Initially my focus was on a website Meetup.com and the impact of new media on the hiking community around in the NY metro area by the use of this website. I chose this topic because it is my favorite past-time. And in recent months, if not years, technology has helped get many previous non-hikers indulge in hiking. Part of the reason is social networking. Also, for many regular hikers, new media, social networking and technology has changed the way a hiker participates or organizes an event. I know this from the view point of a regular hiker and as an organizer. So i thought this might be a good topic to write about.
But as I went on to explore the research (scholarly, academic, commercial etc) in regards to new media and hiking, I turned up with nothing. It seems nobody has ever thought of this as an important topic or transformation. However, my focus shifted a little bit on all the new technology that Meetup.com had introduced in recent months. I also realized how Meetup.com is not just for hiking, but used for a variety of groups more focused on local geography than a global one as compared to Facebook or MySpace. The most important thing that jumped out to me was the emphasis on 'face-to-face' group meetings. Again, no real research is available in this area since Meetup.com itself is a pretty new company. Hence, I am combining Facebook related research (plenty of that available), introducing new media features of Meetup and comparing various features and usage.
For this purpose, I have used Google Scholar search, accessed Science Daily from Ebsco host databases available through Baruch library website and explored features of Meetup.com. I also did a couple of interviews with organizers of groups on Meetup.com.
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That sounds like an awesome project. For one, I love hiking too, and I hadn't even thought about meetup.com as a source for finding more hiking adventures. In fact, I didn't even think about Meetup when we've discussed new media, but my friend and her husband met at a meetup event...I like how it combines new media and face-to-face interaction. Do you know about couchsurfing? That would have been another cool site to cover--couchsurfing.com--where people meet all over the world and share their couches with total strangers that they met through the website.
ReplyDeleteYes, I have heard about Couchsurfing too. I was also surprised when you mentioned that, I think, on your homepage on the Blackboard. I have not really studied it for this project but I surely will as it does sound like a very new aspect of human interaction.
ReplyDeleteThanks.