstract gatherings. We could ‘chat, argue, engage in intellectual discourse, perform acts of commerce, exchange knowledge, share emotional support, make plans, brainstorm, gossip, feud, fall in love, find friends and lose them, play games and metagame, flirt, create a little high art and a lot of idle talk.’ (edited by Linda M. Harasim, Global Networks: Computers and International Communication, 1993, The MIT Press)
Ultimately, virtual gathering is arguably a space in the meta-verse that allows like-minded people irrespective of their geographical, ethnical, cultural differences, to communicate across a variety of topics or allow debate with opposing-minded people. This is driven by our need for communication and interaction and aided by the ever rapidly improving hardware and software at our disposal. It is a community that spans through the world and only restricted by our access to the meta-verse; there is a place for everyone to find a community or several in this space.
What makes the gathering 'virtual'?
The virtual is that which is a thing in part, but not in its entirety. For example, our Facebook profiles may describe who we are, but cannot display the full measure of our identity.
When we enter a digital gathering, it is as if our bodies have taken a virtual form, dwelling in and performing virtual actions on virtual objects within a virtual environment.
How and why did the virtual gathering evolve?
Social Media
"Human biology and mentality was profoundly changed in 1983 by the arrival of the cell phone. The small blinking, buzzing, and beeping object in your hand might be the single prosthetic device that has done the most to transform the human."
- Are we Human?, Beatriz Colomina & Mark Wigley
This timeline showcases the progression of technology, both software and hardware, from the 19th century to present day, as well as relevant external factors to provide a context of the development of virtual gathering over the years.
The Evolution of the Avatar
There are many other forms through which one can be represented online, however, from the evolution of the Avatar alone we see an increase in definition of the online human over the years - this can be seen as a reflection of the on-going project to represent ourselves online with ever-increasing accuracy.
The first multi-user chat platform allowed a user to be represented by their name, but, over the years, advancements in technology have allowed for more and more realistic, life-like avatars.
What broad categories of virtual gatherings are there?
Types of Gathering | Forms of Gathering
Types of Gathering are the basis for online exchanges - they determine the primary purpose of the gatherings.
Social Media
Knowledge
Live Streaming
Transactional
Gaming
Collaborative
Forms of Gathering determine the medium through which communication occurs, and a few forms can co-exist within the same space.
User-created Content
Text Chat
Audio-Visual
Spatial Presence
Social Media
Social Media has the purpose of social networking, either with friends or strangers. These online exchanges could possibly happen through user-uploaded posts and comments, or even in spatial form in a shared environment enabled by Virtual Reality.
We can conclude that all these communities can belong to multiple types and forms of gathering. To find our place in the vast array of different platforms, we can question what needs and desires they fulfil, and how freely, fairly, and effectively they allow us to communicate within them.
Legend
Did you step into a virtual gathering today?
Virtual gatherings have existed a long time, but the types and forms of such gatherings have evolved exponentially in line with emerging technologies, infrastructure and human needs. Today, what we can do and experience with others within these spaces are redefining our sense of identity, as well as our relationships with others. Learn more in the next chapter, What are virtual gatherings like?