VIRTUAL COMMUNITY

Virtual community is a community of people sharing common interests, ideas and feelings over the internet. Also virtual community is a social network of individuals who interact through specific social media, potentially crossing geographical and political boundaries in order to pursue mutual interests or goals. Some of the most pervasive virtual communities are online communities operating under social networking services. In virtual community interaction is encouraged, sometimes focusing around a particular interest or just to communicate, whereby members are allowed to interact over a shared passion through various means: message boards, chats rooms, social networking sites or virtual worlds.

Rheingold defines virtual communities as social aggregations that emerge from the internet when enough people carry on public discussions long enough and with sufficient human feeling to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace. It is a community of people sharing common interests, ideas and feelings over the internet of other collaborative networks.

Others define virtual community as a gathering of individuals using online technology to share interests, fears and personal opinions involving issues impacting people’s lives. For example, we may join a virtual community to support a presidential candidate, to provide support to a family with a child recently diagnosed with cancer or to cheer for favorite sports team. However, people join virtual community to gain the freedom of expression and to interact with others without being concerned with country boundaries, ethnic backgrounds, sexual orientation, religious beliefs or political views.

BASIS VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES

People create and establish virtual communities online to provide a forum by which individuals can share information regardless of the subject matter. One community may focus on specific member characteristics such as age or gender, while another focuses on types of merchandise like specialized carpenter tools. Engaging in fantasy sports is another popular virtual community theme, while at the other extreme is a virtual community providing emotional support for seriously ill or injured patients and their relatives.

Professional communities often referred to as communities of practice, are another type of virtual community composed of individuals engaged in work related activities. In this type of community, members typically share trade-secrets, for example, a world renowned chef may exchange a secret recipe with other community members. Additionally, a customer-based virtual community formed by commercial companies establishes an environment where customers can openly share and disseminate information to other customers and company representatives. A customer community encourages product-related feedback and is also good source for tips and advice about using more efficiently the device you just purchased.

Anyone can join a virtual community of their choice as long s the required technology (like hardware, software and connectivity) is obtained. For opinions, there are chat rooms and virtual communities offering specific and detailed information about products and services as well as personal associations through E-mail, social networks such as facebook and twitter are gaining popularity as well as international gaming virtual communities like the world of war craft game. The media sharing world is also represented by virtual communities like Pinterest and You Tube.

BY; MSECHU LEAH

BAPRM 42699