Go Communities and the Internet
Researchers, notably Robert Putnam, have observed a decline in community involvement and link it to a drop off in engagement in clubs. Membership in American Go clubs has bucked the national trend and is rising. We use ethnographic methods to examine Go players and their interactions both online and offline in an attempt to understand the reasons for this membership increase. We also worked to determine if the Go players' interactions, either in person or online, were able to produce social capital.
Through interviews, participant observation, and analysis of player-created documents, we identified three areas that contribute in particular to Go's growth: characteristics of the game itself, opportunities for youth engagement, and complementary online tools. This has produced a community of practice, that both produces social capital and helps draw more people into Go.
Team: Drew Harry
Resources: Paper