the knowledge community that is TRUE BLOOD

I feel as though there are few “communities” today that are more crazed and obsessed than the True Blood community (ok, Harry Potter dominates this field, but True Blood is a close second). So how exactly is it, that we are a knowledge community, not just a bunch of vampire-crazed fans??

The collective intelligence and shared knowledge of involved group members is, in short, what connects them. Jenkins mentions more than once in the two readings, that “none of us can know everything, but each of us knows something.” Combining the knowledge of individuals results in a great collective knowledge.

However, collective intelligence and shared knowledge are not the same. Shared knowledge is something that all members of the group “know” and agree upon – something the group’s very existence is based upon. For True Blood fans, this shared knowledge is comprised of several defining factoids, including (but not limited to):
1. Vampires are real. So are werewolves. And shape-shifters, telepaths, fairies… you get it.
2. The basic rules of being a vampire, modernized of course, and so much sexier.
3. Basic character dynamics and their relationships. Sookie loves Bill, Sam loves Sookie, Eric is the most awesome, etc.

The shared knowledge of a group is necessary for an individual to understand and be a part of the group itself. For example, my friend Alyssa is not a part of the True Blood community, because she doesn’t know the basics. She doesn’t possess the shared knowledge that the rest of the members do. She knows nothing about the plot or details such as names. For goodness sake, she doesn’t know what a Maynad is. In short, she can’t participate in discussions I might have with other friends about the show. She can’t be a part of the community because she lacks the required knowledge.

Collective intelligence is slightly more complicated on a large scale. Even though all group members are technically “combining” their knowledge, no one group member can ever know EVERYTHING. It is this fact that makes discussion and interaction possible within the community. After each True Blood episode, fans get together (more often digitally than in person) to discuss the events that had unfolded in the previous hour. The re-cap all the facts and details, putting them together to answer the one plaguing question: What’s going to happen next?

Engage collective intelligence. As the only avid reader in my household, I’m the only one who’s read all the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris. This gives me access to facts and knowledge about the show that my friends don’t have. Because of the reading, I better understand some of the characters and their backgrounds, as well as much of the plot and its details. I knew Sookie and Bill were going to do it before she even spoke a word to him.

This is what makes up the knowledge community. It allows for communal, rather than individualistic reception of the idea(s). hardly anyone watches True Blood by themselves, and if you do, you can’t wait to discuss it with others. Everyone has their own opinions and hunches (is Arlene’s baby going to be evil, or did Sam really shoot Tommy?), and combining these different viewpoints can result in possible “solutions.” Maybe one day, we’ll actually predict something correctly.

Although the main focus here is on the “knowledge community,” I want to be sure to point out the important roles of convergence culture in all this. Shows like True Blood almost define the concept. Not only does the show combine old and new media (the book into an HBO program), but it brought the printed text alive in several new domains. There are True Blood websites and blogs, t-shirts, dvds… you name it, we’ve got it. Episodes spark “water cooler conversations” all over. I hear them at work, on campus, at Publix, and every time I do, I want to chime in. I feel like I have a connection with the girl in front of me at Sumo Sabi, just because I also want Hoyt and Jessica to get back together. By bringing these conversations outside of our living rooms, we are being active audience members.

Being a part of this community provides me a lot of benefits, most of them social. Through regular screenings and discussion over True Blood, I’ve become closer to my friends, even met a lot of new people because they are also fans. There’s something about extensive knowledge of made-up mythical (and sexual) creatures that really brings people together. I’ve also found certain catchphrases or terms making their way into my vocabulary (“that’s some crazy Maryanne shit”). Being a True Blood fanatic, I mean follower also ensures that I’ve got something to fill my Sunday nights (during the season anyway… come on, season 4!).

Something very important to keep in mind are the differences in the interest of the producers versus the consumers. We want to know what’s going to happen next, we want to figure it out. We go back and forth between episodes, reference the books, even go on fan pages and the HBO site hoping for some revelation. But it is just this that keeps the whole thing going. The producers don’t want us to know, but they want us to want it. By straying so far from the books, they’ve pretty much eliminated any chance I thought I’d had to begin with. The show is ultimately impossible to “spoil.” The fact that Lafayette’s character didn’t even make it past the first book gives me no hope.

Fiction Alley: A Community Road

Like my dear friend DJ, I’m also going to take this time to proudly wave that Geek flag back and forth as I solemnly come out of the closet and admit that I, Sarah Kate, am a Shipper.

Described by Jenkins as “an unauthorized expansion of […] media franchises […] which reflect the reader's desire to ‘fill in the gaps’ they have discovered in the commercially produced material,” the fanfiction community, not small by any means, is quite the clandestine group. It isn’t often that you hear people going down the street proclaiming that they read fanfiction, but believe me when I say they’re there.

Luckily, for me and for all you other shippers out there, there exists a plethora of communities that allow us to bond and share and create together (without letting the rest of the world know about our obsession).

Fanfictions are inspired works of fiction based on previously written books, movies, shows, etc. Literally anything goes in the FF world. You can put characters together, tear them apart, change the story line, place the characters in an AU (alternate universe), create OCs (original characters), change the time frames, the age of the characters, you get the point. Actually, the only thing that makes something a fanfiction is that it either takes place in the world the author originally created or takes original characters and adapts them, because even established characters can be very OOC (out of character).

The community itself is made up of various groups of people that each have their own function. There are writers, readers, artists, mods, prompters, commenters, etc. The readers are the backbone of the community. Without them, the writers would have no one to write for and the groups would fall apart. Within the readers, there are commenters as well as those that go on their merry way not caring to criticize or comment (we still love you, darling silent readers). There are also those who comment with criticism (thank you for making us better writers), those that like to leave encouraging messages (i.e. what a cute story! Good job) and those that just like to splurge on already established writers (OMG I LOVE YOUR STORIES!!!!). You get the point. The mods (modulators) build up a fanfiction base and usually hold fests. For example, during the holidays you will often see a surge of Christmas-based stories, or during February there might be a Glompfest/Lovefest/Huggingfest where all the stories have to be sweet and endearing. The people that create these subgroups in the fanfiction world and who update the sites and post the stories that other authors have turned in to them for the competition are known as “mods.” Anyone in the fandom world can become a mod, but it usually works out if they are a previously established modulator or writer.

I could go on and on about the subcategories and individual people within a fandom, but I’m thinking you’re getting the point.

A fandom works together, in their own knowledge community. There is a vernacular that one adapts, consisting of phrases that someone outside the subject would be completely oblivious to (I.e. mods, shipper, OTP, OOC, OC, AU, PWP, . People can also join as many fandoms as they want, leave specific fandoms, change their roles, and develop alternative personalities for each function. There is a multitude of possibilities within each category.

What makes a fandom work so well as a community is everyone’s interaction with each other. A fanbase for a particular author is also something that comes to fruition in most categories. For example, someone that writes about one specific pairing (OTP) might have a ton of fans that follow them as a writer. So, not only are they following the main group (i.e. Harry Potter fandom), but they also read a specific pairing (i.e Draco/Hermione) written by a specific writer (i.e. DramioneLVR à not a real writer, but a very generic name so probably a real writer. Don’t stalk her! Actually, she might like that, stalk away!).

The community works in a way that allows us to work together and create by a “mutual production and reciprocal exchange of knowledge.” Whoever thinks that people typing away on their computers are alone and ostracized are highly misinformed and clearly need to join a fanbase.

The KC of The RA

As soon as I read what Jenkins meant by “knowledge community,” I knew I had to write about my job as a Resident Assistant with University Housing (applications for 2011-2012 RAs are now up and active - the deadline is January 9, 2011). Not only is the job itself part of a knowledge community, there are also several knowledge communities within the position that I have come to know and work with. I like Jenkins’s (and, actually, Pierre Lèvy’s) definition of a knowledge community and collective intelligence as “no one knows everything, everyone knows something, all knowledge resides in humanity” (27). This to me is the perfect description of the knowledge community of Resident Assistants.

As RAs, it is our job to supervise those students living on campus, making sure they aren’t acting like hot messes while they’re in the halls, fostering living environments which offer interesting and diversified learning experiences, and letting everyone at FSU know that there is no such thing as a DORM at Florida State! We have RESIDNECE HALLS!! Thank you very much. :-)

At the most general level of this knowledge community, we have everyone who is an RA at this moment in time, as well as those who have been there before us. Our worldwide, multi-generational RA family has set up several sites on the internet so that we may share ideas, lend helping hands to our comrades-in-halls, and just share stories about our crazy - though lovable - residents. Some of the main sites for this (like SurvivorSucks.com) are ResidentAssistant.com and ResLife.net.

Within the umbrella community of RAs, we are broken down into groups based on which side of campus we live/work on, which hall we live/work in, and even which floor we’re assigned to. We are also separated into other knowledge communities within Housing, such as committees for Staff Development, Alcohol Awareness Week, Student Staff Selection, Hall Ambassadors, and the list only continues. For my wonderful fellow Broward/Landis/Gilchrist staff members, we are constantly updating each other on our committees’ events and goings-on. We even bring in knowledge from/of organizations outside Housing to enrich our monthly programs and help each other and our residents have the best experience we can offer.

The RA position is an ideal example of Jenkins’s (and Walsh’s) concept of an “expert paradigm [creating] and ‘exterior’ and an ‘interior’ […] there are people who know things and others who don’t” (53). The Head Staff know things the RAs don’t. The RAs know things the residents don’t. There is that constant hierarchy of knowledge which Jenkins discusses along with the brain trusts of the Survivor spoilers (39). Most of the knowledge in this hierarchy, however, is at some revealed to those lower on the ladder’s rungs.

Yet another knowledge community which I have had the great fortune of being introduced to is the NASPA (Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education – I have no idea where they got the acronym…) Undergraduate Fellows Program. This is a national program of students interested in careers in Higher Education/Student Affairs (HESA) which offers students a chance to work with professionals at their institution to learn about the various areas of HESA, gain experience in the field, and work with other students in the program.

Within the program there are even more knowledge communities, which are literally called NASPA Knowledge Communities. They consist of a broad range of topics in HESA, offering discussions and workshops in which students from around the country can participate, sharing their thoughts and knowledge on the different areas.

After reading the sections from Jenkins’s book, I am fast becoming aware of the numerous knowledge communities in which I am involved, and how those KCs are broken down into even more specified KCs.

P.S. Interested in applying to be an RA? Join the Facebook group: RA Selection 2011-2012!!

Letting the Geek Flag Fly

While my classmates discuss generalized knowledge communities, I'm going to once again let my geek flag fly proud as I delve into one of my more intricate and ålesser-explored knowledge communities. For all you game players out there, as few as there may be that actually read this blog, this one is for you.

So I'm talking about knowledge communities. Right from the start that phrase may be a little confusing. Maybe a knowledge community is just a group of Cryptics sitting around sipping tea and reading oversized books while their monocles fog up with steam from their teacups. On the other hand, however, the surface meaning of a knowledge community could be something more complex. Perhaps the knowledge community is a multifaceted array of facets and functions that tie in together through a font of shared information that correlates. The latter seems more scholarly and likely, but the two options are similar regardless of simplicity of explanation.

Jenkins explains new knowledge communities as groups that congregate “through voluntary, temporary, and tactical affiliations, reaffirmed through common intellectual enterprises and emotional investments” (27). Think of this as players that shift from one genre to another. Someone could start out on VtM and quickly shift to WtA after observing the lack of a manipulative and political structure and the presence of comradeship within a system of likeminded characters. The system changes, but people tend to shift within a fluid section. This means that they participate in knowledge communities that typically have overlapping ideas, but some portions of each may be outrageously different and require a move and shift in knowledge culture.

Now think of the nWoD people. Most individuals experienced in the realm of oWoD. This is where things get interesting. With Jenkin’s example of Survivor spoilers, the knowledge communities were composed of individuals either wishing to take the next step in finding out information about the popular television series or those stating that spoilers were going too far as to ruin the entertainment value. Think of nWoD players as the knowledge community that wished for spoilers. The knowledge community “spends a great deal of time debating exactly where you draw the line” (37), but boundaries are still pushed and people step further and further away from original intentions to get what they want.

Ideologies come into play with the focus of opposing knowledge communities or even with the mere existence of knowledge communities. Obviously oWoD is superior, but some people prefer nWoD because of the way all of the systems can be pulled together. In much the same way, these knowledge communities of players are gathering information and spreading it through whatever means necessary to share it.

Spoiling is like a combination of breaking a character and metagaming. People have become so attuned to finding out what happens next and sharing this information however they can that the only step left is to manipulate, find, or create the next big thing based on the shared knowledge base. People make their own “points of contact” (57).

Part of the anatomy of a knowledge community is not only the base system, but also the means by which one spreads and shares the ideas and knowledge. Through this post, the most visible means of facets of the knowledge community are the general base belief or system and the group of individuals that share the ideas. What is potentially even more potent than those two pieces is the means by which the knowledge is spread. Knowledge communities in the digital age spread. Yes, all of the cherished oWoD and nWoD books are printed on pen and paper, but how many people actually go out and purchase a slew of $25 books?

I believe that I speak for many when I say that 4shared.com is probably the most popular database on which one gains their WoD information regardless of new or old system. As part of the knowledge community, the digital portions assist in the spreading of information. The WoD wiki and even Wikipedia itself stores information that the community cherishes. Online chatrooms also perpetuate the discussion of how to gain information on the systems and how to get to 4shared if one should not know how.

Basically, the knowledge community is the Weaver’s web. We all partake in its temptations and it stores so much for us that we cannot help but delve into the array of information that the knowledge community has to share.

Knowledge Community

My Knowledge Community

My knowledge community is like a connection of dominoes. It takes one person and the information trickles down through everybody from just one person. It

is spread through media and technology to reach a mass group of people. I don’t have just one knowledge community. My communities stream through Twitter, Facebook, e-mail and text messaging. These types of communications are for the purpose of fun or school.

My knowledge community is small. It consists of my classmates, my sorority, clubs I am in, just little groups like that. We are just different special interest groups who spread information to

each other. Any one of us can be the originator of the message we want to spread using whatever media form our network of communication is set up on. We also have the availability to set up new media to become for efficient! For example, my sorority has a Facebook group and an e-mail list that all members are on. Not everybody checks her e-mail and Facebook everyday, and not everyone has a smart phone, so we converted to the Gin System. It is a system that allows us to send mass text messages through the Internet.

Large knowledge communities also surround me. These are larger groups were I am unable to start the domino effect, it is a community that is much larger than I and my peers among me. This is through people in the community that are conveying information like the news media that are of interest to more than just my smaller communities. These are broader things that affect a majority of people.

My knowledge community has been formed my media convergence. All of the media and technology outlets I listed above were though media convergence. Without these I would have to way to have formed or be apart of my knowledge communities because I would not have been put in a position to where I may receive and send information on such a regular basis. I suppose the old-fashioned knowledge community, or my mother’s current knowledge community could have been sending Christmas cards every year. It is sending

her special interest group, in this case her friends, an update on my family.

The knowledge community also brings in a lot of communication discourse communities that are formed. These could be portals and blogs that people can follow, fan sites with an interactional medium that groups of a Knowledge Community can spread and relay ideas, not just send out information. This is important for innovation and making sure people within the community are heard. This has more of a ping-pong effect that the other mediums like Twitter and Facebook. Those who are sharing ideal are ones who also want to read the ideas of others.

I think my theory of a knowledge community is much more simplified than Jenkins, but it is a simple concept and I like to put it in simple terms. The domino effect is easy and accessible way to describe something of this nature. My communities big or small all originate from a source that has something new to spread to those interested.

The Anatomy of Jenkins' Knowledge Community

If the anatomy of the knowledge community is similar to that of a human body, the consumers, or the audience, are most definitely the heart. Jenkins says that there needs to exist an emotional connection to the consumers for information to make it’s way around the knowledge community. Media convergence, participatory culture, and collective intelligence then make up the circulatory system. Divergence is something else that comes into question by Ithiel de Sola Pool, I would say this could be something considered pathogenic to the knowledge community.

Delivery technologies could then be considered the neural connections linked to everywhere in the body of the knowledge community. This allows convergence to take place. “Convergence alters the relationship between existing technologies, industries, markets, genres, and audiences” (15).

Media, in my opinion, can be considered the brain. Media is the entity in which all material enters discourse in the knowledge community. It can also have some effect on how we interpret it. An example of this is could be the Christian controversy versus many children’s take on the Harry Potter series, which if it hadn’t become a great cultural phenomenon I don't think it would have had so much controversy. Another example, as in the reading, the reality show Survivor (2000). This is a television series ‘made for the internet age.’ It is designed to be discussed, dissected, debated, predicted and critiqued.

Within the Brain, I could consider two more things. Big media could be considered the left hemisphere of the brain while small media could be considered the right hemisphere. Not the either hemisphere of the human brain is bigger than the other to my knowledge, but I make this distinction to make a point about the relationship between big and small media, or rather corporate and grassroots media.

Looking back at the glory days of old media, corporate conglomerates had the upper hand. Now we see a paradigm shift in ‘consciousness’ where the grassroots media might be making a comeback. The consumers are now taking control of a postmoderinized and digitized media. This is a process of convergence rather than divergence, as Jenkins would explain, and in respect to my anatomical model, you cannot have one without the other. This could be due to the fact that it is the big media people that hold all of the capital, but one day this might change.

Pedagogy and pop culture could be considered the extremities, modes of transport, because they are responsible for what direction media goes in. One day it could be vampires and warewolves, the next it could be ancient civilizations; where any myth really comes from. The body of the knowledge community could change direction at any time. Possibly more often if it were only pop culture, but one argument I will make is that pedagogy still does have some control over what direction the community goes.

And there you have it! One Frankenstein’ish way to explain the anatomy of the knowledge community. Give or take several vital organs.

The Anatomy of a Knowledge Community

You are creating your own version of the "anatomy of a knowledge community." Jenkins defines knowledge community as the community that comes out of a shared knowledge-base. I want you to create your version of the anatomy of a knowledge community using one of your own knowledge communities.

I should, after seeing your journal, understand your version of a knowledge community in relationship to Jenkins' explanation as well as how it connects to your own being--as a literate person, a FSU student, a member of the EWM major, a composer, an editor, etc.

***Your audience for this is other members of your knowledge community. Think about how you can make your composition so that they want to read it and be more a part of it.

***You will probably need to create a new post in order to do this, so that you can use images, videos, graphics, etc (again make sure you preview your post BEFORE posting to check on the size of the images, videos, etc). BUT you don't have to, in other words, if you want to create your anatomy of a knowledge community some other way then you would simply be commenting back to this post.

***I can imagine that whatever form your composition takes it will include a combination of text and image.

***This can take any form, but should not look like you merely "threw" something together. Think about why you are choosing the images that you are or the colors that you are. All of them should connect and create a fluid composition.

***Be creative and think outside the box. Most of you did a fabulous job with the embedded genre journal while others were looking to fulfill an assignment. It should be more than you fulfilling an assignment--more about who you are as a composer and pushing yourself creatively.