EARL & KIMPORT, GURAK, TRUST AND PRESENCE IN DIGITAL ACTIVIST COMMUNITITES

The occurrence of trust and presence in online activism is supported by the social structure that is connected to the given digital activist community. Interpersonal involvement within these communities provides a basic understanding of the practicality of any activist movement; and this helps to develop trust because the processes attached to the practical needs of an organization show us that we are dependent upon one another in the activist endeavor. Interpersonal relationships support the core growth of online activist communities because an online presence is an outgrowth of a physical presence. In addition, trust and presence are supported in a purely digital interaction through how a website functions. Interrelationships between design and content are capable of building presence in ways that engender trust because the construction of a website is capable of assisting participation. 

Trust and presence are created and function in online activism through a sense of self-awareness on a website. For example, a clear purpose establishes presence and the presentation of the purpose with integrity establishes the foundation of trust. Trust is further developed in online activist communities through email with basic acts of professionalism and consideration. Also, the creation of an activist community's presence online extends to creative uses of connecting with the community through media.

Jennifer Earl and Katrina Kimport bring up the two essential aspects of activism(independent motivation and collective action), and how they take shape in digital environments, early on in Being Together vs. Working Together: Correspondence in Participation. The authors discuss how collective action in an online environment points to the apparent contradictory nature of digital activist communities (collective action without physical gathering), ". . . when people act in a coordinated fashion online, are they able to glimpse some proverbial view of other participants?" (Earl & Kimport 129). The value in this statement lies in the value of digital activism because the observance of expressed activist principles online stimulates independent motivation. For example, watching a video that shows the affects in a yoga practitioner utilizing props for a forward bend is personally motivational. An observation of "some proverbial view" in an online community and the subsequent occurrence of motivation creates a collective experience in digital activist communities because there is support through participation. Seeing commitment in others stimulates the already present commitment in the viewer. Furthermore, online communities can be seen as a stepping-stone for action in physical communities.

Circumstances surrounding formats of published online participation, such as signing a petition, raise questions of how trust takes shape in online communities. There appears to be a range of value in the effects of both publishing and not publishing participation data depending on the website and the sensitivity of information being discussed. In support of publishing participation in digital activist circles Earl and Kimport state, "In fact, collective identity can be so powerful that a number of social movement scholars have argued that the collective identity produced by copresence and collaboration helps to buffer the costs of protest, or at least make them more worth weathering" (143). 

In Trust and Internet Activism Laura J. Gurak's discusses how trust and presence are developed in social media surrounding Minnesota's campaign for same-sex marriage, "Yet, because social media is so well structured, ubiquitous, and broad-reaching, once the initial exigence has come to a conclusion, there is often tremendous value and efficiency in using the existing platform to continue as a community resource; or, in this case, as a powerful mechanism to take up the next leg of the political issue" (Gurak 11). Email, ecommerce and Facebook were ways Gurak came into contact with the campaign. The digital mechanisms (described as "recommender systems" which track and respond to a users online habits) these online systems employed developed Gurak's trust in it because the information she was receiving was personal to her. Thus, functions of webpages and variety of digital interaction were essential to the development of her trust in the campaign, which of course impacted her presence in the campaign.