GEOGRAPHIC CONNECTEDNESS IN ORKUT: Exploring relations between Territory and Identity in Social Network Sites

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FRAGOSO, S. (2008) Digital Connectedness in Social Network Sites: exploring
relations between territory and identity in Orkut. In: IR 9.0 - Rethinking Communities,
Rethinking Place. 9th International Conference of the Association of Internet
Researchers, 2008, Copenhagen.

GEOGRAPHIC CONNECTEDNESS IN ORKUT: Exploring relations
           between Territory and Identity in Social Network Sites
                                                                                      Suely Fragoso
                                                                                        Unisinos, Brazil
                                                                    suely@unisinos.br suely@pq.cnpq.br

        It is widely accepted that the development of the technologies of transport and
communications was lead by a necessity to overcome spatial barriers which is
characteristic of modernity and inherent to capitalism (Baumann, 2001; Harvey, 1999).
Understanding modernity as the period in which time has been used against space
leaves room for no conclusion other than that, under the pressure of increasingly
powerful acceleration technologies, space has become progressively less important.
According to this logic, the internet would be an apoteotic technology, as, in a situation
of radical dematerialization of economy, its global reach would finally have zeroed the
friction of distance1, rendering space irrelevant for economical exchange (Gates,1995;
Negroponte, 1995) and for social life as a whole (Virilio, 1995; Mitchell, 1995).
        Based on a history of the technologies of transport and communications, Harold
Innis proposed that media biased towards time (understood as those which are durable
in character) favour descentralization and heterogeneity, while media biased towards
space favour centralisation and are suited to the effective government of wide areas2. In
his further developments, Marshall McLuhan identifies electric media with the


  This investigation has benn partially financed by CNPq – Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento
Científico e Tecnológico, Brazil.

   The author is grateful to Jully Denise Rodrigues and Natacha Nonnenmacher Kötz, who competently
supported the collection and systematization of all data presented here. Their work has been sponsored by
Unisinos, CNPq – Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico and FAPERGS –
Fundação de Amparo á Pesquisa do Rio Grande do Sul.
1
  In this context, „friction of distance‟ nominates the increase in the cost of goods and services which
derive from the need of transportation between the places of their production and consumption. The
expression was coined by Bill Gates (The Road Ahead, 1995), for whom universal access to information,
via ICTs, would give rise to a „friction-free capitalism‟, in which the cost to produce and distribute any
good would tend to zero and information about offer and demand would be equally available for all
buyers and sellers. The result would be an immaterial economy in which geographical location of buyers
and producers would not matter and middle-men would become unecessary.
2
  Empire and Communications (2007, first published 1950) and The Bias of Communication (1999, first
published 1951).

FRAGOSO, S. (2008) Digital Connectedness in Social Network Sites: exploring
relations between territory and identity in Orkut. In: IR 9.0 - Rethinking Communities,
Rethinking Place. 9th International Conference of the Association of Internet
Researchers, 2008, Copenhagen.

decentralising power of media biased towards time and, from this idea, derives a
concept of „global village‟ contrary to the mass model. For him,
[m]any analysts have been mislead by electric media because of the seeming
ability of these media to extend man's spatial powers of organization. Electric
media, however, abolish the spatial dimension, rather than enlarge it. By
electricity, we everywhere resume person-to-person relations as if on the
smallest village scale. It is a relation in depth, and without delegation of
functions or powers.The organic everywhere supplants the mechanical.
Dialogue supersedes the lecture. The greatest dignataries hobnob with youth.
(McLuhan, 1998, 255)
It is not by coincidence that this idea of „global village‟ emerges from
McLuhan‟s considerations about the telegraph and telephone, that have a network
structure. Although he extends his considerations to television and radio, it was only
with the popularization of the internet that large scale many-to-many communications
really happened. Parallel to the descentralization and pluralism which result from
millions of people producing diversified content and communicating with each other,
the internet's international reach brings the idea that space has become irrelevant back to
the centre of attention. The situation, however, is far from the announced global
igualitarian interconectivity, as access to the internet is far from universal3.
Considering these and other limits, it is still possible to say that multi-user online
communications systems and environments (MUDs, BBSs, SNSs, MMOGs4, etc) make
possible for people to interact independently of their geographical location, favouring
associations by affinity. The feeling of belonging tends to disconnect from territory as
the development of communities based on shared interests instead of physical location
becomes possible. Fourty years ago, Licklider and Taylor (1968) had already foreseen
that, and twenty five years after them the same idea grounded Rheingold‟s enthusiasm
for virtual communities:
In a virtual community we can go directly to the place where our favorite
subjects are being discussed, then get acquainted with people who share our
passions or who use words in a way we find attractive. (...) Your chances of
making friends are magnified by orders of magnitude over the old methods of
finding a peer group. (Rheingold, 1993, online)

3
As in June 2008, little more than 21% of the world population has acess to the internet. (Miniwatts
Marketing Group, 2008)
4
Respectively, Multi-User Dungeons, Bulletin Board Systems, Social Network Services and Massive
Multiplayer Online Games.

This type of rationale led to the conclusion that in the XXI century there would
be no geographical separation as all people would be netizens in a single virtual space.
When “[v]irtually you live next door to every other single Netizen in the world”,
“[g]eography and time are no longer boundaries. Social limitations and conventions no
longer prevent potential friendships or partnerships.” (Hauben, 1996, online). The
absence of geographical obstacles allows for the creation and development of social ties
based on other types of affinities. Wellman (2001) sees a correlation between this
phenomenon and the historical transition which occurred at the turn from the XIX to the
XX century, when community relations reached a new scale as the social ties that
provide sociability, support, information, a sense of belonging, and social identity 5
overcame the limits of immediate neighbourhood towards metropolitan areas.

Space Strikes Back
Edward Soja (1989) calls attention to the fact that, at least since the last decades
of the XIX century, social sciences have privileged historical over geographical
approaches and overrated the influence of time over that of space. Following this
reasoning, it is possible to say that the conclusion that “modernity is, more than
anything else, the history of time” (Bauman, 2001, p 129) derives from that emphasis on
time in preference to space. For Soja, “[m]odernization is, like all social processes,
unevenly distributed across time and space and thus inscribe quite different historical
geographies across different regional social formations” (1989, p. 27). For this reason,
“we must be insistently aware of how space can be made to hide consequences from us,
how relations of power and discipline are inscribed into the apparently innocent
spatiality of social life, how human geographies become filled with politics and
ideology” (1989, p. 6). The persistent claims of universal access to the internet despite
the obvious heterogeneity of the conditions of acess in different regions is a good
example, specially when keeping in mind the variations in the conditions of access
show a direct correspondence between quality of access and the political and
geographical differences amongst regions (Fragoso, 2004). Saskia Sassen (2006) goes

5
The reference is the definition of community presented by Wellman in the same text, namely: “networks
of interpersonal ties that provide sociability, support, information, a sense of belonging, and social
identity” (Wellman, 2001, online).

in the same direction when she calls attention to the importance of local factors for the
dynamics of globalization:
...much of what happens in electronic space is deeply inflected by the cultures, the
material practices, and the imaginaries that take place outside electronic space. Much of
what we think of when it comes to cyberspace would lack any meanings or referents if
we were to exclude the world outside cyberspace. The digital and the nondigital are
simply not mutually exclusive conditions. The digital is embedded in the larger societal,
cultural, subjective, economic, and imaginary structurations of lived experience and the
systems within which we exist and operate. (Sassen, 2006, p. 344).
This approach points towards an entanglement between online and offline spaces
which is perfectly akin of the behaviour of users in online communications systems. In
daily life, references to offline life are common, going from „age-sex-location‟ in text-
based systems to refined three-dimensional models of physical places in graphical
environments (as found in many regions of Second Life, for example Amsterdam or
Buenos Aires). Manifestations that directly refer to countries and cities and take the
form of interest groups in Social Network Systems, such as the New Delhi6
„community‟ in Orkut, or the São Paulo7 „network‟ in Facebook, are considered
particularly interesting.
The most obvious motivation for territorial references in multi-user systems and
environments is absolutely practical: one asks „sex-age-location‟ with the intention of
developing social ties which can be extended to life „outside the screen‟, and this
depends, or at least is made enormously easier, if all involved are geographically near.
Identity and cultural motivations are also behind the presence of territorial links in
online systems and environments. Common interests are more likely amongst people
who share the same cultural background, and culture remains to a large extent
geographically located (Hall, 2003). On the one had, it is expected that this factor will
progressively weaken due both to the growth of technologically mediated interactions
and to the increasing mobilities of people (Urry, 2007). On the other, territorial binding
is reasserted in the context of the "powerful expressions of collective identity that
challenge globalization and cosmopolitanism on behalf of cultural singularity and
people's control over their lives and environment” (Castells, 1997, p. 2). In this last
sense, the apparent objectivity and clear-cut boundaries of territory are a particularly

6
http://www.orkut.com.br/Community.aspx?cmm=16237
7
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=4046089422

interesting alternative for identity construction and, as such, represent a more subtle
aspect of the permeability between online and offline spaces.
Spaces continue to be places, where in-person meetings or passive observations
provide a tangible sense of personal identity, a feeling of community, readily-
available support in the form of goods and services, and a literally concrete
sense of the past and a future (Casey 1997; Orum and Chen 2002). Physical
space continues to contain and shape interactions, providing opportunities and
constraints. (Wellman, 2001, online)
This work sought to describe and discuss the identitary links users establish with
representations of the physical world in online environments and their influence on the
interactions that occur in social networks. The main premises have been formerly
presented and can be summarised as:
a) the boundary between online and offline experience is far more permeable
and subtle than the nomenclature (on/off) suggests;
b) this continuity, or possibility of continuity, does not allow for final
differentiation between face-to-face and technologically mediated social
relations;
c) geographic references in online environments and systems are an important
asset for the creation and maintenance of online communities also (not only)
because
d) physical space, more specifically geographical place8, remains an important
factor for the construction and sharing of social identity9.
On the basis of these premises and keeping in view the characteristics of the
system, in particular the appropriation by Brazilian users, we chose the SNS Orkut
(http://www.orkut.com) as the empirical universe for the research.

Universe and Sample
Orkut was launched by Google in 2004 and rapidly became popular in Brazil. In
2005, nearly 75% of Orkut users were from Brazil10. In December 2007, more than 12

8
This differentiation between space and place associates the word „space‟ to the abstract and
depersonalised meanings of its Mathematical and Philosophical interpretations. „Place‟, on the other hand,
is linked to the materiality of geographical surroundings and of the sociocultural construction.
9
By „social identity‟ we mean the unseparable facets commonly referred to as „individual
identity‟ and „cultural identity‟.

million unique users accessed Orkut in Brazil, what corresponds to more than 68% of
all internet users in the country (ComScore, 2007).
Some characteristics make Orkut a privileged place for an investigation with the
focus we propose. First, the initial proposal included the idea of continuity between
social networks online and offline, as stated in the original motto, Who do you know?,
and inferred by the need to be invited by a previous user to join the system. Second,
participation in Orkut requires the creation of a profile, organized in three layers: social,
professional and personal profile. The profile includes specification of nationality11,
ethnic group, city, languages, which are relevant for our research12. Recently Orkut has
sharpened its geographical focus as the definition of local now limits access to profiles
from other localities, alters visualization options and changes search results for
communities and other profiles.
Numbers summarising the indication of country are made public in an area of
Orkut called Demographics. This allowed users to watch the quick growth of the
number of Brazilians in the early months of the system. In June 2004, only four months
after the launching of Orkut, there were more Brazilian users than users from the US in
Orkut. In the following months, a nationalist dispute in which Brazilians aimed at
increasing their presence in order to „overtake‟ the system took place. The fact that
issues of identity were prominent in this dispute (Fragoso, 2006) is the third factor that
makes Orkut particularly interesting for our research. This was made even more so by a
hoax from the height of this dispute, according to which Google was making Orkut
slower for those users who chose Brazil as a country in their profiles. One of the
peculiar strategies adopted by Brazilian users in response to the hoax was to incorrectly
identify their nationality. At the end of the „invasion‟ of Orkut, choosing other
nationalities had become a popular Orkut game and it was common to find profiles of
Brazilian users linked to countries considered exotic, charming andor in need of
solidarity. More recently, Orkut created the possibility of limiting access to your profile

10
According to data available in Orkut community Orkut Statistics
(http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=34264). This community was created in March 2004 and
remains active in June 2008. The reliability of data available in this community regarding the mentioned
period has been collected and checked in a previous investigation (Fragoso, 2006).
11
The field is „country‟ and therefore could also be interpreted as location.
12
Most information is optional, that is, a user can have a minimum profile.

to users from specific countries or regions and indicating other countries appear to have
become less popular amongst Brazilians users.
The indifference with respect to their national identity that this behaviour
suggests is contradicted by the scale of the 2004 dispute and, also, by the existence of
an extremely large number of interest groups (called „communities‟ in Orkut) the names
and descriptions of which emphasise territorial connections with Brazil, with specific
Brazilian states or cities. In June 2008, searches for communities with keywords such as
brasileiro, gaúcho or carioca often returned more than 1,000 results. The number of
Orkut users who join these communities is also high, in the order of thousands. For
example, in 21 June 2008 the community Eu amo ser brasileiro(a)!!! had 204.490
members, EU ME ORGULHO DE SER GAÚCHO 85.292 and Ser Carioca é... 74.719.
Communities with the word Brazil and with the names of Brazilian States in place of
their corresponding adjectives had even more members (respectively Brasil, 1.253.187;
Rio Grande do Sul, 322.053; Rio de Janeiro, 301.551 members).
This indicated that the research sample could be constructed from the most
popular communities amongst those explicitly linked to Brazilian places (to the country,
the States, and their capitals). Searches were performed between 16 and 22 June 2008,
using 53 keywords corresponding to our criteria13. Only six keywords returned less than
1,000 results: Amapá (711); Macapá (990); Roraima (661); Porto Velho (621); Rio
Grande do Norte (175) and Distrito Federal (129). Orkut makes it possible to see up to
996 results for each keyword. Amongst those, we selected the largest communities
(sampling was considered finished when an abrupt fall in the number of members was
verified. This resulted in no more than 12 communities for any keyword.). The result
was a set of 247 communities, which will be referred to as „broad sample‟. Name of
those communities, number of members and URL were annotated.
Within the first sample, the communities with the largest number of members
were selected to compose what we called the „restricted sample‟. Communities that had
a name or description that did not indicate link to the corresponding territory were not
considered. In unclear cases, the relevance of the community was verified in the

13
Twenty six States and their capitals plus „Brasil‟, „Brasília‟ (the country‟s capital) and „Distrito
Federal‟ (the area in which Brasília is included). Two States have the same name as their capitals: São
Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

subjects discussed in its Forum14. The resulting sample was composed of 53
communities. The communities belonging to the restricted sample were observed more
closely and the date of creation of the community, names of owner, co-owners and
moderators, language, place, category chosen and description of the community were
added to the data formerly collected.

Analysis
Searches in Orkut used the name of Brazilian States and their capitals, plus
Brasil, Brasilia and Distrito Federal as keywords. More than 1,000 communities were
found in 47 cases and less than 500 in only two cases.
The number of users linked to the 247 communities of the broad sample was
high, on average 33,.621 (28,773 when the community Brasil, which has a much larger
number of members than the others– 1,226,257 – was not taken into account). The
second community in number of members was São Paulo (425,353) and the smallest
community was MSN Mato Grosso do Sul (1,145). Amongst the 247 communities of the
broad sample, 215 had names that indicated territorial link15. All communities in the
broad sample has names in Portuguese.
Communities in the restricted sample had an average of 87,571 members, 65,673
when the largest community, Brasil (1,226,257), was not taken into account. The largest
members in the communities was a criterion for the selection of the restricted sample.
The second largest community in the restricted sample was São Paulo (425,.353) and
the smallest Eu Amo meu Mato Grosso do Sul (1,222).
The majority of the communities of the restricted sample was created in 2004,
four were created in 2005 and one in 2006. Amongst the 48 communities created in
2004, 42 date from the first semester (between January and July). Amongst the
14
For example, the largest community for „São Paulo‟ would be São Paulo FC-Tricolor, with
842,618 members. However, this is not a community linked to São Paulo State or city, but to the football
team. This community was disconsidered in favor of São Paulo, with 425,353 members. The description
of this second community was dubious: „Welcome to the São Paulo Community, the largest of orkut in
the category Cities and Neighbourhoods! Rules: see the detailed rules of the community...‟ (“Bem vindos
à Comunidade São Paulo, a maior do orkut na categoria Cidades e Bairros! Regras: veja as regras
detalhadas da comunidade...”). Thus, the community forum was checked and the selection was based on
the titles of topics under discussion, which left no doubt that the group had a territorial link, for example
Kassab e Serra, Corredor de ônibus na Rebouças: planejamento zero, Qual é a música que tem a cara de
São Paulo?.
15
The majority of others were related to football teams or churches.

communities created in 2005, only one (Sou Paraíba e não nego) had more than 10,000
members (21,835), and the average of members in the communities from 2005 was
9,860 (5,868 when the Paraíba community was not considered). The community created
in 2006 had 4,429 members. Four of the five youngest communities are amongst the
seven smallest in the restricted sample, the exception being Sou Paraíba e não nego,
which was 37th largest.
During the creation of a community, Orkut offers four levels of place definition:
city, State, CEP and country. Twenty seven communities indicated only Brasil as their
location and only two (São Paulo e São Luis do Maranhão) were not linked to the
country, only to the cities they represent.
All communities in the restricted sample have Portuguese as their language,
although two (Amazonas and Manaus) had English versions of part of their descriptions.
Both belong to the same person and have the same moderators.
The majority of the communities of the restricted sample are distributed between
the categories Cities and Neighborhoods (32) and Countries and Regional (18). Three
communities are in other categories: Amo a Bahia in Travel; Minas Gerais - MG in
Government & Politics; Eu amo Natal – RN in Others.
The descriptions of the communities of the restricted sample show some well
defined patterns and suggest six categories of content: (a) qualifying description of
place; (b) official description of place; (c) community rules; (d) online interactions; (e)
offline interactions and (f) offline services. Qualifying descriptions were the most
frequent content, appearing in the description of 45 communities varying from neutral
(as „Boa Vista capital of Roraima, as the saying goes “those who drink from the water
of Rio Branco always return”‟16) to the most enthusiastic (for example „Community
dedicated to cearenses [from Ceará], be them born in Ceará or those who surrendered by
heart to the best State in Brazil‟17). Expressions such as „I love...”, “for those who are
from...”, “wonderful land”, “best place” are common in the descriptions. No community
description had negative content.

16
The original text in Portuguese reads: Boa Vista capital do Estado de Roraima, ja diz o Ditado
"Quem bebe da agua do Rio Branco, sempre volta!
17
Comunidade dedicada aos cearenses, sejam estes os nascidos no Ceará ou aqueles que se
renderam de coração ao melhor estado do Brasil.

Official descriptions included historical and geographical data (as „With an area
equivalent to France and a population of 20 million inhabitants, the State has the second
biggest economy in the country...‟ 18), links to government sites (for example,
“www.pbh.gov.br”) or the Wikipedia (such as “http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/alagoas”).
These were found in 13 descriptions, only two of which did not have a qualifying
description as well.
The majority of community descriptions (35) include rules guiding the behaviour
of its participants, such as „Obs. It is not allowed to manifest any type of discrimination
to other States, advertisement (THE TOPIC WILL BE ERASED, AND THE MEMBER
DELETED)‟19 Seven communities, all from 2004 and with more than 10,000 members,
had only a set or rules in their description area. Prohibitions and indications of proper
places for certain types of content (as „ADVERTISEMENTS FOR NEW
COMMUNITIES OR LINKS HERE: http:www...‟20), are common and also references
which suggest the existence of previous conflicts in the history of the community (for
example „PREJUDICIOUS, THIS COMMUNITY IS NOT FOR YOU. GO AWAY.
WE DON‟T LIKE YOU HERE!‟21).
The description of only 17 communities indicate other options for online
interaction, such as a channel or topic for chat (4), ways to make contact with the
community managers or indication of a topic for suggestions (6), reference to
advertisement of other communities (7) and suggestions of other networking sites (4) 22.
Most often the indication of channels and topics for chat are directive and suggest that it
is common that the members of the community use forum messages to talk in real time.
Explicit indications of offline contact and relationships were found in the
description of 9 communities only, being 1 call for 'Orkontros'23, 3 suggestions of local

18
Com uma área equivalente a da França e uma população de 20 milhões de habitantes, o estado
tem a segunda maior economia do país...
19
Obs.: Não é permitido qualquer manifestação de descriminação a outros estados, propagandas
(O TÓPICO SERÁ APAGADO, E O MEMBRO EXPULSO”)
20
ANUNCIO DE NOVAS COMUNIDADES OU LINKS: http://www...
21
PRECONCEITUOSO(A), ESSA COMUNIDADE NÃO É PARA VOCÊ! SAIA DAQUI!
VOCÊ NÃO É BENQUISTO AQUI!
22
Each description can have content in more than one category.
23
'Orkontro' is a denomination for offline gatherings of Orkut users.

places and parties and 5 indications that members use the community to search for
people they met outside Orkut.
Advertisements and other offline services appear in 13 descriptions, in 5 cases
being information about the place represented by the community, 2 mentions of calls for
missing people, job offers, buying and selling goods, 3 links for information or
discussion about local politics and 4 directions to advertising in the community.

Discussion
The number of Orkut communities with names or descriptions that include the
names of Brazilian States and their capitals and „Brasil‟, „Brasília‟ and „Distrito
Federal‟, was extremely high, reaching over one thousand in nearly 90% (88.67%) of
cases and being lower than 500 in only two cases (3.78%). It is possible to say that there
is a high number of spontaneous24 references to offline places in Orkut. The number of
members in these communities confirm their relevance: more than 33,000 in average in
the broad sample and more than 87,000 when only the most popular communities were
considered (restricted sample). A high proportion (87.04%) of community names which
include the keywords was clearly linked to the offline locations.
Most communities in the restricted sample (90.56%) were created in 2004.
Amongst those, 87.5% date back to the first semester of 2004, the time of the Brazilian
nationalist movement in Orkut (Fragoso, 2006). It is, therefore, probable that the
creation of these communities was motivated by a desire to express territorial identities.
The fact that nearly all communities identified Brazil as their location and 50% did not
indicate city, State or CEP reinforce this perception. Communities created in 2005 and
2006 were found to be smaller than the former ones, what could be attributed to their
youth. However, nearly two years had passed between the creation of the most recent
community (Distrito Federal, 13 July 2006) and the observation, what suggests that the
size of the community is not a function of its age, but, on the contrary, that the youth of
the community is due to a delayed penetration of Orkut in that specific region. The
available data is not sufficient to confirm or discard this hypothesis.

24
Indications of country, city, State in the profiles are suggested by Orkut‟s forms. The theme of
the communities, on the other hand, is freely defined by users.

FRAGOSO, S. (2008) Digital Connectedness in Social Network Sites: exploring
relations between territory and identity in Orkut. In: IR 9.0 - Rethinking Communities,
Rethinking Place. 9th International Conference of the Association of Internet
Researchers, 2008, Copenhagen.

        All communities in the broad sample (and therefore also in the restricted sample)
had names in Portuguese. Only two had English versions of part of their descriptions,
and both shared owner and moderators. This suggests that Brazilians are the target
public of these communities, what confirms their identitary vocation. This is reinforced
by the fact that many descriptions have appeals such as „for those who live here‟ or „for
those who were born in...‟. It is also confirmed by the fact that, despite the most
frequent location being Brasil, the majority of owners included their communities in a
more local category: 60.37% belong to Cities and Neighbourhoods and 33.96% to
Countries & Regional. Only one community (Amo a Bahia) was linked to the category
Travel, what could indicate a non-identitary function. The name in first person ([I] love)
and the description of the community („For those who love this hot and wonderful
land‟25), on the other hand, suggest territorial identity.
        Qualifying descriptions were included in 84.90% of the communities, mostly
with a positive tone. This reinforces the perception that the main function of the
majority of those communities, if not of all of them, is to express territorial belonging.
This is confirmed by the recurrence of expressions as „I am/you are from...‟; „I was/you
were born in...‟, „I/you love...‟; „I/you live in...‟.
        The constant presence of community rules, frequently in capitals, and the
references which suggest previous conflicts, indicate that activity in these Orkut
communities is intense. That implies that, at least for a set of members, these
communities are not mere „identity labels‟ (Tomasini, 2007), that is, simple static
declarations of belonging. They are meeting places where people interact. Indication of
channels and topics for chat appears in 7.54% of the descriptions. Although relatively
rare, its presence indicates the occurrence of real time conversations 26 amongst
community members and reinforces the perception that these communities function as
gathering points for people linked to the places they represent.
        Explicit indications of offline contacts and relationships were found in a small
number of communities, only 16.98% of the restricted sample. In a single community

25
        Para os que amam essa terra quente e maravilhosa!
26
        Real time dialogue, as in a chat channel, is known to be common amongst heavy Orkut users.
Experience suggests that these conversations have different characteristics when they take place in
scrapbooks and in communities‟ fora.

there was reference to offline meetings for the members of the community, all other
cases being suggestions of places or parties in the city or of local services. It is therefore
possible to say that there are signs of permeability of interactions in online and offline
spaces, but their number was not significant and they were rather subtle in the
descriptions of the communities.

Conclusion
References to Brazilian States and cities in Orkut communities are frequent and
it was possible to confirm that some (probably most) of these groups are meant to
represent the places mentioned in their names. The majority of the description of the
communities suggest that they are intended to function as gathering points for people
who live or have lived in the represented places or, in some cases, people who admire or
would like to know those places. This design confirms the permeability between online
and offline experience, specially in relation to the construction and sharing of social
identity.
Another realm of continuity between online and offline social relations appear in
the offer of services and the advertisement of parties and meeting places. Comparing to
the signs of the identitary function, these explicit indications of social interaction
appeared in few communities. However, the presence of rules in the majority of the
descriptions suggests intense interaction among community members, specially as they
frequently mention a channel or topic for chat and make reference (indirect in many
cases) to previous conflicts. Thus, it is rather possible that few signs of interactions
among users were found due to the design of the sample, which focused data about the
communities and not about the interactions that take place in them. Future work
intending to address social interactions in Orkut communities and their offline
counterparts should direct themselves to the communities' fora. It could be interested to
interview community owners and moderators and even some members in order to
confirm (or not) the importance of the community for characterisation of territorial
identity in a personal level. Those users could also shed some light on the permeability
of online and offline social relations, how important territory is for them and the
effectiveness of Orkut communities as gathering points.

FRAGOSO, S. (2008) Digital Connectedness in Social Network Sites: exploring
relations between territory and identity in Orkut. In: IR 9.0 - Rethinking Communities,
Rethinking Place. 9th International Conference of the Association of Internet
Researchers, 2008, Copenhagen.

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FRAGOSO, S. (2008) Digital Connectedness in Social Network Sites: exploring
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