What is a Virtual Community and Why Would You Ever Need One??

Last updated 1/02

Sue Boetcher
Heather Duggan
Nancy White
What is a "Virtual Community" Anyway?
The words "virtual community" and "online community" have been bandied about, hy
ped and interpreted in many ways. If you want to read about how others have trie
d to describe VC, check here (How Some Folks Have Tried to Describe Community).
But for our purposes, we're going to keep it simple and in context of building y
our own community.
Online or virtual community is the gathering of people, in an online "space" whe
re they come, communicate, connect, and get to know each other better over time.
From that point on, the rest is up to you. Your community will be what you and
your members make of it!
Want some examples? Ideas? Read on.
Why Do People Join and Build Virtual Communities?
People have been using online spaces since the beginning of the Internet to comm
unicate. That includes prior to the World Wide Web, when BBS, or electronic bull
etin boards and email loops connected folks across time and space. (For a good s
hort history of the Internet, see http://www.dsv.su.se/internet/documents/intern
et-history.html). Many found that they began to form bonds of one sort of anothe
r. Today, the online forum tracking service, ForumOne (http://www.forumone.com)
had more than 270,000 distinct communities and forums registered at their site i
n 1999. (The site no longer lists total numbers.) And many more remain unlisted.

Here are some of the types of activities people have enjoyed through these onlin
e connections.
Socialize - meeting people, playing around, sharing jokes, stories and just taki
ng interest in each other. Communities like this often focus around bulletin boa
rds and chat rooms. An example of such a community is Electric Minds at http://w
ww.electricminds.org
Work together (business) - Distributed work groups within companies and between
companies use online community to build their team, keep in touch and even work
on projects together. A very detailed description of how online work groups work
can be found at http://www.awaken.com and http://www.bigbangworkshops.com .
Work together (community - geographic) - Freenets (see the Freenet Directory) ha
ve offered local communities ways to communicate and work together. Some have ev
en combined this with ISP service. Community groups such as soccer teams, school
groups and others have used online community to provide forums for information
and discussion, helping bring groups together.
Work together (issues) - Virtual communities have been very important to people
who share interests in issues and causes. Support groups for people dealing with
certain diseases, causes such as politics or the environment, or people studyin
g together, all can form a nucleus for an online community.
Have topical conversations - Online salons and discussion forums such as the Wel
l (http://www.well.com), Salon's TableTalk (as of mid 2001 a paid subscription m
odel) (http://www.salon.com), Cafe Utne (http://www.utne.com) and others have fo
rmed communities of people who enjoy conversations about topics and shared inter
ests. ForumOne noted in 1999 that the top ten topics for forums registered at th
eir site are around the topics of (in order): relationships (16%), "mega sites (
diverse topics, aggregations of smaller conferences - 11%), business and finance
(8%), health (5%), hobbies (4%), religion (3%), music (3%), international (3%).
It would be interesting to revisit those stats at the start of 2002.
Community Examples
The communities noted above and others across the Internet represent a wide rang
e of interests and motivations. We asked a few community owners why they set up
their communities and how it has turned out for them. Here are their stories.
Case History: A Community of Purpose - John Aravosis
Case Study: the IBM/Electric Minds'Kasparov v. Deep Blue
Nancy Rhine and Women's Wire
An anonymous parent at the neurology web is concerned that the anti-oxidant vita
mins have too much copper for her 60 lb child with Tourette's Syndrome. Bonnie r
esponds - "Copper increases the action of tryptophan 2,3 dioxygenase, thus break
ing down tryptophan to kynurenine. In TS some studies have shown an already redu
ced level of tryptophan and increased level of kynurenine in the blood. Some cop
per is needed for the antioxidant action of superoxide dismutase and one of the
cytoshromes, but the normal diet should provide enough copper without supplement
ing it further. Copper water pipes alone provide plenty (and sometimes too much
if they are new) of copper."
- From Neurology Web, Tourette Syndrome forum, http://neuro-www.mgh.harvard.edu/
forum/TouretteSyndromeF/2.19.994.55PMQuestiontoBo.html
Jen CA9-Sunset19 worries about the leafless Butterfly Bush in her yard "I haven'
t under- or over-watered, etc. I planted it last fall. I guess I'll have to wait
til spring really arrives (TRUE spring, not our pseudo/spring-wannabe winter) t
o see if it starts to come back. I know I could just get another one but I reall
y don't want to have to do that." Within a day, she has four responses - Wanda's
butterfly bush is in full bloom, Denise's is limping along. Gardening Gal and K
elli think it may be too cold. - From the GardenWeb, California Gardens (formerl
y at http://www.gardenweb.com/forums/load/calif/msg0210504717260.html?5)
Over in the Rock Hall of Fame forum, Robert Wilcox is hopping mad that AC/DC sti
ll hasn't been inducted into the hall of fame. "Let us not forget that the often
forgotten AC/DC has sold more albums than the Stones. Yet for some reason, mill
ions line up in droves to see the glorified British bar band perform the same an
tiquated riffs that Eddie Van Halen could play with his feet and a carboard pick
." He falls into a dispute with Pay Attention, who insists that AC/DC is already
an inductee.- From Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 500 Songs Forum, http://forums.r
ockhall.com/forums/get/songs/504.html
The Effect of Online Communities in Offline Lives
The rate of the growth of the Internet has generally exceeded most estimates, wi
th increases in many, but not all segments of the population. The influence of t
he early adopter countries (such as the US) has had an effect on our online expe
riences. The concern that an ever growing "digital divide" is lessening the pote
ntial impact of the Internet in human life is an important issues. This has dire
ct relevance if you are planning an online community for people with no Internet
access. But more importantly, it is also a call to each of us to recognize how
we can lessen the divide and look for ways to contribute to the improvement of o
ur communities as part of our online life.
There has been much speculation on the affect of online activities on our offlin
e lives, ranging from concerns about addiction, to meeting the "loves of our liv
es" online and getting married. There are examples from all the extreams, but th
e more relevant question is how do we integrate our offline and online experienc
es.
Amy Jo Kim, online community architect, has suggested that there are two ways we
participate in online communites: "the kind where you're yourself and the kind
where you are playing out a fantasy role. For example, the Well is a good exampl
e of a place where people are fundamentally themselves. It is not very hard to f
igure out someone's real name... But there are many online communities where you
(a member of the community) actually can't find out who someone's is in "real l
ife." People are role playing, and playing out a fantasy role. Many game communi
ties are like that." (from an interview with Amy Jo Kim, 4/99)
Ms. Kim goes on to say, "I think that these two kinds of community play very dif
ferent roles in people's lives. The gaming-oriented communities will affect you
emotionally, but they won't tend to integrate into your life as what I would cal
l 'augmented reality' communities do. I define these two types as "augmented rea
lity" where you're "you," and you're there to integrate with your life -- deal w
ith the issues in your life. The fantasy communities that are about escaping fro
m who you are and pretending to be someone else. So much about augmenting realit
y is more about shaping your life. I think that the augmented reality type of co
mmunities have become progressively more entwined in people's lives."
" I think that it is good to remember that in many cases, it (online community)
is another communications channel. The telephone is a communications channel tha
t augments your life, so these communities are sort of like the telephone. But t
here's also data and sometimes it is asynchronous. Sometimes it creates gatherin
g places for many people to come together, as do 900 numbers. I think that both
of those trends will continue, and become much more integrated by people into th
eir lives, and just another communications channel and other ways to hook up wit
h people who share a common interest, shared purpose."
"I also think the fantasy aspect of communities will become even richer and even
more immersive. And it will continue to be a place to escape to for entertainme
nt. In that case, it may not integrate much with your life at all, but it will c
ertainly affect your emotions."
What Kinds of Community Tools Can I Build With?
There are many interaction tools that you can use in building your community. Mo
st online community-building systems offer you some or all of a range of feature
s. Take a look at the features and how you can use them to build your community
in the article Types of Online Community
What Steps Does it Take to Build a Virtual Community?
Interested now in building your own community? Read on, we have lots of material
s and resources to help you on your way. But before you rush off, here is the ov
erview of the steps it takes to build your own virtual community:
Identify your community purpose or goal
Identify your target audience
Think about which interaction tools would serve your purpose and audience and ho
w to structure the space.
Think about how you want to host or facilitate your community
Build it
Draw in the members
Go and nurture it!
Where do I go from here?
To join an existing community, go to ForumOne and search for an existing communi
ty that might suit you.
To build your own community, check out David Wooley's list of free web-based com
munity building sites.
To create/design community/conferences/topics for your community, go to Conferen
ce and Topic Structures
To prepare to host or facilitate your community, go to Facilitating and Hosting
a Virtual Community)
To find out about creating content for your community, go to Using Content to Su
pport Your Community
To find out more about retaining members, go to Retaining Members
To read more about virtual communities in general, go to Full Circle Associates:
Online Community Resources and...
http://www.forumone.com
http://www.ngrg.com/olclinks.html (no longer kept up to date)