An affinity space is a place where informal learning takes place. According to James Paul Gee, affinity spaces where locations (physical or virtual) where groups of people are drawn together because they share a particular common, strong interest or are engaged in a common activity.[1] Often but not always occurring online, affinity spaces encourage the sharing knowledge or participating in a specific area, but informal learning is another outcome.
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Because the members of the community are interested in similar things, they have common ground and motivation together. Gee says that because of this common interest, affinity spaces are able to bridge barriers of age, race, socio-economic status, and educational level, and allow each user to participate as he/she chooses, and both experts and novices are equally legitimate participants in the affinity space[2] While not everyone in affinity spaces would be an expert, they are not places where the "blind are leading the blind." Many spaces have unwritten rules that while sharing information, you must share only what you know, provide sources to back up what you say, and in general, leave feedback and comments only in areas you know. These allow a lot of learning to take place outside of school and can be substantial learning in some situations.
Online fan fiction sites are examples of affinity spaces. While the goal of the sites are usually to share and read other people's fan fiction creations, there is a lot of informal learning that takes place as people have their work read and commented on. It is up to the author then to decide what to do with this informal feedback, but often it is used to revise and edit the work, and at the same time helps the author understand his or her own writing flaws better.
Other examples come from "snark sites" or "rant communities." The goal of these sites is typically to make fun of particular problems, such as poorly written fan fiction,[3] or digital image editing mistakes.[4] As community members criticize other people's work, they reach new levels of sophistication in their evaluations, creating extended vocabularies of terms and categorizing mistakes. In Benjamin Bloom's taxonomy, evaluation is at the top of higher order thinking skills. Since either authors or their friends and fans are likely to come to the defense of works being criticized, rhetoric and logic are two areas where much active learning takes place.