Report
on the Psychology of Virtual Online Communities
Online Communities by: Marilyn Ortal G11/Spring 1999 University of Hawaii
Table of
Contents:
How
do Virtual Communities Work? How do they spread? What types
are there?
Case
History of a Virtual Community
Participation/Membership
Significance
of the Existence of Virtual Communities
Generational
Reports on Virtual Community or Cyberspace Citizenship
Compare
and Contrast
Conclusion
Some
Online Resources on Virtual Communities
How do Virtual Communities Work? How do they spread? What types are there?
Virtual
communities needs a loyal audience that return again and again. Besides
creating useful, lively content and updating it regularly, virtual communities
create a sense of community, so that people keep coming back. These
virtual communities spread by allowing people to communicate with each
other in real live chatrooms, as well as bulletin boards. Virtual
communities need to create creative ways for people to interact such as
having contests, surveys, and also real life face to face meetings.
There are a lot of virtual communities which range from recreation, to
health concerns.
Case History of a Virtual Community:
Here
is an example of a virtual community, College
Club. This web site leads you to a virtual community where thousands
of college students gather in one place. This virtual community allows
students from different Universities all over the country to talk about
current events, for example, the High School Massacre in Littleton, Colorado.
It also provides a real live chatrooms for students to communicate with
one another. College Club also provides many resources pertaining
to students, for example, links to sources for financial aids, or sources
for job searching or how to create a resume. One of College Club's
significant feature is being able to communicate with other students in
other Universities and Colleges in your major. College Club has 10,000
student groups to choose from and if you don't like the ones they have,
you can create your own group. Student groups are interactive bulletin
boards where you can post messages and discuss current events in your major
or what ever the topic your group is discussing. It is similar to
the discussion boards that we use at http://www.kalama.doe.hawaii.edu/webx/.
Aside from all these features, College Club also provides free e-mail address,
voice mail, and web page. The membership for College Club is free
and all you have to do is register and it's free.
I would
participate in a virtual community as long as it fits my needs, for example,
I use College Club a lot. College Club provides a lot of resources
for college students like me. I enjoy interacting with other students
from other Universities and Colleges in my major. We have a lot of
things in common, it's a neat way of meeting friends, and networking.
A lot of students especially in my Psychology group have visited Dr. James'
web site and they find Cyber Psychology a very interesting course.
I would participate in a virtual community as long as I don't need to pay
for any type of membership fees.
Significance of the Existence of Virtual Communities:
The significance of the existence of virtual communities is that they allow interactions between individuals that would not have been otherwise possible. In a virtual community one can interact with people all over the world, which would not be possible without the existence of virtual communities. Virtual communities are mediums in which people can share their common thoughts, feelings, and opinions about certain topics without a face to face conversation. It is also a place where people can get together and socialize without leaving the comfort of their home.
Virtual
online communities are a part of what we call Cyber culture. A culture
that has its own unique characteristics and rules which governs its establishment
and existence. It is similar to face-face communities in that there
are rules that governs the
interactions
between people. Virtual communities are similar to face-to-face communities
in that they need active members to keep the virtual community alive.
Virtual communities works the same way as face to face communities because
it provides an opportunity for people to interact among one another.
In a virtual community, you can choose to participate in discussions or
not, just like in face to face communities where one can choose the group
of people he/she wants to have a discussion with. I believe that
an evolution in cyberspace of virtual communities has already begun.
With the advancing technology that we have today, there are new and creative
ways of inventing means of communicating, like virtual communities.
Generational Reports on Virtual Community or Cyberspace Citizenship:
Jocelyn Manibusan's report: Jocelyn's definition of virtual communities "are places where people come together to share their thoughts, feelings, and opinions about a particular issue." Unlike, Jocelyn, I am a part of a virtual community. Her content in her work is very clear, specific, and easy to understand. I like how she has other virtual communities that she recommend, although those communities I'm not so interested in. Both our definition of a virtual community is quite similar. I believe that Jocelyn has done a thorough investigation on a virtual community and she has gained a lot of information from it, like I have.
David
Chang's report: David
defines virtual communities as "An online community is any site or groups
of sites that have a regular group of visitors who are
able to interact with each other in on for or another via live chat, bulletin
boards or email." I agree with David as my definition of a virtual
community is similar to his. Like myself, David also participates
in virtual communities. I find some of his communities that he participates
in very interesting, but something that I would participate in, for example,
satanic.org.
I enjoyed reading David's investigation on Virtual Communities, but the
satanic.org kinda scared me.
One of my classmate's report
is under construction at this time.
One way that future generations can improve on my investigation on Virtual Communities is to find a community that interests you and actively participate in them. I feel that the only way to know how virtual communities work is to actively participate in them. I feel that this is an inventive way of networking also.
Some of the steps that I have taken to complete this investigation are:
Some Online Resources on Virtual Communities:
These are some virtual communities that Dr. James recommends you to look at. These are sites that gives you a lot of information about virtual communities. It also gives you a description of some of the on-line communities within the site. These sites are excellent resources for anyone who might be interested in participating and becoming a member of any online community.
1.
http://rdz.stjohns.edu/~storm/
2. http://www.behavior.net/mhn/bolforum/message/32
3. http://www.shassan.com/
4. http://www.grohol.com/
5. http://www.netaxs.com/~jamesiii/papers.htm
One virtual site that I highly
recommend and one that I actively participate in is called, College
Club. It is for college students
to be and students currently enrolled in a College or University.
This virtual community allows students from different Universities all
over the country to talk about current events, for example, the High School
Massacre in Littleton, Colorado. It also provides a real live chatrooms
for students to communicate with one another. College Club also provides
many resources pertaining to students, for example, links to sources for
financial aids, or sources for job searching or how to create a resume.
One of College Club's significant feature is being able to communicate
with other students in other Universities and Colleges in your major.
College Club has 10,000 student groups to choose from and if you don't
like the ones they have, you can create your own group. Student groups
are interactive bulletin boards where you can post messages and discuss
current events in your major or what ever the topic your group is discussing.
Okay enough already, you should just go and check it out!!! Have
fun!!!