Communities in Cyberspace

The Technical Layer

 

Newsgroups

Mailing Lists

Internet Relay Chat

MUDs/MOOs

Bulletin Boards

Computer Conferencing

 

The Social-Organizational Layer: Types of Electronic Forums: Different Group Dynamics

 

Informal, Voluntary	Formal, Mandatory	Interest Based	Place Based
Public, Open	Private, Closed	Moderated	Unmoderated
Asynchronous	Synchronous	Topic Oriented	Activity Oriented
Small Group	Large Group	Anonymous	Real Name

 

The Conceptual Layer

 

Community  Definition

Community and  Democracy

Imagined Communites

Invisible Colleges

Community as Network

Collective Identities Collective Action