Preparation Notes

 

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Li Ying

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Yin Wan

Assignment 1

Preparation Notes

Reflection Notes

ASSIGNMENT 2

Introduction

Community Areas

Community Needs

Aspects Assessment

Technologies Proposed

Plans

Strategies

References

Workshop 1:

Types of Virtual Communities, Their Specifics and Evolution.

Findings

Types & Specifics

Virtual communities have different kinds of categories. Virtual communities could be categorized into 2 large groups, which is public or private community. Some says it is divided into 3 broad categories – virtual communities of interest, organizational communities, and local communities online. Others would sort the communities into more specified small groups according to their type of interactivity, sociability and information management among their members. There are also people who classified the virtual communities to synchronization / asynchronization, and the implementation tools of the communities. Despite of all the categories, all virtual groups are created upon the same basis - to share information with people.

Public Community vs. Private Community

Public vs. Private community view brought up by Sue Boettcher stated that public community is the kind of community that is open to everyone, regardless of the identification of the people who access the community. It is beneficial to community who needs new and diverse members to log into their group. In the other hand, private community needs a safer and protected ground compared to public community. It is only opened to the people who have been granted access to the community. As a result, password is usually needed to gain access to private community.

Virtual Communities of Interest, Organizational Communities & Local Communities Online 

Virtual communities of interest are normally created for people to share information they fair or concern about. They might be a bunch of people who never met in real life, and has come together to discuss some topics, such as education, hobbies, medication or even politics.

Organizational communities, as defined by its name, are set up by organization for its staff or members to exchange ideas within the organization's culture. Nowadays, more and more organizations are setting up internal communication system - called intranets - to enable their staff or members to work hand-in-hand more effectively, even across the world.

Local communities online might be the least familiar communities to people. They are generally formed to the usage of the neighbourhoods, villages, town or cities. These communities' purposes to keep the communities' members close, share important dates and care for the society.

Interactivity, Sociability & Information Management

Jose Silvio classified the communities into more specific types according to interactivity, sociability and information management among their members, thereby 9 different types of communities are grouped into:

• Communities with deferred interactivity, free or limited association, depending on the conditions of membership, with automatic reception of information, not controlled by the user, focusing on one subject, variable degrees of cohesion and participation (LISTSERV and similar types of electronic lists).

• Communities with deferred interactivity, free association, voluntary search for and receipt of information by the user, focusing on one subject, variable degrees of cohesion and participation (Newsgroups).

• Communities with free or limited association, frequently point to point communication, with deferred or real time interactivity, focusing on one subject (Bulletin Board System [BBS]).

• Communities with free association, real time interactivity, management of information partly controlled by the user, focusing on one subject (Internet Relay Chat [IRC]).

• Communities aimed at the creation of imaginary virtual environments and the performance of roles among their members, with real time interactivity and free or limited association, depending on the case, may focus on one or several subjects (Multi-Users Dimensions [MUDs] and its variants).

• Multipurpose communities, encompassing sub- communities with specific purposes, based on simulation, but which also perform the function of normal communication, with deferred or real time interactivity (ICONS [International Communication and Negotiation Simulation] Program of the University of Maryland, USA).

• Multipurpose communities with an integrating vocation, comprising several sub-communities which may present variable types of association interactivity, cohesion and participation (The WELL [Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link] type of community, for example).

• Multipurpose integral communities, encompassing several sub-communities with free association, deferred or real time interactivity, which tend to emulate the characteristics of the real life of the communities possessing a territorial base (Free- Nets type of community).

• Communities promoted by associations encompassing several sub-communities, with all the telemetric services, and connected to the INTERNET. (For example, the communities administered by the Association for Progress of Communications [APC]).

Synchronization vs. Asynchronization Communications

Some researchers divided the communities into synchronization communication, asynchronization communication, or even both.

Synchronization communication within communities needs to take place at real time as response activities happened between 2 parties or more. Usually, the communication parties will use the same communication channel in order for synchronization communication to occur. Examples of such synchronous activities are video conferencing chat lines, Virtual Reality Based Activities, and IRC (Internet Relay Chat).

Asynchronous communication activities do not depends on the presence of the recipient(s) to take place as the activities could be done offline. The message sent by the sender could be put on hold in a medium until the receiver opens it’s receiving folder to reads it. Examples of such communication activities are mailing lists, newsgroups, and web-based activities.

Implementation of Communication Tools Division

Many authors agreed that there are 4 different types of online communication tools, which are mailing list, newsgroups, chat, and web-based discussion board.

Mailing list is an email list as a community tool to connect people via email messages. This communication tools run by having a central address for the group, thus people would used the group email address to send and receive messages. One example of mailing list is Listserv.

Newsgroups are like a mixture of public message boards and email list. One would need to get a subscription to a newsgroup, sometimes, only a subscriber has the authority to post messages. Usually, there are long established rules of how to behave in a newsgroup. An example of a newsgroup would be DejaNews.

Chat is a simultaneous communication carried by 2 or more people at the same time typing short messages to each other. This type of communications could be done in public room that is opened to everyone, or a private room, where only authorized people can access the room. A few of the most recognized chat system is ICQ, mIRC, Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenger.

Web-based discussion board is an asynchronous communication tools. It allows people to post and read messages from the message board at different point of time. This is sometimes called as a ‘forum’ or a ‘conference’. Example of a web-based discussion board is our Virtual Communities' Discussion Board in our UTS Online.

Evolution

The table below show the timeline of the evolution of virtual communities. From the creation of ARPANET in 1969, it has allow people to communicate using computer. Thus, communities in virtual forms has emerged from this advance technology. By the end of 1991, the first generation of networking community phenomenon has truly begun. Hence, it has evolved from a small group of users in the 1969 of the ARPANET to the current connecting millions users of the huge networking based Internet.

Issues

 

There is a couple of issues that raised from doing the above research on virtual communities types, specifics and evolution. The questions are stated below:

• How can one clearly define the types of virtual communities?

• Why is the virtual communities grows as such a rapid speed?

• How secure are the communication tools of the communities?

• What is the advantages and disadvantages of the communities tools?

• Is there consequences in virtual communities?

• How true can a friendship developed through a virtual world?

 

References

 

Quality	Title & Author
* * * * *	Virtual Communities - Erik Stolterman, Per-Olof Ågren, Anna Croon
* * * * *	What types of virtual communities can I build and what tools are available? - Sue Boettcher
* * * *	Assessment and Evolution of Community Networking - Mario Morino
* * * *	Communities
* * * *	Virtual Communities - Christopher Köth
* * * *	What are Online Communities
* * *	A Brief History of Virtual Communities
* * *	Knowledge Management & Virtual Communities - W. Jansen, G.C.A Steenbakkers & H.P.M. Jägers
* * *	Potential Users and Virtual Communities in the Academic World - Jose Silvio
* * *	Types of Virtual Communities
* * *	Types of Virtual Communities - Heather Duggan
* * *	Virtual Communities - Eli Kooris, Kyle Obley & Nicole Noyes
* *	Online Communities - Monika Merkes
* *	Types of Virtual Communities
* *	Virtual Community Marketing
*	Virtual Community: Commercial Virtue?

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