The nature of virtual communities

The impressive development of electronic communication techniques has given rise to virtual\ud communities. The nature of these computer-mediated communities has been the subject of much recent\ud debate. Are they ordinary social groups in electronic form, or are they fundamentally different from\ud traditional communities? Understanding virtual communities seems a prerequisite for the design of better\ud communication systems. To clarify this debate, we will resort to the classical sociological distinction\ud between small traditional communities (based on personal relations) and modern social groups (bound by\ud looser, more impersonal links). We will argue that the discussion about virtual communities is often\ud vitiated by a simplistic assimilation to traditional communities, whereas they may be in fact quite different\ud and much more impersonal. Virtual communities are often bound by reference to common objects or\ud goals, and not by personal relations. In this respect, virtual communities are just another example of a\ud long-term evolution of modern society toward more abstract social relationships

Towards business model and technical platform for the service oriented context-aware mobile virtual communities

The focus of existing virtual communities is centered on a particular product or social interaction and the role of mobile devices is restricted to exchange a limited amount of contents. Herewith we envisage that the upcoming virtual communities will exploit the potential of social interaction and context information to offer personalized services to its members and mobile devices will play a significant role in this process. As a step towards this direction, in this paper we propose a business model for the mobile virtual communities in which the mobile device takes on the role of a content producer and content consumer. Though there are a number of research issues which need to be addressed to realize such virtual communities, in this paper we focus on the service requirements, architecture and open source software implementation of a technical platform for the content producer and consumer mobile devices

Issues in the study of virtual world social movements

Virtual worlds are online three-dimensional worlds that are often constructed to look much like the real world. As more people begin to use these virtual worlds, virtual communities are emerging enabling various social activities and social interactions to be conducted online. Based on a literature review of social movements, virtual communities and virtual worlds, this paper suggests a framework to guide IS research into this new and exciting area

Stickiness of Commercial Virtual Communities

The recent merging of the electronic market arena has enabled the creation of new environments in which consumers can interact with each other online – Commercial Virtual Communities (CVC). The strategic question facing internet businesses today is what are the components of the glue that makes consumers stay and return to websites in general and to CVCs in particular, i.e. how can one increase the stickiness of a CVC? This paper provides an insight into the nature of CVCs and the factors that drive their stickiness. The resulting framework is evaluated with the help of a survey among CVC experts. The results of the survey are presented.economics of technology ;

Virtual Socializing: Its Motives and Spread

Virtual communities constitute an important attribute through which social dialogues are mediated. The emergence of online communities is the outcome of the prevalence of web based technologies. In the world of inter and intra connectedness individuals have the prerogative to get connected to the community of their choice. The present study examines the magnitude and motivations of online social networking through field survey method.virtual socializing, online communities, social networking, virtual platforms, virtual communities

An integrated framework to classify healthcare virtual communities

Healthcare (HC) strives to improve service quality through its cost-effective social computing strategy. However, sudden rise in the count of virtual community of practices (VCoPs) introduced many choices for physicians; As a result, it is not surprising to observe current literature reporting lack of study to investigate ideas integration within and between VCoPs. VCoPs need to be categorized for HC physicians so they will be able to pin-point effective a VC to attain assistance from. This paper is one of the first investigative studies, in HC sector, that proposed a framework to classify and pin-point appropriate VCoPs, for physicians, after it reviewed and analyzed traditional and up-to-date theoretical, empirical and case study literature in the area of social computing, knowledge management (KM) and VCoPs. The implementation of this framework pinpointed professional VCoPs as most appropriate for physicians based on strict requirements, i.e. closed physician communities holding many participants, which are older than 5 years with high boundary crossing. This framework is also a “one-size-fit-all” formula to build an organizational VCoP, utilizable by other business sectors

Virtual communities on the web: transactional learning and teaching

This paper describes the context, project development and use of a web-based virtual community to enhance professional legal education at the Glasgow Graduate School of Law. Together with a number of other ICT initiatives, the community was presented in the RechtenOnline series of masterclasses. The approaches to learning presented at the workshop were developed over a number of years by the author and others, and continue to be developed and expanded. What is described below is therefore a constant work in progress; but the paradox of all educational implementations is that every engagement with students is, from their point of view, a once-only encounter - Heraclitus' step into the river, as it were - and thus our work can be described as cycles of both finished product and constant evolution. Below, we shall outline the context of our ICT implementations, give an overall view of our approach to teaching and learning using ICT, and then describe particular aspects of the projects we use to teach our students

Framing Group Norms in Virtual Communities

Organizations have started to realize the economic value of virtual communities. Unfortunately, traditional management methods of control do not work on virtual communities. Often, group norms are the principal method of virtual community governance. However, it is not clear how group norms are formed in virtual communities, and how managers can shape norm evolution. This research in progress paper presents our initial analysis of norm formation in virtual communities. We use framing analysis on two virtual communities focused on recreational drug use to explain how managers of virtual communities construct, and community members interpret frames to develop group norms

Education virtual communities

Distance Learning is a prime area for expansion of a new internet business/community model since there is currently no broad-based application servicing this function. The goal of this project is to investigate and prepare the basis for a proposal to a financial backer such as AT&T or one of the large internet service providers. A major part of the paper will investigate the current state of the distance learning internet environment and how to improve it. One of the main improvements concerns the need for a standard interface, which should include a learning tool such as RIT\u27s colloquy software. Continuing/lifelong education has become a staple in the information economy. Most people realize that increased education levels relate directly to increased income, which provides increased buying power. A service provider must determine the needs of the distance learning community and an effective and efficient method of delivering the product. From the perspective of a business owner, whether it is a university or a computer seller, a loyal customer within various stages of the lifelong learning curve is a profitable commodity