Virtual Communities

Content :
Slide: Part name:
3 1. Introduction
4 2. What is an Virtual Community ?
5 3. Main Features
5 4. Impacts of virtual communities
6 5.Types of virtual communities
7 6. Advantages and Disadvantages of Internet communities
8 7. The Development Of Online Communities
9 8. Problems
10 Conclusions
11 References

2
 Virtual Communities
1. Introduction

Traditional social environment:

- geographic area
- social groups
- information, self-identity, values, attitudes, and notions of accepted behaviors
- interactions and contact face-to-face
- reality

Online social environment:

- geographical dispersion
- interactions are not face-to-face
- computer-mediated social groups
- information, self-identity, values, attitudes, and notions of accepted behaviors
- not reality

3
 Virtual Communities
2.What is an Virtual Community ?

Virtual Community is a social network of individuals who interact through specific media channel, in order to pursue
common interests.

Original term from the book by Howard Rheingold, 1993 (WELL).

- anyone can post, or where just a restricted number of people can post.
- Web 2.0 technologies => Community 2.0.
- Software means: text chat rooms, voice, video or avatars use.

Online relationships base:

- shared interests,
- similar social characteristics,
- need for communication.

Virtual activities:
- chat,
- exchange property (virtual), ideas,
- planing,
- make friends, even fall in love.
- etc.
Examples: Geocities, The Well, Usenet newsgroups, Buddy Pic, Something Awful, Gaia, ETA, weblogs, bulletin boards.

4
 Virtual Communities
3. Main Features
- Content: articles, information, and news about a topic of interest to a group of people.
- Forums or newsgroups and email (communication possibilities).
- Social groups
- Online, computer environment
- Different types of virtual interaction
- Other posibilities

4. Impacts of virtual communities

On health

- verbal aggression and inhibitions

- promotion of suicide
- issues concerning privacy
Positive impact on those people which suffer health issues. Better understanding of treatment and health practices.

On civic participation

- members do something in real life at least once in a period to support a cause related to their online life
- involve in civic causes since they start to participate
- impact on political views

Online Learning

- sites dedicated to learning, or the way people can get an education online
- question of the credibility
- positive environment for learning
5
 Virtual Communities
5.Types of virtual communities

Classifications:
- concerning their structure,
- accordingly to rituals and stages of online community interaction,
- accordingly to particular patterns of behavior of particular users.
- other.
From sustainability perspective:
- dependent (interacting with people they already know).
- self-sustained (relationships are formed and maintained)

By definition:

- Internet message boards (forums where people discuss thoughts on different topics). Responses are not
instantaneous. Infinite number of users and they can be unknow.

- Online chat rooms (Instantaneus messaging text chat. Examples: Yahoo, MSN, AOL and so on.)

- Virtual worlds (living as an avatar in a online-based 3-D virtual world, similar to a computer game, but
whitout an objective, avatars can make almost all interactions people would have in the reality are possile).

- Social network services (website or software platform focused on creating and maintaining relationships.
example: Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace and so on. One can create a profile / account, and add friends or
follow them).

6
 Virtual Communities
6. Advantages and Disadvantages of Internet communities

Advantages:

- allows people to engage in different activities, - access to specific discussion groups,

- feeling of membership and belonging to a group. - economically cheap to use,
- can buyers directly to suppliers. - other.

Disadvantages
- no filter of information,
- it is difficult to choose reliable sources,
- existence of “predators” looking for victims who are vulnerable to online identity theft.

7
 Virtual Communities
7. The Development Of Online Communities

Factors to be considered:
- communication, education, culture, democracy, opportunity, equality within the economy,
information, sustainability.
- interests,
- social and basic needs, of the community,
- technologies,
- organization.
Building an virtual community:
- starting it,
- encouraging online interaction,
- moving to a self-sustaining interactive environment.

Hints:clear topics and easy access.

8
 Virtual Communities
8. Problems
- risk of perception, - uncertainty, - overlap of real and online life, - identity formation.

Trolling and Harassment

- meaning threatening or offensive content.
Where this posting is done for fun, then it is known as trolling.
Flaming (form of harasement) is defined as using insulties, swearing or offensive language.
Solution: laws

Privacy
- unclear distinction between private and public information.
- users activity is open to other participants.
Solution: privacy settings.

Hazing
Members of different elite online communities use hazing to emphasize their power, produce inequality, and
instill the newcomers loyalty, participating in intimidation, and so on.

Legal
- continuous adaptation, - copyright law, - other issues.

9
 Virtual Communities

Conclusions

- new way of social interaction,

- offers a range of opportunities,
- continously developing,
- not the same as the reality,
- a range of problems (privacy, legal, hazing, etc.),
- a positive impact on the society,
- a need for improvement.

10
 Virtual Communities

References
Hof, R. D., Browder, S., Elstrom, P. (1997, May 5). Internet Communities. Business Week.
Pears, Iain. 1998. An Instance of the Fingerpost. London: Jonathan Cape.
Anderson, Benedict. 1991. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.
Baym, N. K. (2000). Tune in, log on: Soaps, fandom and online community. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc.
Figallo, C. (1998). Hosting Web communities: Building relationships, increasing customer loyalty, and maintaining a competitive
edge.New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Furlong, M. S. (1989). An electronic community for older adults: The SeniorNet Network. Journal of Communication, 39(3), 145-153.
Rheingold, H. (1993b). The virtual community: Homesteading on the electronic frontier. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing
Company.
Ridings, C., Gefen, D., & Arinze, B. (2002). Some antecedents and effects of trust in virtual communities. Journal of Strategic
Information Systems, 11(3-4), 271-295.
Turner, J. C. (1978). Social comparison, similarity and ingroup favouritism. In H. Tajfel (Ed.), Differentiation between social groups (pp.
233-250). UK: Academic Press.
Wellman, B. (1997). An electronic Group is virtually a social network (g. f. D. library, Trans.). In S. Kiesler (Ed.), Culture of the
Internet . Mahawah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Catherine M. Ridings, Virtual Community Attraction: Why People Hang Out Online. Lehigh University David Gefen Drexel University.
November 2004.
What is a Cyberculture / Virtual Community? (March 2012) available from http://classweb.gmu.edu/nclc350/sp04/def-virt-comm.html.

11
Thanks for listening !

Questions ?

12