- What are virtual communities?
- What are virtual communities for?
- Characteristics of virtual communities
- Examples of virtual communities
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 ordering data processed in the Internet, from services online. In other words, they are groups of individuals and institutions cybernetically organized around a range of specific interests, whose interactions, links, relationships and communications are given through Net.
Virtual communities can be very diverse and specific, involving people geographically and culturally distant origins, 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 Rhinehold. However, the first virtual communities already existed since the 70s of the 20th century, particularly around the exchange of data specialized in military, scientific and academic fields, thanks to the mechanisms of communication of the then rudimentary Internetsuch as bulletin board systems (BBS) or bulletin boards.
Currently, virtual communities are a massive phenomenon online and closely linked to the explosion of social networks, capable of interconnecting this type of virtual organization or creating their own, around massive communicative axes and different times and modes of interaction.
What are virtual communities for?
In principle, virtual communities have as their purpose the exchange of information specialized around a theme or an axis of themes that can be anything, from science Y technology, literary creation, sports or film fanaticism, etc. Those who collaborate in them are both 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 an internal organization of communications, as well as a closer and more direct contact with consumers, organizing a community around the product or to the mark (branding or loyalty). It also operates as a space for socialization and exchange of a 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 theme. interest specific, be it the debate around certain topics, the joint literary creation, video games, the opportunity for romantic dates, etc.
- It does not have a physical anchor in the real world, but in a service or web page available digitally.
- Imprints a sense of belonging in its members as strong as the communities traditional, whether or not it lends itself to physical and face-to-face exchange.
Examples of virtual communities
Some examples of virtual communities today are:
- Twitter. A social network that allows you to set up a bulletin board for reading, sharing and commenting news with other users from anywhere in the world.
- Microsoft Community. A virtual forum that brings together users of products microsoft and allows them to interact with the business, to obtain solutions to technical problems, recommendations, express your opinion, etc.
- Wikipedia. Beyond the information open to the consumption of the entire Internet, there is a very diverse community of collaborators, anonymous or not, who discuss the articles, correct them, create new ones, translate them and allow the collective encyclopedic project to be kept up to date.
- 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 love relationships. It has a version intended solely for the gay public, known as Grindr.
- eMule. Software peer-to-peer (p2p) connection 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 are published texts, announcements are made, contests are announced, etc.