Virtual community
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Definition
- A virtual community, also called online community is a group of people that interact through mediated communication.
- A virtual community is defined herein as an aggregation of individuals or business partners who interact around a shared interest, where the interaction is at least partially supported and/or mediated by technology and guided by some protocols or norms. This definition embraces key components of definitions put forth in existing literature by including elements such as interacting groups of people, shared interest and technology mediation. (C.E. Porter retrieved 19:56, 26 June 2006 (MEST))
Typologies
Typically, in educational technology one often makes the distinction between a the (virtual) community of interest and the (virtual) community of practice. A community of learning or a knowledge-building community are somewhat in between...
Virtual habitats and MMORPG are forms that are more common in the world of gaming and social role playing.
Constance E. Porter defines five Ps of virtual communities and that would allow to categorize virtual communities:
- Purpose (Content of Interaction) -- This attribute describes the specific focus of discourse, or focal content of communication, among community members.
- Place (Extent of Technology Mediation of Interaction) -- This attribute defines the location of interaction, where interaction occurs either completely virtually or only partially virtually.
- Platform (Design of Interaction) -- This attribute refers to the technical design of interaction in the virtual community, where designs enable synchronous communication, asynchronous communication or both.
- Population (Pattern of Interaction) -- This attribute refers to the pattern of interaction among community members as described by group structure (e.g. small group or network) and type of social ties (e.g. strong, weak, stressful).
- Profit Model (Return on Interaction) -- This attribute refers to whether a community creates tangible economic value where value is defined as revenue-generation.
References
- Porter, Constance Elise, A Typology of Virtual Communities: A Multi-Disciplinary Foundation for Future Research, JCMC 10 (1), Article 3, November 2004 (HTML)