lish a sense of self within a community. One website that fosters a sense of self and celebrates the individual in a community is Facebook (see illustration). There is a lot of discussion today about what, if anything, the users of Facebook are accomplishing. Critics say that the site merely facilitates gossip, but supporters see something more. Social media activist and scholar danah boyd identifies three primary features of Facebook:

1. The profile

2. The friends

3. The wall

The architecture of this site promotes individuals within groups. The image of the individual is dominant on the profile page, with pictures and messages from friends subordinate, serving mostly to define the individual. An individual can join a group that stands for a social or political cause, but the “cause” icons are minuscule in comparison with the image of the individual. Additionally, Facebook is a social network site, not a social networking site: Facebook users generally network with people they already know [ 6]. While this architecture does help to improve human relationships that already exist by establishing a sense of self, it is not constructed in a way that prioritizes community building on a global scale.

 

Sense of Place Because online groups do not have physical gathering places, a sense of place may be an

 Here the sense of self, sense of place, and sense of accomplishment are reimagined looks at online architecture, which facilitate trust and collaboration.