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Virtual online communities is a place in which people meet to share ideas, thoughts, feelings, and opinions about particular issue that they have in common. In virtual online communities people communicate through the ?computer medium? or computer mediated communication (CMC). This uses such mediums as e-mail, chat rooms, forums, newsgroups. The virtual online communities is made possible through the advancement of technology that makes up the internet. The internet is the main medium in which cyber space communities are formed, in this people have discussions with one another without being physically present or within the same part of the world. Virtual online communities develop over time like an infant who?s only predisposition is to survive and learns many new things through the years. This development is caused by the ?users? or member of the community through their actions.
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Online communities have many different purposes. Each one posses a different ?personality? ranging from casual discussions on topics of interest, to giving a business the ability to have employees discuss business related activities for productivity. Communities that are created for casual discussions bring together different people from all over the world to chat about topics such as driving: what makes them mad, to food. Then there are the business people discussing the projects they are working on and how they could exchange information to improve their projects and also to efficiently complete it.
| Who creates them? Why? |
Majority of the virtual community creators today are entrepreneurs, investors, and web publishers, though anyone can create a virtual community. There are no regulation against who can create a virtual community only the resources you have available, the audience, and an interesting theme or topic to attract visitors and members.
Creating an online community for some is to promote and share something that is of interest to them and possibly to others. Others such as Investors create online communities for the sheer purpose of advertising their products in hopes of attracting a larger pool of audience to use or buy their products such as advertising in the newspaper. With online communities people can attract and interact with people from different regions of the world, and also meet people of different background at a faster pace. Advertisement is also not limited to a single region or a single type of person, it reaches out to any person any where in the world who has access to the Internet.
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Virtual communities work through the medium called the ?internet.? The communities that form on the internet brings together many people to trade information, and also to allow people to meet others with the same interest as themselves. The first step in understanding how the virtual community works one must understand how it is started. This involves a person inputting their interest and other people with the same interest respond. The response and further interactions develop the community into a vibrant area on the internet such as a city. A city develops with one building and more being added to the area with more and more people occupying the buildings.
| How do they spread? |
The more participants and visitors community receives, the better chances it has of acquiring new members. Virtual online communities spread through the use of advertisements of topics, themes, and issues that people find attractive and interesting. This makes people want to explore the site and by visiting the site and seeing what it has to offer them they decide whether they want to become a member of the community.
Virtual communities also spread by linking to other popular sites that are often visited by people on the Internet. Having links from another site increases the chance that people will visit a specific online community because they are curious or they want to be there. The more access people have to an online community site the more chance the community has to expand.
Lastly a way in which virtual communities spread is by members encouraging friends, colleagues, and family members to join the online community. This gives advertisement through word of mouth which can become very important.
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Health on the Net Foundation was founded in 1996, as a non profit organization for the advancement of health and medicine. The site has a basic function, of providing valuable information about specific illnesses or can lead to support groups for individuals suffering. Also the site is frequented by students of medicine. The site allows for all people to gain access to information and also can direct a person in the right direction to look for assistence.
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These are what type of community it is, what do they do.
Basically it is a matter of preference and whether it helps a person or
not. Under particulars, I would choose a community which would deal with
topics of interest such as investors, psychology, and may even include
hobbies. All of this is still determined next on the type of community.
The type of community I would join would be of non harming and one of partial
passivity.
| Significance of the existence of virtual communities |
This is due to the need for them or the want to be part
of something. Like a community or neighborhood that a person lives in the
members contribute to the communities flourishment. The existence of communities
online is inevitable, people want the social interaction which they recieve
when online. Virtual communities are choices people make in what they want
to interact with. This creates an atmoshphere of communication of data
or ideas.
Another part of why the existence of virtual communities
are important is through the business sense where the ideas of one person
maybe another persons problem. By sharing the ideas a business can flourish,
also people become a little more efficient and effective.
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Brandon Lee
Brandon Lee states that ?Virtual Communities are groups of people interacting with each other using the internet as the channel for this communication.? Mr. Lee also states that these communities have members who share the same interests such as hobbies, professions, or products. With these shared interest though he states that ?Virtual communities are often lacking in feeling depending upon what type of community it is.?
I agree with that the communities are built for and by
people who share common interests via the same communication line. I also
agree on the feeling of security being important, there are other factors
though that can attribute to the feelings a person has while in a particular
community. One such factor is the type of community such as the topics
being discussed. Another factor maybe the type of people within the particular
community.
Lori Rapoza?s report deals with her experiences of gaining cyberspace citizenship. Like many others when going online for the first time she started the semester off confident that she could do what needed to be done. Then Ms. Rapoza went through a period of frustration in obtaining this cyberspace citizenship. In the end though, she felt a feeling of great accomplishment in her understanding of the internet and more specifically of herself in her motives and frustrations.
I think that what Ms. Rapoza went though to become a cyberspace citizen is what many people go though aquiring this citizenship and also in everything new which people undertake.
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There are no other students working on this report, thus I could not compare my information to theirs. Though I do have one comments about what I saw while looking at each person?s one. Each one has it?s own distinct style in the layout, also the information provided is very informative and interesting.
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Virtual online communities gives users a sense of belonging and a place where people can go to visit others with the same interest as themselves. Being in a virtual community prior to taking this class maybe helpful to people by giving them the ability to choose a focus on the types of information they are looking for. Such as a person who has an interest in cars may write this report with this focus thus giving more insight into how a community can help this person through entertainment or even for information. This would be my suggestion to future generations working on this report. Other than that keep in mind that a person may join a community but to truely understand how it feels to be a part of this community a person must be an active member to really make the most use of the community.
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