A community is a group of people who share common interests and interact with one another. A Virtual Community is one in which people interact with one another over the Internet. According to Rheingold (cited in Barnes & Hunt, 2001, p.68) Virtual Communities can be defined as "social aggregations of a critical mass of people on the Internet who exchange in public discussions, interactions in chat rooms, and information exchanges with sufficient human feeling on matters of common interest to form webs of personal relationships".
Virtual Communities are also known as Web communities, or online communities and exist on the Internet today in various forms, including chat rooms, Usenet newsgroups and Web sites (Schneider, 2003, p263). Virtual Communities are similar to physical communities such as clubs, neighbourhoods or associations, however, people do not meet face-to-face. Instead, like all activities that are classified under E-Commerce, communication takes place online. Virtual Communities provide several ways for people to interact, collaborate and trade (Turban et al. 2002, p.265). "I still spend hours a day communicating online. It's very helpful to me professionally. I need a stream of information, and you can only gain so much information by going to the library, or going out and talking to people face to face. I still have to sit there and wrestle with that blank screen all day, so as a writer, professionally, it's broadened my life" (Rheingold, 1999).
Virtual Communities are usually comprised of thousands or even millions of members compared with physical communities which are relatively smaller in numbers. Physical communities are generally confined to one geographical location, whereas it is very seldom that a Virtual Community is geographically confined (Turban et al. 2002, p265). Not only do Virtual Communities fulfil the social interaction needs of individuals, but can help "companies, their customers, and their suppliers plan, collaborate, transact business, and interact in ways that benefit all of them (Schneider, 2003, p.263).
There are several thousands of communities that exist on the Internet and within the world of E-Business. Several of these communities are independent and are growing rapidly. According to Turban et al (2002, p.266) Geocities grew to 10million members in less than two years and had over 45million members by 2002. Geocities members can set up personal homepages on the site in which they can interact with other members. A particular Virtual Community which many people are familiar with, is the Virtual Leaning Community. Many universities offer courses that use distance learning platforms such as Blackboard, IBM Lotus Learning Space and WebCT for some or all of the student-lecturer interaction. These distance learning platforms includes tools such as bulletin boards, chat rooms, and drawing boards that allow students to interact with their lecturers in ways that are similar to the interactions that might occur in a physical classroom setting (Schneider, 2003, p.263).
There are essentially four types of Virtual Communities in existence on the World Wide Web. These four communities are transaction-oriented, interest-oriented, fantasy-oriented and relationship-oriented. Some Virtual Communities fit into several of the categories above.
Transaction-oriented communities: mainly deal with the buying and selling of products and services and deliver information that is related to fulfilling those transactions.
Interest-oriented communities: have significantly higher degrees of interactions than in a community of transactions and the interactions are usually on topics of common interest.
Fantasy-oriented communities: create new environments, personalities, stories and role-play.
Relationship-oriented communities are built around certain life experiences that are usually very intense and lead to personal bonding between members (Barnes & Hunt, 2001, p.69-70).
Virtual Communities have become an important aspect in the world of E-Commerce. Champy et al (cited in Turban et al. 2000, p.442) describes online, consumer-driven markets where most of the consumers' needs, will be arranged from home. E-Commerce and in particular, Virtual Communities, have changed the way in which people interact and communicate with each other. Virtual Communities will eventually have a massive impact on almost every company that produces consumer goods and services. "Virtual Communities will change the nature of corporate strategy and the manner in which business is done" (Turban et al. 1999, p. 442).
===Reference List:===
1. ABC. 2003. Developing a virtual learning community of managers in rural and remote health services. http://www.abc.net.au/rural/ruralhealth2003/stories/s799695.htm (accessed October 24, 2004).
2. Barnes, S and B. Hunt. 2001. E-Commerce & V-Business: Business Models for Global Success. London: Professional Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0750645326.
3. Community Colleges Offers Online Courses. (2003, November 1), retrieved from Proquest Database on October 20, 2004.
4. Education QLD. 2004. Using Blackboard. http://education.qld.gov.au/learningplace/onlinelearning/blackboard/ (accessed October 22, 2004).
5. Harley Hahn. 2004. http://www.harley.com/usenet/ (accessed October 13, 2004).
6. Rheingold, H. 1999. Interviews From In The Pipeline: Howard Rheingold: American Author and Commentator. http://www.abc.net.au/pipeline/platform/interview/rheingold.htm (accessed October 17, 2004).
7. Schneider, G.P. 2003. Electronic Commerce. 4th Ed. Canada: Thomson Course Technology. ISBN 0619159553.
8. Turban, E. King, D. Lee, J. and M. Chung. 2000. Electronic Commerce: A Managerial Perspective. 1st Ed. USA: Prentice Hall. ISBN 0139752854.
9. Turban, E. King, D. Lee, J. and D. Viehland. 2002. Electronic Commerce: A Managerial Perspective. 3rd Ed. USA: Prentice Hall. ISBN 0131230158.
10. WIKIPEDIA: The Free Encyclopedia. 2004. www.wikipedia.org (accessed October 2, 2004).
11. YAHOO Chat. 2004 http://chat.yahoo.com/ (accessed October 13, 2004).
12. YAHOO GeoCities. 2004. http://geocities.yahoo.com/ (accessed October 13, 2004).
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Melanie Mackrodt 15:13, 27 Oct 2004 (EST)
