What is a “Virtual Community” Anyway?
The words “virtual community” and “online community” have been bandied about, hyped and interpreted in many ways. If you want to read about how others have tried to describe VC, check here (How Some Folks Have Tried to Describe Community). But for our purposes, we’re going to keep it simple and in context of building your own community. Online or virtual community is the gathering of people, in an online “space” where they come, communicate, connect, and get to know each other better over time. From that point on, the rest is up to you. Your community will be what you and your members make of it! Want some examples? Ideas? Read on. Why Do People Join and Build Virtual Communities? People have been using online spaces since the beginning of the Internet to communicate. That includes prior to the World Wide Web, when BBS, or electronic bulletin boards and email loops connected folks across time and space. (For a good short history of the Internet, see http://www.dsv.su.se/internet/docume
