A virtual team (also known as a geographically dispersed team or GDT) is a group of individuals who

work across time, space and organizational boundaries with links strengthened by webs of
communication technology. Powell, Piccoli and Ives define virtual teams in their literature review article
"as groups of geographically, organizationally and/or time dispersed workers brought together by
information and telecommunication technologies to accomplish one or more organizational tasks." [1] Ale
Ebrahim, N., Ahmed, S. & Taha, Z. in their recent (2009) literature review paper, added two key issues to
definition of a virtual team “as small temporary groups of geographically, organizationally and/ or time
dispersed knowledge workers who coordinate their work predominantly with electronic information
and communication technologies in order to accomplish one or more organization tasks” [2] Members of
virtual teams communicate electronically and may never meet face-to-face. Virtual teams are made
possible by a proliferation of fiber optic technology that has significantly increased the scope of off-site
communication.[3] Virtual teams allow companies to procure the best talent without geographical
restrictions.[3] According to Hambley, O’Neil, & Kline (2007), "virtual teams require new ways of working
across boundaries through systems, processes, technology, and people, [4] which requires effective
leadership...despite the widespread increase in virtual teamwork, there has been relatively little focus
on the role of virtual team leaders."

A virtual community is a social network of individuals who interact through specific media,
potentially crossing geographical and political boundaries in order to pursue mutual interests or
goals. One of the most pervasive types of virtual community include social networking services,
which consist of various online communities.

The term virtual community is attributed to the book of the same title by Howard Rheingold,
published in 1993. The book, which could be considered a social enquiry, putting the research in
the social sciences, discussed his adventures on The WELL and onward into a range of
computer-mediated communication and social groups, broadening it to information science. The
technologies included Usenet, MUDs (Multi-User Dungeon) and their derivatives MUSHes and
MOOs, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), chat rooms and electronic mailing lists; the World Wide Web
as we know it today was not yet used by many people. Rheingold pointed out the potential
benefits for personal psychological well-being, as well as for society at large, of belonging to
such a group.
Virtual education refers to instruction in a learning environment where teacher and student are
separated by time or space, or both, and the teacher provides course content through the use of
methods such as course management applications, multimedia resources, the internet, and
videoconferencing. Students receive the content and communicate with the teacher via the same
technologies.[1]