A culture of community

Abstract

The world increasingly asks 'how do I benefit?' as opposed to 'how can I contribute?'. In an age of consumerism and the 'me' culture how can an ethos of community contribution flourish. As the SIG sees' it's numbers stable but it's student numbers converting to professional memberships decline, how can we stem the tide. It's time to think differently about what it means to be part of the SIGWEB community, we must move away from a culture of benefits to a culture of community. I think this means some pretty serious changes to how we think of ourselves as a community and entails a move to place more emphasis on social capital, the advantage created by a person's location in the relationships of the SIGWEB community. Indeed, for a community originally named 'SIGLINK' these interpersonal relationships seem even more relevant. So how to proceed? Well, I'd like to start a discussion about this topic with all members of the SIG through our 'Google--Group' URL at: http://groups.google.com/group/sigweb-community.