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ONLINE COMMUNITIES According to CMC a community is “a network of people who may or may not share a geographical space, but who have common interests and values and who interact on a reasonably regular basis.” Therefore an online community is a network of people found online that have common interests and interact on a reasonably regular basis.
Introduction • What is a community? • Has different meanings. • Community Characteristics • Sociability – social interaction and shared interests between members of a community • Locality – shared geographical location • Online communities – Real or Imagined?
Online Communities • Imagined communities – all communities larger than primordial villages of face-to-face contact (Anderson) • Real in the sense that they’re meaningful and powerful. • Social networks – one way of describing the structure of network relationships between large groups. • Hybrids – most common Example of online communities: http://www.pebhmong.com/forum http://www.honda-tech.com
MOST ONLINE COMMUNITIES HAVE: • 1. DIFFERENT PATTERNS WITHIN THEM • 2. ACTIVE SUBGROUPS • 3. A MESSAGE BOARD, CHAT ROOM OR FORUM FOR MEMBERS TO INTERACT WITH EACH OTHER
AS WEB COMMUNITIES SHARE INFORMATION WITH MEMBERS OF SIMILAR INTERESTS THE SOFTWARE THAT SUPPORTS THESE COMMUNITIES SHOULD: • 1. MAXIMIZE MEMBER INFORMATION • 2. MAXIMIZE INFORMATION SHARING • 3. PROVIDE PERSONALIZED SERVICES • 4. PROTECT INDIVIDUAL PRIVACY
HEALTH AND FITNESS COMMUNITY SUBGROUPS SUPPORTING PARTS • 1.WEIGHT LOSS • 2..NUTRITION • 3. FITNESS • 4. MEDICATION • 5. HEALTH TOPICS • 1. NEWSLETTERS • 2. EXPERT ADVISE • 3. DISCUSSION GROUPS • 4. PREGNANCY • 5. SEXUAL HEALTH • 6. BIPOLAR DISORDER
REFERENCES • Chin, A. & Chignell, M. (2007) Identifying active subgroups in online communities.New York N.Y. p.280-283. • McDonald, D. (2007) Visual Conversation Styles in Web Communities.dwmc@u.washington.edu • Muhlestein, D & SeungJin Lim (2007) A Common Interest Share Model for On-line Peer Communities. Washington D.C. p. 83-88 • Ohtani, T & Case,S. (2003) Personalisation and Web Communities. BT Technology Journal Vol. 21 p. 91-97 • Thurlow, Crispin, Laura Lengel and Alice Tomic. (2004) Computer Mediated Communication: Social Interaction and The Internet. p. 107-117
Questions • What is an online community? • A social network of online users with shared goals and having regular contact in a virtual community. • What are hybrid examples of a community? • Traditional communities that are finding ways to maximize member interactions by forming online communities.