Virtual Communities

• "Virtual" == "Not"?
  • "Virtual" == "Cyberspace" (another loathsome term)
  • A community that depends upon cyberspace for interaction

• What, then, is a Community?
  • Webster has 12 definitions, all poor
  • My definition:
    A group of organisms bound together by enlightened self-interest and characterized by a common product

• Virtual Communities
  • A newsgroup is not, in and of itself, a virtual community
  • The Internet Community (R.I.P.)
  • The Apache Group