We explain what a virtual community is and what they are for. Characteristics and examples of different virtual communities.
What are virtual communities?
Virtual communities are called certain groups of subjects (individuals, groups and institutions) that concentrate their efforts on the organization of data processed on the Internet, based on online services. In other words, they are cybernetically organized groups of individuals and institutions around a range of specific interests, whose interactions, links, relationships and communications occur through the Internet.
Virtual communities can be very diverse and specific, involving people from geographically and culturally distant backgrounds organized around a common theme of their passion or interest, and a virtual “space” that can be determined by a Web page or an online service.
This term was used for the first time in 1994, in the book The virtual community by Howard Rheinhold. However, the first virtual communities already existed since the 70s of the 20th century particularly around specialized data exchange in military, scientific and academic fields, thanks to the communication mechanisms of the then rudimentary Internet, such as bulletin board systems (BBS) or bulletin boards.
Currently, virtual communities are a massive online phenomenon and closely linked to the explosion of social networks, capable of interconnecting this type of virtual organizations or creating their own around massive communicative axes and different times and modes of interaction.
See also: WWW
What are virtual communities for?
In principle, virtual communities have the purpose of exchange of specialized information around a topic or an axis of topics which can be anything, from science and technology, literary creation, sports or film fanaticism, etc. Those who collaborate in them are at the same time consumers, producers and/or replicators of the information available in this regard.
On the other hand, they are a useful tool for corporate environments, allowing internal organization of communications, as well as closer and direct contact with consumers, organizing a community around the product or brand (branding or loyalty). It also operates as a space for socialization and exchange of diverse nature between people of all kinds, within the framework of social networks and culture 2.0.
Characteristics of virtual communities
Virtual communities are usually characterized as follows:
- They involve individuals of different origins, who may come from distant geographies, diverse social groups, etc.
- They organize their members around a specific topic or a specific interest, whether it is debate around certain topics, joint literary creation, video games, the opportunity for romantic dates, etc.
- It does not have a physical anchor in the real world, but rather in a service or Web page available digitally.
- It imprints a sense of belonging on its members as strong as traditional communities, whether or not it lends itself to physical and in-person exchange.
Examples of virtual communities
Some examples of today's virtual communities are:
- Twitter A social network that allows you to establish a bulletin board to read, share and comment on news with other users from anywhere in the world.
- Microsoft Community A virtual forum that brings together users of Microsoft products and allows them to interact with the company, to obtain solutions to technical problems, recommendations, express their opinion, etc.
- Wikipedia Beyond the information open for consumption throughout the Internet, there is a very diverse community of collaborators, anonymous or not, who debate articles, correct them, create new ones, translate them and keep the collective encyclopedic project updated.
- Tinder It is a social network that operates as a community of romantic interests, allowing its users to meet new people and get in touch with them to manage dates and establish romantic relationships. It has a version intended only for the gay public, known as Grindr.
- eMule Peer-to-peer (p2p) connection software that allows its users to exchange data and virtual information from their own computers, as well as create joint databases to share information that is of personal importance to them.
- Letteria This website was once a mass mailing system (mailing list) and is currently an important information community on literary matters, in which texts are published, calls for submissions are disseminated, contests are announced, etc.
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