Sunday, January 08, 2006
What's a Virtual Community? Can a Virtual Community Exist?
What is a virtual community? Can a virtual community exist? According to the Dictionary.com, one definition of the word "virtual" refers to something that exists only in the imagination or is fake, such as virtual reality, which is simply a computer simulation of what is real. If one limits the definition of virtual to that which is unreal, then a virtual community is not real; it is no more than a pseudo- or simulated community. As a pseudo-community, it exists only in cyberspace when people are logged on to their computers.
Nonetheless, communities do exist in cyberspace. According to Rheingold, a virtual community is a social aggregation that emerges from the Net "when enough people carry on ... public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form [a web] of personal relationships in cyberspace." Fernbach & Thompson define virtual community as a set of "social relationships forged in cyberspace through repeated contact within a specified boundary or place )e.g., a conference or chat line) that is symbolically delineated by topic of interest." A definition that I like is inspired by Roberts: a "community is a group that you belong to, that you feel you belong to, and that you share important things [or interests] with," whether in the material world or in cyberspace.
The community where one lives is created and held together by geography and family: shared geography and genealogy. An online community, however, is created and held together by the shared interests of its members, who may live in different parts of the world and have no shared genealogy.
Nonetheless, communities do exist in cyberspace. According to Rheingold, a virtual community is a social aggregation that emerges from the Net "when enough people carry on ... public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form [a web] of personal relationships in cyberspace." Fernbach & Thompson define virtual community as a set of "social relationships forged in cyberspace through repeated contact within a specified boundary or place )e.g., a conference or chat line) that is symbolically delineated by topic of interest." A definition that I like is inspired by Roberts: a "community is a group that you belong to, that you feel you belong to, and that you share important things [or interests] with," whether in the material world or in cyberspace.
The community where one lives is created and held together by geography and family: shared geography and genealogy. An online community, however, is created and held together by the shared interests of its members, who may live in different parts of the world and have no shared genealogy.
