In this Issue of Voices of Mexico
Content

Our Voice

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Gathered Around Virtual Communities

From Democracy to Infocracy
In Virtual Communities
Alejandro Ramos Chávez

Inormation and communications technologies (ICTs), mainly the Internet, have brought about huge possibilities for generating an increasingly informed citizenry, as well as digital channels for the exchange of ideas, the enrichment of positions, and the possibilities for interpersonal communication with the creation of virtual communities with more and more weight in public decision-making. Along with these advantages, to avoid an idealized vision of reality, we must take into consideration certain problems that have also arisen.

 

Virtual Academic and Metadata
Research Communities
Ariel Alejandro Rodríguez García

Introduction
The first virtual communities appeared in the 1990s thanks to the emergence of the Internet, but some studies put their inception in the 1970s. What is clear is that these kinds of groupings began to become popular starting with the creation of the World Wide Web (WWW or W3).
In general terms, we can say that a virtual community is made up of individuals, groups, or institutions that come together to achieve a specific end, and they do it using information and communications technologies (ICTs). In other words, compared to traditional communities where individualism prevails, these groupings are characterized by and benefit from a high degree of exchange and feedback about concrete questions, empathy among their members, the immediate support, and the possibility for informal socialization thanks to simultaneous communication, and the production of structured knowledge emitted and transmitted by the prosumers of information.

 

The Analysis of Big Data
Generated by Digital Communities
Eder Ávila Barrientos

Introduction
Digital communities constantly generate data published on different platforms and have contributed to creating massive amounts of varied data of different typology. Analyzing them allows us to obtain estimates and predictions that help better understand a particular event or problem. Nevertheless, a large amount of massive data are not trustworthy and do not have the quality needed to be able to use and consume them, which affects their effective management.

Weaving Information Networks in
The Digital World: Virtual Communities
As Information Grounds
Alejandro Mercado-Celis

The study of virtual communities has emerged as a fundamental research field in the age of socio-digital networks, when the creation of interest groups is one of the most widespread phenomena.
Information studies have enriched the study of virtual communities, a discipline in which those classified as “informational” develop in two key dimensions: the practical search for information and the monitoring of it.1 Both play an essential role in the construction and functioning of online communities and are also fundamental for understanding their dynamic and impact in contemporary society. For that reason, this article’s starting point is the following hypothesis: virtual communities can become strategic mechanisms for informational coordination when they are formed in professional fields that are highly flexible labor-wise, such as where free-lance work dominates; where organization is based on projects; where work teams last for a specific time and once that commitment is finished, each employee must look for another project with a new team; and in local contexts with obstacles for in-person social interaction.2 The information that these job contexts require include possible contracts for a new project, personal promotion, sharing experiences and knowledge, staying up to date, and building a professional reputation.

 

Digital Community Activism
And Impact on Social Tagging Systems
Adriana Suárez Sánchez

In recent decades, information and communication technologies (ICTs) have made enormous advances, impacting the way individuals stay updated on what is going on in the world and share their ideas. In the second half of the 1990s, these ICTs fostered spaces for interaction and information that surpassed old geographical barriers or limitations in media access.

 

Virtual Communities
And Libraries, a Binomial
Brenda Cabral Vargas

Most definitions agree that virtual communities (VCs) are born in cyberspace and are groups of people with the same aim who voluntarily join together to achieve it; that is, they pursue common goals. This may be regarding any topic, and it is common for there to be no restrictions. The communities know that they are networks, which is why they evolve as such, increasing their membership and diversifying.

 

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Art and Culture

Beauty as Identity:
The Work of Patricia Álvarez
Astrid Velasco Montante

In everyday Mexican culture, textile art (also known as fiber art) is ever present, especially given our strong tradition of embroidery, weaving, and handcrafted folk attire and ornamentation. Yet, contemporary art working with threads, fabrics, and other materials is in a category of its own, since such work involves individual expression that not only pleases the senses but also proposes something new. It creates ideas and concepts through that which is depicted, putting unique aesthetics into play.

 

 

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