COM 125 Week 2: Virtual Online Communities – “Just How Interconnected Are We?”

In this era of globalization, the virtual world is everywhere. The Internet is able to connect people all around the world in ways we never even dreamed possible a mere decade ago. Instant messaging, blogging and email... The methods of communicating with the people around you, and even across the globe abound. This paper is going to focus on just an aspect of CMC (computer-mediated communication) – Virtual Online Communities. It’s going to touch on why every human being is part of at least some sort of Virtual Online Community, and how it has evolved to become so much a part of our lives today.

Just what are Virtual Online Communities? The word community, or in this case, the online community is loosely defined as “a variety of social groups interacting via the Internet.” (Wikipedia, 2007). It is revolutionary in the way that it is able to gather people with similar interests, and make a “connection without regard to race, creed, gender or geography.” (Wellman & Guila, 1996). The Internet itself is a huge community, which is then broken up into many other sub-communities. Some of these sub-communities include P2P (peer-to-peer) programs like BitTorrent and Kazaa, blogging programs like LiveJournal and Blogger, and discussion boards like Hardware Forums.

These different sort of virtual online communities advocate different levels of participation. On one end of the spectrum, mediums like mailing lists gather people with common interests together, and these members are periodically informed about new developments regarding their area of interest. There is no form of contact amongst members, and the probability of forming an interpersonal relationship with someone else from the mailing list is near impossible.

However, on the other end of the spectrum, lie Virtual Communities like discussion boards and blogging. Similarly, such communities gather people with common interests, but there is a more tangible bond among its members. Take for instance discussion boards. According to Amy Jo Kim (2002), most people start out as lurkers in such communities. However, as they break through the initial barriers, they will slowly pass through the stages of being a novice, a regular, and, through some period of time or contribution, become an elder in the community. Just why does an individual want to go through all these like they are breaking the many levels and stages in an RPG (role-playing game)?

According to Kollock (1999) & Smith (1992), the reason human beings enjoy being so much of a virtual community is due to the fact that it affords them anticipated reciprocity, increased recognition, a sense of efficacy, and a sense of community. When you commit yourself to a community, it is a natural human tendency to want to contribute to it. When you contribute to it, you would want people to recognize the blood and sweat you put into the community. Finally getting recognized for your efforts would, in turn, improve your self-image and better the perception of yourself. Despite the personal gain an individual would hope to derive from this, it’s also all about building a healthy environment for the community where information can be freely exchanged, and where interpersonal relationships amongst members can be forged. According to Rheingold (1993), the “community-building power comes from the living database that the participants create and use together informally as they help each other solve problems, one to one and many to many.” Through this, it can be seen that even though the motivation for contributing to an online community would be for personal fulfillment, it is also done in the hopes of creating a strong online network of like-minded peers who can help each other out in times of crises.

From this, it is not hard to see why each of us is part of at least a form of Virtual Online Community. It is able to do what we are unable to do in real life – These communities group us according to our common interests, and allow us to swap and share information with other peers online. Whether we are merely sharing files (through BitTorrent), or sharing information (through discussion boards or blogs), its influence is prevalent. In fact, this class is a Virtual Online Community of its own. We are all bound by the common interest of blogging our assignments by the deadline. When our assignments are posted online, our lecturer and peers are able to read our work. Subscribing to each other’s RSS feeds and being able to leave a comment on each other’s blogs instantly connect us. Irrefutably, we have no need to look elsewhere for a good example of a Virtual Online Community!


References

Rheingold, H. (1993). Visionaries and Convergences: The Accidental History of the Net. The Virtual Community. New York: Perseus Books. Retrieved from http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/3.html

Wellman, B. & Guila, M. (1996). Net Surfers Don’t Ride Alone: Virtual Communities as Communities. Retrieved January 26, 2007 from http://www.acm.org/ccp/references/wellman/wellman.html

Wikipedia (2007). Virtual Community. Retrieved January 26, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_community#Discussion_boards