The Indernet: From Internet Portal to the Social Web

Abstract

The social web creates a different technological environment for natio-ethno-cultural community building than internet portals did. Using a long-term ethnography of the virtual space Indernet, the article pursues the question, why after a relaunch of the former internet portal as a blog and a Facebook page it no longer functioned as a space of the second generation. In particular it analyses which demographic and technological factors had an impact on the capacity for community building. The article argues that the individualised usage of social media and the flow of Facebook make it much harder for ethnic entrepreneurs to create a space of natio-ethno-cultural belonging.