Online communities are used for a variety of social and professional groups interacting via the Internet. It does not necessarily mean that there is a strong bond among the members. An email distribution list may have hundreds of members and the communication which takes place may be merely informational (questions and answers are posted), but members may remain relative strangers and the membership turnover rate could be high. This is in line with the liberal use of the term community.
Some of the earliest forms of online community websites included TheGlobe.com (1994),[2] GeoCities (1994), and Tripod.com (1995). These early communities focused on bringing people together to interact with each other through chat rooms, and share personal information and ideas around any topics via personal homepage publishing tools which were a precursor to the blogging and social networking phenomenon. The social-network-based wave of online community arrived in the early 2000s and is essentially characterized by online communities such as Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and Del.icio.us. A similar trend is starting to emerge within businesses where online communities are taking hold. These communities can be organizational, regional or topical depending on the business. From a technical perspective, software tools abound to create and nurture these communities including BigTent, Yahoo! Groups, Google Groups, LISTSERV, Microsoft SharePoint and IBM Lotus Connections. Communities that focus on particular business disciplines or issues are also gaining popularity. These include the likes of HR.com for HR professionals, Forrester communitiesfor IT professionals or On2net.biz for practitioners of culture change
The explosive diffusion of the Internet since the mid-1990s has also fostered the proliferation of online communities. Different online communities have different levels of interaction and participation among their members. This ranges from adding comments or tags to a blog or message board post to competing against other people in online video games such as MMORPGs. Many communities that are operated by Homeowner Associations utilize homeowners association websites to facilitate all communications, business transactions, and social endeavors of any kind. Not unlike traditional social groups or clubs, virtual communities often divide into cliques or even separate to form new communities. Author Amy Jo Kim points out a potential difference between traditional structured online communities (message boards, chat rooms, etc.), and more individual-centric, bottom-up social tools (blogs, instant messaging buddy lists), and suggests the latter are gaining in popularity.
The embedding of online community in the experiences of everyday life and its reflection of and influence on the communication practices and patterns of identity formation make online community a colossal research enterprise which requires continuous investigation and theorizing[3]
Just like a traditional community, “an online or virtual community is the gathering of people, in an online “space” where they come, communicate, connect, and get to know each other online. It’s not the people who are changing when they get online, it is merely the tools used to create that sense of community. The visual cues and face-to-face interactions that support the more natural creation of community in a traditional classroom environment are absent in an online classroom. Thus, faculty are challenged to create a sense of community virtually.[4]
Some of the earliest forms of online community websites included TheGlobe.com (1994),[2] GeoCities (1994), and Tripod.com (1995). These early communities focused on bringing people together to interact with each other through chat rooms, and share personal information and ideas around any topics via personal homepage publishing tools which were a precursor to the blogging and social networking phenomenon. The social-network-based wave of online community arrived in the early 2000s and is essentially characterized by online communities such as Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and Del.icio.us. A similar trend is starting to emerge within businesses where online communities are taking hold. These communities can be organizational, regional or topical depending on the business. From a technical perspective, software tools abound to create and nurture these communities including BigTent, Yahoo! Groups, Google Groups, LISTSERV, Microsoft SharePoint and IBM Lotus Connections. Communities that focus on particular business disciplines or issues are also gaining popularity. These include the likes of HR.com for HR professionals, Forrester communitiesfor IT professionals or On2net.biz for practitioners of culture change
The explosive diffusion of the Internet since the mid-1990s has also fostered the proliferation of online communities. Different online communities have different levels of interaction and participation among their members. This ranges from adding comments or tags to a blog or message board post to competing against other people in online video games such as MMORPGs. Many communities that are operated by Homeowner Associations utilize homeowners association websites to facilitate all communications, business transactions, and social endeavors of any kind. Not unlike traditional social groups or clubs, virtual communities often divide into cliques or even separate to form new communities. Author Amy Jo Kim points out a potential difference between traditional structured online communities (message boards, chat rooms, etc.), and more individual-centric, bottom-up social tools (blogs, instant messaging buddy lists), and suggests the latter are gaining in popularity.
The embedding of online community in the experiences of everyday life and its reflection of and influence on the communication practices and patterns of identity formation make online community a colossal research enterprise which requires continuous investigation and theorizing[3]
Just like a traditional community, “an online or virtual community is the gathering of people, in an online “space” where they come, communicate, connect, and get to know each other online. It’s not the people who are changing when they get online, it is merely the tools used to create that sense of community. The visual cues and face-to-face interactions that support the more natural creation of community in a traditional classroom environment are absent in an online classroom. Thus, faculty are challenged to create a sense of community virtually.[4]
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