Virtual Community

Definition and Theoretical Models

Virtual communities were identified before 1980 by a number of different scholars and social analysts, including Barry Wellman, whose 1979 term nonlocal communities identified social support networks that existed outside the immediate physical space of a geographically defined community. Virtual [Page 422]communities accessible through Usenet newsgroups in 1979, along with The WELL, started in 1985, are the first identifiable communities that existed in early cyberspace. The term virtual community itself was becoming active in the discourse around such communities. In 1993, Howard Rheingold defined virtual communities as social networks that interact through computer-mediated communications (CMCs). Through the work of Benedict Anderson, they also were frequently linked to concepts of national and other “imagined” community groupings. Virtual communities, while always bonded by some variety of social ties, are frequently based on work or other formal group activities. This has been particularly true since the late 1990s, when telecommuting became a viable option for corporations wanting to give their employees flexibility in their work/family and work/home lives. This also has become important not just for working mothers but also for fathers desiring more face-to-face time with their children.

A term that is often used in place of the problematic virtual is Web community, which, like online community, situates the relationship between participants on an Internet site. Virtual communities by any name, however, frequently involve offline interaction among members in addition to their online relationships—one of the reasons remote or home office options in corporate settings will often require some manner of synchronous communication, either through regular online or face-to-face meetings between remote employees. Similarly, online education courses and online business ventures construct aspects of virtual communities into their design to promote feelings of attachment and commitment both among participants and between participants and the organization or Website.

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