Territories of digital communities. Representing the social landscape of web relationships

Abstract

People establish connections with the territory that live in and the territory is modelled by their presence. The sedimentation of the places, by chance or planned, get inhabited people according to models and connections that are deeply linked to the individual and social experience. The digital territories as social-network seem to set up similar connections as the traditional social dynamics do with the physical territory. But how are they able to (re)produce significant experiences for the different social-tribes that in the territory interact and communicate? These questions are investigated by this study carried out on the field and focused on Milano-Bicocca district. The study consists of two parts: a qualitative/ hybrid research about the urban-island to understand the connections that the social groups establish with the space and between themselves. The second - design-oriented - proposes some models of representation and tools for planning web communication shaped on the social-tribes and their relational experience. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.