A virtual community is a group (sociology) whose participants are engaged in a dialog by means of information technologies, typically the Internet, to share information and values. Similar terms include online community and mediated community.
The term virtual community is attributed to the book of the same title by Howard Rheingold in 1993. The book discussed a range of computer-mediated communication and social groups. The technologies included Usenet, MUDs (Multi-User Dungeon) and their derivatives MUSHes and MOOs, IRC (Internet Relay Chat), chat rooms and electronic mailing lists. He pointed out potential benefit of such a group one can belong to via communication technologies for personal psychological well-being as well as for the society at large. (The proliferation of the World Wide Web started after the book was published)
Today, virtual community is loosely used and interpreted to indicate a variety of social groups connected in some ways by the Internet. It does not necessarily mean that there is a strong bond among the members. An email distribution list on Star Trek may have close to one hundred members, and the communication which takes place there could be either one-way (the list owner making announcements) or merely informational (questions and answers are posted, but members stay relatively strangers and uninterested to each other). The membership turnover rate could be high. This is in line with the liberal use of the term community.
The idea that media could generate a community is quite old. Progressive thinkers such as Charles Cooley, early in the 20th century in the United States, envisioned a nation whose members are united strongly because of the increased use of mass media. Also well-known is the term community without propinquity, coined by sociologist Melvin Webber in 1963.
The explosive diffusion of the Internet into some countries such as the United States was also accompanied by the proliferation of virtual communities. The nature of those communities and communications is rather diverse, and the benefits that Rheingold envisioned are not necessarily realized, or pursued, by many. At the same time, it is rather commonplace to see anecdotes of someone in need of special help or in search of a community benefitting from the use of the Internet.
=Examples of virtual communities=
== Discussion Boards ==
Electric Minds
GameFAQs
LiveJournal
GrinnellPlans
M11 Music
The WELL
Smut Shack
[http://www.cafeutne.org Cafe Utne]
[http://www.nag.co.za/ New Age Gaming]
[http://www.OpenMicCafe.com OpenMicCafe]
[http://www.the-town.org The Town]
[http://www.yesnomaybe.com Yes No Maybe]
== Social Networks ==
[http://www.buddiester.com Buddiester]
43 Things
Friendster
Gazzag
LunarStorm
MSN Spaces
Orkut
Tribe.net
Memetika
MySpace
[http://www.medicinefilms.com MedicineFilms]
[http://www.profileheaven.com ProfileHeaven]
== Art Communities ==
[http://breedart.org BreedArt]
DeviantART
[http://gfxartist.com GFXartist]
[http://www.neosynthesis.net Neosynthesis]
== Health informatics virtual community ==
*GPCG and GPCG2 (the original Australian based General Practitioner Computing Group and its successor GPCG2)
== MUD, MUSH, MOO ==
== Other Types ==
GameTZ.com (an online game, music, movie, and book trading community)
Meetup (an online service designed to facilitate real-world meetings of people involved in various virtual communities)
Thothica
Wikipedia
=Virtual community experts=
Jonathan Bishop
[http://www.socialchemy.com/figblog/ Cliff Figallo]
[http://www.naima.com/ Amy Jo Kim]
[http://www.clis.umd.edu/faculty/Preece/CV.html Jenny Preece]
Howard Rheingold
[http://www.gurus.com/margy/ Margaret Levine Young]
=See also=
The Virtual Community
Bulletin Board System
Virtual Community of Practice
Network of practice
Computer-mediated communication
Internet forum
Internet social network
MMORPG
Web of trust
Online wedding
=Further reading=
Hagel, J. (1997). Net Gain: Expanding Markets through Virtual Communities. Boston: Harvard Business School Press (ISBN 0875847595)
Kim, A.J. (2000). Community Building on the Web: Secret Strategies for Successful Online Communities. London: Addison Wesley (ISBN 0201874849)
Preece, J. (2000). Online Communities: Supporting Sociability, Designing Usability. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd. (ISBN 0471805998)
Rheingold, H. (2000). The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. [http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/ online version]London: MIT Press. (ISBN 0262681218)
The author has made available an [http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/intro.html online copy]
[http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.phpjournalID=50#objectives The International Journal of Web-Based Communities]
=External links=
*[
http://www.boredquote.com/ BoredQuote Comment Central]
[http://www.community-online.com/ Community-online.com] - Features online communities in business, arts, culture, sports, and more.
[http://www.globosapiens.net/ Travel Community] - GLOBOsapiens - Travel Community.
[http://www.snshortcut.com/ SNShortcut] - SNShortcut- Social agency, blog service etc.
[http://www.communities.com/ Communities] - Online community with members from all over the world
[http://www.e-thePeople.org e-thePeople.org] - a political community
[http://www.kuro5hin.org kuro5hin] - a technology community
[http://www.madwolfsw.com/ The Manor] - New community
[http://www.extremetourist.com/ Extreme Tourist] - Independent Traveller s Web Community Devoted To Active Travel, Adventure and Eco-tourism
[http://www.lunarstorm.se LunarStorm] - Only available in Swedish
[http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.plOnlineCommunity Meatball Wiki: OnlineCommunity]
[http://www.playdo.com Playdo community] by Andreas Rehnberg (live example)
[http://www.slashdot.org Slashdot] - News for nerds, stuff that matters (a technology community)
[http://www.healthboards.com HealthBoards] - Health support group community
[http://castlecops.com CastleCops] - a global Internet security community
[http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/intro.html The Virtual Community] - By Howard Rheingold (electronic version)
[http://www.zelaron.com/forum/ Zelaron Gaming Forum] - International community for gamers.
[http://gametz.com/ GameTZ] - An international trading community.
[http://www.ocreport.com/ Online Community Report] - news and trends in online collaboration.
[http://davesgarden.com/ Dave s Garden] - For Gardeners, By Gardeners (a gardening community, mostly women)
[http://www.shirky.com/writings/group_enemy.html A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy ] (negative feedback effects in virtual communities)
[http://myprimers.com/my_primers/hottubing_email_lists/ Saving an online community by hottubbing it. Free primer.]