4/829.4 Hyper-G as a platform for virtual communities
A virtual community is a distributed community which relies heavily on computer supported communication; so much so, that people do not necessarily ever meet physically. However, it is often the case that people do want to meet eventually. All kinds of emotions and social phenomena can occur in virtual communities, as they do in traditional ``real'' communities.
Communities can be virtual to varying degrees. A traditional sports club, for example, might run a Web page for promotional purposes. However, nobody would call the club ``virtual'' only for this reason. On the other hand, the online presence of a chess club might shift within years from an information platform that supports activities in real life (IRL) to a truly virtual community, where members no longer meet physically on a regular basis, but play ``virtual chess'' via the Web.
There are many possible types of virtual communities. Some that actually are already around on the Web include:
- Virtual communities of customers of virtual shops (cybermalls)
- Virtual companies (teleworking)
- Virtual citizens of virtual cities or worlds (so-called MUDs, Multi-user Dungeons).
29.4.1 Technical requirements for virtual communities 29.4.2 Example: The Web Society server 29.4.3 Planning hypermedia support for virtual communities