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VIRCOM home page.Maria Valtersson
Department of Informatics
Umeå University, Sweden
Abstract
Virtual communities consist of groups of people who have regular contact with one another in cyberspace. This article deals with virtual communities that have been formed by people with common interests, and virtual communities that do not have its origin in an existing organisation.
Certain prerequisites have to be in place to access the cyberspace; it can not be too expensive, it has to be intellectually accesible and the user has to have time available. If these entrebarriers can be forced, the user can participate in almost any virtual community. This means that virtual communities are exposed to competition from other virtual communities at all times, especially since their exitbarriers are so low.
This fact makes it important for these communties to create a sense of community and identity, so that the members wont be so inclined to leave the virtual community. My survey has shown that a relatively large part of the respondents did not feel any commitment, or that their co-operation was important to the virtual community. My conclusion is that it can be difficult for virtual communities to create a feeling of community and identity.
One way for the virtual communities can be to try to activate their members. The survey has shown that those that were actively participating in the organization of the virtual community felt greater commitment and identity than the passive members. It is also important to give the active members support and acknowledgement. This serves both to keep members committed, and as a way to persuade new members to participate.
During my work I discovered that members had difficulties in recognizing the impact caused by their involvement in virtual communities. This can be due to the fact that virtual communities are a relatively new phenomena, which makes it difficult to see the consequenses. Research in this field is necessary if virtual communities are to be developped in a direction we find desirable.
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
1.2 Virtual communities
1.3 History
1.4 Earlier research
2. COMMUNITY/SOCIETY AND ITS DEVELOPMENT
2.1 The concept of society
2.2 Historic description of communities
3. MEMBERS
3.1 Who are members in virtual communities?
3.2.1. Organisations and virtual communities
4. A COUPLE OF QUESTIONS CONCERNING VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES
4.1 Does virtual communties lead to completeness or division?
4.2 Are virtual communities created or settled?
4.3 Advantages and disadvantages
5. A STUDY ON A VIRTUAL COMMUNITY
5.1 ISWORLD Net
5.2 The survey and respondents
5.3 The use
5.4 Why member?
5.5 Changes caused by ISWorld
5.6 Participation and competition
5.7 Country Pages
6 CONCLUDING DISCUSSION
6.1 The important sense of community
6.2 Consequenses of the technology
6.3 Further research
BIBLIOGRAPHY
APPENDIX
During the last couple of years, the activity in cyberspace has grown in an explosive manner. Today it is very difficult to estimate how many that have access to cyberspace, mainly due to the many definitions of the concept cyberspace. One estimation would be that five to ten million people have access to Internet, which is a part of cyberspace. There is reason to believe that the number of users will continually grow during the following years. Computers and other equipment get less and less expensive and computer education more common. Furthermore, the prerequisites steadily improve since the computer-networks are extended and improved.
People that inhabit cyberspace use the technology in different ways: they can search information, surf the net just for the fun, download shareware and communicate with others via email, news and BBS. This communication in cyberspace has in some cases become so structured and regular that the conception virtual communities is appropriate. The aim with this article is to examine such a community, to study how the community works and is kept together, why people choose to participate in these abstract forms of community and if virtual communities affect and/or change the habits of its members.
Since the phenomena "virtual communities" is quite new, the understanding of what it is all about is pretty diversified. I will therefore devote this section to define what the concept virtual communities will be in this article.
Virtual communities exist mainly in cyberspace. The word cyberspace was first used by science-fiction-author William Gibson in his book Neuromancer (1984). According to Benedict (1991), cyberspace is a virtual world, consisting of computer networks and different techniques for communication:
"Cyberspace is a globally networked, computer-sustained, computer-accessed, and computer-generated, multidimensional, artificial, or "virtual reality". In this reality, to which every computer is a window, seen or heard objects are neither physical nor, necessarily, representations of physical objects but are, rather, in form, character and action, made up of data, of pure information."
(Benedict, 1991,p. 122)
From this point forward, the definition of cyberspace will mean the Internet, BBS, WWW and other LAN and WAN.
What are the virtual communities that are being created and developed in cyberspace? Howard Rheingold defines virtual communities as:
"social aggregations that emerge from the [Internet] when enough people carry on those public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace".
(Rheingold, 1993, p. 5)
He also speaks of virtual communities as "a group of people who may or may not meet one another face to face, and who exchange words and ideas through the mediation of computer bulletin boards and networks." (Rheingold, 1992, p 1).
The community thus consists of a number of people with regular contact with each other. It is not necessary that these individuals meet face-to-face but the members are related by shared interests, problems or ideas. Some virtual communities have their origin in existing organisations. In these cases the community form a complement to the regular business. The members have not decided on their membership; an employment in the company involve a membership in the virtual community.
This article however, will focus on a different kind of virtual community, not the kind of virtual community that develop in an existing organisation but are formed by people with similar interests. These communities are built by people that has taken on an active attitude to the community and are voluntarily members.
Many writers, who themselves have participated in virtual communities (Rheingold, Coate) or writers that have studied virtual communities (Turkle, 1996) refer to Oldenburg and what he calls the third space. The authors mean that virtual communities work in this third space. According to Oldenburg the third space is the place where communities are build and preserved and where the actors get a sensation of really belonging to a community. During earlier decades, this third space consisted of the local pub, cafÇ, square etc., but these meeting places have more and more disappeared. Virtual communities could imply a new possibility to meet and associate in this third space.
Virtual communities are dated as far back as to the early seventies (Stolterman, 1996) when the first news-groups emerged on Internet. At first, these groups consisted of researchers with a common interest in research and also a need for co-operation. At approximately the same time the first multi-user dungeons (MUDs) appeared in Great Britain. A MUD is a virtual world where people play different kinds of role-playing games in an imaginative environment. They can also associate with other people, exchange ideas etc.
In the beginning of the eighties, the first opportunities to chat with others in real-time developed. These alternatives are most often text-based, but the technology is developing fast, and getting more and more accessible. Virtual communities will also use the new techniques in the future. Some virtual communities are already using the new techniques by creating web-pages but also Virtual Reality-techniques are becoming more and more common to create simulated environments in virtual communities.
The existing literature about virtual communities are in restricted extent empirical. What do exist is anecdotal and narrative literature written by people that themselves have been members in different virtual communities (Rheingold 1992, Coate 1993, Farmer among others -96). A problem with this lack of material is that these anecdotes will be regarded as general studies although they do not really fulfil such criteria. Therefore I feel there is a need for empirical studies of virtual communities.
Some authors are very pessimistic, they believe that the possibility to communicate in cyberspace will lead to a situation where people will spend every free, unoccupied minute in cyberspace and never have "human contact", choose never to meet other people face-to-face. McClellan for example criticize virtual communities for being pseudo-communities, that only seem to have true social bonds, and he also argues that virtual communities will have the same effect as television, by keeping people indoors, behind locked doors and separated. Studies have shown that some MUD-players have developed an addiction to the game and screen off the world around (Turkle, 1995). Other writers are more optimistic and believe that virtual communities can enhance peoples lives. Rheingold (1992) for example believe that members in virtual communities are happier than others. Since members of virtual communities have friends that share their interests instead of only sharing haphazard geographical communities with people that one have nothing in common with.
Generally speaking, I do not believe that virtual communities will lead to a world where people spend all their time in front of the computer, since people want variations. They will not settle with only one way to communicate. So far, the discussion on virtual communities can be separated into two different parties. One party, represented by Rheingold among others, sees magnificent opportunities in the technology, that everybody would benefit from using.
This approach can be somewhat risky, since it implicates that virtual communities are regarded solely as an alternative to other communication and occupation. As a user we must be aware that the technology affects us, as Mark Slouka states in the netzine FEED (1995)
"Technologies both reflect and shape the dominant culture. They can alter our perceptions, redefine our values, change the very shape and grain of our lives in ways we can rarely predict. ... In short, the notion of choice (or easy choice, anyway) is a myth... Arguing that virtual communities simply add another ingredient to the stew (Which we are free to sample or not), is a bit like arguing that genetically-altered vegetables simply expand the consumer's option. It's more complicated (and potentially coercive) than that. A lot more."
(FEED Dialog, Part Two, p. 5)
The more pessimistic part do not only think that the technology affects us, but that it in effect determines human beings. This part express "technological determinism" (Avis, 1995). A lot of people today feel a resignation to the technology and its consequences, and many experiences of technological development are negative, which acts to technology's disadvantage. This of course serves to enhance the negative attitude. Part of the problem are founded in the fact that development makes the technique more and more complex and therefore more difficult to grasp (Talbott, 1995). Talbotts advice is to not let this pessimism and resignation take overhand. Humans develop and use the technology, and this gives us the opportunity to affect it and it is also our responsibility to do so, even though the complex nature of technology makes this a very difficult task.
The concept society as a concept is a rather weak term. It is used to capture the notion of a neighborhood as well as nations and the interrelation of both personal and professional aspects. In the meaning "neighbourhood", society means a group of people living in a geographical place. These communities can be called unintentional, in the meaning that peoples membership can be derived from the fact that work in many ways have decided membership. The concept can also be used as a "common" name for whole nations and the term society means in that case "the public", i. e. the inhabitants of a country. There is also a meaning of the word society as "gemeinschaft" which implies that society is a social phenomenon where people have something in common and are conjoined by relations. These societies can be viewed as deliberate, they are created as a result of different persons choices, the societies are a result of a concrete decision by individuals. This definition also implies that people can be members of several, different communities at once, out of a larger scope of aspects; family, profession, leisure interests, different organisational activities etc. (Mitchell, -96; Murray, -96).
Another definition of community is given by Michael Taylor (through Smith, -96). He defines "community" as "a group of people who have beliefs and values in common, whose relations are direct and many-sided and who practice generalised as well as balanced reciprocity" (Smith, -96, page 11). This description fits in rather well on the virtual community.
At the end of the nineteenth century, a German named Ferdinand Tînnies (1887) brought forward a theory that capitalism, the industrialisation (which was in full progress at that time) and the following urbanisation, affected the community. These "movements" would have consequences regarding how communities functioned and were kept together.
In agricultural communities, relations between people were held up by natural will. Tînnies called these relations Gemeinschaft. Example of relations that united the community are the ties between family and relatives, the neighbourhood and among friends. These relations were based on a mutual dependence and an understanding of each other. Communities which consist of these kind of relations can be compared with a living organism.
Tînnies thought that urbanisation and capitalism would mean that these relations would become less and less important. The contact between people would be driven by rational will instead of natural will. Relations would be maintained because one person needs another to be able to achieve a certain goal. Demand and supply will be important factors. Tînnies writes:
"...nobody wants to grant and produce anything for another individual, not will he be inclined to give ungrudgingly to another individual, if it be not in exchange for a gift or labor that he considers at least equal to what he has given."
(Tînnies, 1887, p. 65)
Hence, relations will not be based on reciprocal dependency as in Gemeinschaft, but upon individual needs, demands and interests of the individual. Tînnies calls this Gesellschaft and states that a society based on these relations consists (in essence) of a number of individuals, all independent of the others. "here everybody is by himself and isolated, and there exists a condition of tension against all others." (Tînnies, 1887, p 65). Gesellschaft is not an organism, as Gemeinschaft, but an virtual or mechanical structure. Gesellschaft and Gemeinschaft are ideal types, no community consists of either one or the other, but one of the forms can be more dominant. It is therefore possible to say that the pre-industrial society was dominated by Gemeinschaft-relations and that the industrialised society are dominated by Gesellschaft-relations. It is important to notice that Tînnies himself did not intend to set a value to the expressions, but the terms have often been interpreted as if Gemeinshaft are a "better" alternative than Gesellshaft.
One of the consequences of the transition from agricultural society to industrial society during the twentieth century, is that the population have been redistributed in the country. The cities has grown continually and the thinly populated areas have been even more depopulated. Cooke (1990) believes that in the growing cities the working class had been divided from the middle classes. He mentions for instance that suburbs started to emerge when necessary transportation links became available. Cities have thus been divided into different areas, a consequence of this is that people belonging to different classes in society seldom have contact with one another. In reality, a city consists of several different societies.
In this way the industrialisation have led to a class segregation of society. But the development has also been positive, and an advantage for the individual, who now have more opportunities than before. Before the industrialisation the possibility to change profession or habitation was almost non-existing, and people was predestined to a certain standard of life. Cooke says:
"It is, then, this transformative quality that characterizes modernity so precisely: the idea of life as an adventure of self-transformation within a looser set of limitations than those familiar in the past, the possibility of life being perceived as a project over which the individual has considerable influence, though not total control, is what specifies modern experience."
(Cooke, 1990, p. 7)
The industrialisation gave human beings the opportunities to affect their own lives, considering profession as well as habitation and spare-time occupation. Now, we are in yet another period of transition when the society transcend from industrial society to information society. This changeover will affect us, in the same way that the development in the last decades of the nineteenth century and during the whole twentieth century has changed peoples preconditions. At this moment, it is difficult to say what the consequences will be and this is the reason why it is so important to conduct research on how the society will change when the new technologies for information and communication are being used more commonly.
Regarding the development of Internet from a historical point of view, the origin of Internet was a military and academically net called ARPAnet. In the beginning mainly researchers and scientists used the possibility to communicate. After some time, academics (both teachers and students) started to use Internet and it is only during the last couple of years enterprises, authorities/governments and private persons have had the possibility to access Internet (Wickre, march 1996). There exists three barriers for private users to overcome in regards to the participation in virtual communities.
it can not be too expensive
it has to be intellectually accessible
the users must have time at disposal.
Even though prices of computers have continually dropped, many can still not afford the necessary equipment. One also need equipment for communication, email account, etc.
It is also necessary to take into consideration that people, in order to make such an investment, must feel the computer to be useful. It is possible that many feel they do not feel that they have a direct need that can be fulfilled by buying a computer. Another barrier of entry is that the technique has to be intellectually accessible, which denote that the users often need some sort of training be able to use the technique. There is also a need for user-interfaces that enhance user-interaction. Yet another demand upon the users is that they have time available. At first, to learn to handle the equipment (most demanding at the beginning of the learning curve) but also time to continually participate in virtual communities.
The result of these three barriers of entry is that those who foremost have access to the techniques, are the ones with economical resources to buy equipment, i e they are fairly well-paid. Furthermore, they have some education and the opportunity to spend time in virtual communities. Hence, poor, uneducated people cannot participate to/in the same extent.
According to Howard Rheingold (1992) there are three different modes to use the technique:
communication
search for information
find new ways to use the technique.
Rheingold studies himself and his friends and from these experiences he has drawn some general conclusions on what virtual communities can mean to others. His conclusions are that virtual communities not solely are used for the search of information but also to tie long relations with rather many persons.
Moreover, people choose to participate in virtual communities because of the communities independence of space and time (Lapachet, mars 1996). Many find the aspect of time increasingly important when more and more must fit in to a tight schedule. This is why many individuals have problems engaging in different activities etc. that exist in Oldenburgs third place. The problem with these traditional gatherings are that they are set to a specific day and time, and for some it is difficult to participate in such a regulated and continuous manner. Virtual communities gives people opportunity to make contact with others in the limited free time one has, no matter when this time occurs.
The independence of space is important for those who for exemple have more unusual interests or live in rural areas where it is difficult to make contact with others with similar interests. Virtual communities give people the chance to create a network of like-minded that can be dispersed around the globe, and not one of them have to leave their home. This means for instance that virtual communities offer means of communication for handicapped who have practical difficulties leaving their home.
Goldberg (April -96) means that there is a great need of virtual communities, for exemple within the universities that have a large need of planning, and hence also need for communication. Every course has to be discussed, and also all activities for students, current business and research projects, planning of projects and administration. Furthermore, the institutions need to communicate with parts outside the university. One reason for the formation of virtual communities can be viewed from an economical point of view. Time is an increasingly important resource, and enterprises and universities can no longer spare their employees during conferences on other locations etc. By enhancing the collaboration between different universities and companies important experiences can be made. This is a kind of benchmarking which is difficult to manage continually, dependent upon means of communications for a continually management. Lapachet (1996) says:
"Businesses can also save money when professional organisations support virtual communities for members. Members of professional organisations can discuss issues on an ongoing basis via virtual communities without having to spend additional time away from the office. Professionals can also share knowledge on particular problems that come up on a day to day basis, problems which may not be addressed at a national conference... get fast answers and develop a network of 'experts'."
(Lapachet, 1996, p. 10)
These kind of "professional" virtual communities have been created within universities in an intentional and voluntary manner, that is, without the organisation as initiative-taker. An example of such a community is ISWorld, where I have conducted my survey. I will give a closer description of ISWorld in coming chapters.
In traditional communities, in the meaning geographical clustering or "the public", all sorts of people are represented. The barriers of entry to cyberspace that I discussed in chapter 3.1 bring about that the population in virtual communities are rather limited, to certain age groups, race, level of education etc. It is therefore misleading to regard virtual communities as a copy of a geographical community in a country. Virtual communities should instead be regarded as intentional formations. A person is not member in only one virtual community in the way one is only citizen in one country, a person can be member in many virtual communities at the same time. Virtual communities are created by persons with mutual interests, which means that they get in touch with like-minded, that can be difficult to find in a geographical community. Fernback and Thompson (1995) believes that this can be a disadvantage as a membership in a virtual community can isolate the users from the world around. Wickre (mars 1996) also says something like that: "they make it very easy for people to stay locked within their comfortable niches." According to this virtual communities would lead to division, when regarding the society as a whole. Against this point of view stands Murray (1995). This isolation is, according to Murray, nothing unique for virtual communities, but something characteristic of all forms of communities. The reason for this isolation may be that all communities, both traditional as well as virtual, compete with each other one way or another. He means that communities must give a sense of community and belonging for the members internally, but they also must separate from other communities. " A sense of separateness - even hostility - externally is a universal attribute of community!" Cyberspace has many alternatives, but every individual has a limit to the number of virtual communities he or she can engage in. Goldberg (April -96) says:
"Each individual who is a possible member of any particular virtual community is at the same time a possible member of many other virtual communities. And, there is a practical limit to the number of communities and level of involvement each individual can have."
(Goldberg, April -96, p 2)
This means that communities cannot benevolently accept each other, since they at all times are a threat to each other.
One of the dominating questions in cyberspace at the time when I am writing this article is how the action in cyberspace will be regulated. Cyberspace acts as a media, through which believes can be spread over the globe. This possibility is used by some to spread illegal information; pornography, propaganda from racists organisations, information about manufacturing of bombs and drugs etc. The problem is that everyone connected to Internet can access this information, and it is difficult to stop it. The different legislation of countries and states makes the problem even more complex. What is legal in one state is illegal in another.
"Law and order is difficult to achieve on the electronic frontier. The information infrastructures of today and tomorrow are global, and not confined to a single jurisdiction. Mainstream advertisements for personal services in urban California are pornography in Tennessee. Free speech in many western countries would be likely to result in the loss of freedom of movement in a substantial number of countries. Restrictive governments are associated with many different cultural, religious and political perspectives."
(Clarke, 1996, p 6)
Chip Morningstar (1991) says that today many regard cyberspace as a lawless zone, and that intervention from governments will increase on demand. The question is what form this intervention will take. Morningstar point out two different approaches for this intervention. The first approach, that Morningstar calls constructivists, consider the new technique so completely different from anything we've ever seen before that old regulations cannot be used. New rules and regulations that take the unique characteristics of the technique into consideration must be created. Morningstar agrees with this approach and the notion that the rules must be adjusted since conditions diverse in the physical and virtual world. The mistake made by the constructivists is that they believe that cyberspace can be controlled and designed. They are trying to construct a community by following a definite plan. Chip Morningstars own experience as projectleader at Lucasfilms Habitat-project is that this is an illusion. As leader of the project, he had power, but it became obvious that the more people involved, the less control he and his co-workers had. When they realised this, they changed their approach. Instead of a top-down method, they investigated what members wanted to do and then tried to support and facilitate this work.
The other approach, non-constructivists, think that the regulations that are founded in our traditional societies can be transferred into cyberspace without problem. These people believe that computer networks are but extensions of existing institutions, and therefore should be placed under the same constitutional protection, moral and ethic principles as traditional media. Problems with this approach is cyberspaces refusal of boundaries; which countries legislation should be used in cyberspace for example? Morningstar would like to see a compromise between the approaches. He argues that constructivists are using a misleading metaphor when they want to "create" a new world. His own experience showed him that it is difficult to set rules in advance for a community, since it is likely that the community will be developped in a different manner and inapplicable with the rules.
To "build" or "colonise" a new world is to use a better metaphor. Bur Morningstar do not deny that constructivists are right when they say that new regulations must be made in this "new world". Morningstars advice is to look at how the American continent was inhabited and built. The development in America was affected by intellectual, legal and cultural traditions from the settlers different native countries, that is, the development did not take place in a vacuum. Emshoff (April 1996, p 15) thinks that this is a way to look and learn from both successful and unsuccessful communities through history. "We can not know the future, but we can learn about it from what we already experienced. "
As I have mentioned earlier, cyberspace have barriers of entry that must be forced before virtual communities can be accessed; the person must have equipment, know-how and time available. These barriers of entry thus restrict the possibilities to get access to cyberspace, but when a user has the necessary equipment, knowledge and time, he or she can join almost any virtual community. Some virtual communities are subject to a charge which means that participation costs, either for a certain period of time per month, or charges are calculated from the actual use. Many virtual communities are still free of charge, though.
A problem with this accessibility is that as easily as a person can participate in a virtual community, with the same ease the same person can leave the community. Thus, the barriers of exit are very low. It is difficult to leave a traditional society, but to leave a virtual community you only have to turn off (the power to) the computer. A possible consequence of this is that when/if conflicts arises, people will choose the "easy way out"; leave the community instead of solving the conflict.
The same problem exists if a person feel that the community do not fulfil the needs of this person, the he or she can easily leave to search for fulfilment elsewhere. All this means that virtual communities are less stable than traditional societies.
I mentioned earlier that Rheingold considers the will of creating long-term relations with other persons, to be one of the reasons for people to engage in virtual communities. The flighty nature of virtual communities can prevent these kinds of relations from developping. Some have questioned whether it is possible to tie strong, long-term bonds in cyberspace. The ability to anonymity can make it difficult to identify others, and it can be difficult to dare establishing longterm relationship with someone whose identity you are uncertain of. You might also be fooled by them. Rheingold answer is that one can get fooled meeting face-to-face as well.
Rheingold (1992) says that since communication only take place with help from textbased tools (as of yet anyway), users can leave out their race, gender, age, nationality and appearance until they want these characteristic to be known. This fact would imply that cyberspace gives people opportunity to meet and communicate unprejudiced. Eve Emshoff (April -96) are of the contrary opinion that virtual communities are not equal and without prejudices; in a way virtual communities are still prejudiced, for example differences between women_s and men_s way of writing can be observed .
An example of this is that men in a larger extent comment on others contributions to discussions while women_s aim with their contribution is to ask for help on a specific matter. Another aspect of the inability to show race, gender, age, appearance etc. is that communication also lacks body language, facial expressions and emphasis. Communication is carried through by text on the computer screen, which implies that the surrounding situations (which also have great importance for the translation of a conversation) are invisible.
When we look at virtual communities in a larger perspective, it seems as if the consequences are not all that huge as long as the use is somewhat limited. But more and more people will start to use this new way of communication, which means that this alternative will be even more important. The consequence will be that not everybody will be able to participate in every variant of the community (in the meaning "the public")
What I have tried to show in this chapter is that virtual communities have certain pros and cons for each participating individual, but they also impact the whole society on a higher level.
As part of this article I have conducted an empirical study of a virtual community. The community ISWorld is described below, and I will also give an account of the questionnaire I sent to a few of ISWorlds members, together with the answers I received.
ISWorld Net is a constellation on Internet. ISWorld s members have regular contact in cyberspace, but the community do not act outside of cyberspace. It consists of a number of people, joined by a mutual interest, namely "information systems". The members are researchers and practitioners within this field. Thus the community is "professional", its aim is to help members in their profession. It is also an international community, even though most members are from USA. It is a relatively young virtual community, comparing with for example the WELL, created in the eighties. ISWorld was formed in September 1994 and has been developing continually ever since. ISWorld has had both "mission" and "objectives" from the very start. ISWorlds mission read:
"We will provide information management scholars and practitioners with a single entry point to resourses related to information systems technology and promote the development of an international informations infrastructure that will dramatically improve the world's ability to use information systems for creating, disseminating, and applying knowledge."
(URL: http://www.isworld.org/isworld/mission.html)
The objectives are for instance that ISWorld Net will be a knowledge repository for practitioners in the field Information Systems, a theory-based learning organisation , decentralised and closely tied to practice and policy etc. To enhance mission and objectives there are a number of metaphors to describe the organisation. An example of this is "the Quilt":
"It is not unusual in small towns in the United States, and probably other countries, for farmer's spouses to meet once a week to chat and piece together a bed quilt. Perhaps during the week each person would work on individual squares a few inches across. At the party these are combined and an attractive border attached. If each University adds just one square to ISWorld Net over the next year, we will soon have a beautiful resource."
(URL: http://www.isworld.org/isworld/metaphors.html
Another one is "Slicing Salami":
"Each week I add another page to my server and attract a few more users. Eventually, unless you come to the rescue, the SMU network services people will lock me out of my office. For this to succeed every institution and every researcher must contribute their fair share - a slice of the salami. Our reward system must reflect that need."
(URL: http://www.isworld.org/isworld/metaphors.html)
All this, accessible from ISWorlds webpages gives an impression of a well thougth-out community. The intention of the founders are that the community will last, a so called "going concern" and that stagnation must not appear, the community should always be under continuous development.
ISWorlds organisation include a board (with president and vice-president) re-electable every two years. No one on the board or those in charge of the different webpages get paid for their work. To be able to finance technical costs, ISWorld are sponsored by different enterprises. These pay for space for advertising on the webpages during a certain period of time. ISWorld Net consists of webpages and different distribution lists. A distribution list is organised so that everybody who subscribe to the list will receive every email posted to the distribution list. The largest distributionlist is simply called "ISWorld", with approximately 1700 subscribers. Email to this list often deals with "Call for papers" or announcement on vacancies. There are also several others distributions lists, for example ISWNET which supply information about the community to "volunteers"; the people involved in ISWorlds organisation by maintaining webpages, participating in committees etc.
The website has different divisions for example Research and Scholarship, Teaching and Learning Division, and Emergent Communities. Material in the particular field shall be linked to these divisions. A rather new division on ISWorld Net is Country Pages, where interested can create websites for their respective country. As of yet there are pages for German-speaking countries, Denmark, Norway, Ireland, Slovenia, Sweden, Australasia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. The foremost aim is to give an opportunity to intermediate information specifically concerning a certain country or region. This is expressed like this: "The Country Pages is a special segment of ISWorld Net which provides supplementary materials of specific interest to IS Academic in particular countries, geographical regions or lingual groups." There can exist a need for Country Pages since most of ISWorlds members are from USA and discussions may be coloured by this fact. Other participating countries are minorities and could simply benefit from having their own place to gather in.
The distribution list ISWNET has 200 subscribers, and I have sent my survey to a couple of those subscribers. (see appendix 1). The members on this list are people who participate in the organisation of ISWorld Net, by having responsibility for maintenance of webpages or by participating in different committees. There are also people who have expressed an interest for participating in some way, if it should be needed.
A command to the listserver rendered me the subscribers emailadresses, and from this list I chose every seventh name, and thus sent the survey to 30 persons. Out of these 30 persons, I had 14 answers. I could identify the answers but have chosen not to use any names in the article. The average age of the participants was 45 years, the youngest was 31 years old, the oldest 56 years. Eight of the respondents were male and accordingly six women answered my survey.
Nine of the answers came from professors, four from teachers at university level and one was doctorand. Among the answers I received, no one came from outside the universities, even though ISWorlds purpose is to engage practitioners too in the community. Almost half of the respondents had joined ISWorld at the foundation, five had participated approximately a year and the other three had been members about 1 1/2 years.The answers are spread between relatively new and "older" members.
On the question how ISWorld is used most respondents answered that they read contributions on distribution lists (thirteen) and that they use the links on ISWolds site (twelve). Half of those that answered used to make own contributions to the lists, I consider that a high rate of activity, but I suspect that the answers came from people with more commitment than the average. The respondents were also asked how often they read email from discussionlists. 50 % claimed they read it several times a day. One of these stated that he read email 4-5 times every day. Among the other, seven said that they read email once a day. Only one out of 14 did not check the email everyday. The other thirteen have contact with ISworld, via distribution lists, on a daily basis.
Normally, several mails a day are sent to the distribution lists. If you do not check your mailbox quite often it can get rather full. Also, email is quite a common means of communication for employees at universities (in Information Systems anyway). I will not say that ISWorld is the only cause for people checking their email, but the checking leads to a daily contact with the community. I was also interested in how often ISWorlds webpages was accessed; I had a prejudice that webpages would not be visited in the extent that email was read, so I changed the alternatives on the inquiry so that the bottom of the scale was 1-3 times a month (for email it was 1-3 times a week) and the "highest" alternative was "several times a week". As many as eight respondents had chosen the last alternative, which made me somewhat surprised. It is likely that those who gave this answer are quite engaged in ISWorld, with responsibilities for webpages etc. The remaining answers showed that the rest of the respondents were not at all very frequent users of the webpages, most of them had chosen "1-3 times a month".
The following question "How do you use ISWorld?" do not show whether the users log on to the site to maintain webpages or not. When I formulated the question , I thought the answers were complete enough. I made the mistake to underestimate that so many answers would come from people involved in the organisation.
Virtual communities differ from traditional, geographical societies by being intentional (as I have mentioned before). Members can choose which community to participate in. This makes it interesting to examine why the members have chosen ISWorld.
Thirteen said it was to "keep up-to-date with the latest news in the field." Ten answered that they used ISworld to search for material and eight persons, i.e. more than half of the respondents, stated that they were members so that they could communicate with their colleges. The alternatives were not placed in any ranking order. Internet and email are undeniably quick and flexible techniques both for communication and information-search. The problem with the information on the Net is that it is difficult to value its reliability. The media gives the users the possibility to be anonymous or take on different pseudo-personalities. Emshoff (April, 1996) states that a consequence of the possibility of anonymity can be that people leave false, erroneous or faulty information. The possibility of anonymity also gives us possibility to take less responsibility for word and action than we normally would.
Besides this, the search engines on the Net are rather blunt even though they are continually improved. Searching on general terms can give thousands of hits, which makes it easy to drown in the flow of information. Cyberspace has therefore been criticised for "information overload" (Clarke, 1996; Murray, 1995; Lapachet mars 1996).
I believe that virtual communities such as ISworld can be a help for those looking for specific information, a means to reduce the risk of "information overload". Rheingold (1992) has also expressed this thought. Selection works through members of ISWorld, who functions as human browsers, and giving suggestions of links to the different divisions in ISWorld.
One consequence of this is that when you search information via a virtual community you will find links that someone (qualified to judge the quality) has looked upon and recommend. I consider this recommendation very useful at search for information on Internet. The survey also shows accordingly that more than 70 % of the respondent finds ISWorld as a good entry to information.
Furthermore, I believe that ISworld can help reducing the spread of false information. First, ISWorld do not work as a MUD where pseudo-personalities are used, people use their own names. Secondly the information is not received from someone without references, as when you use search engines. Many in ISworld know each other previously and have met before. Others, who were not familiar with the other members before they joined ISWorld, begin to recognize people due to the frequent contact in ISWorld. As one of the respondents wrote: "...and I like the names beginning to represent personalities."
Furthermore, if members do not know each other, their mutual profession and the knowledge this comprise will create trust and confidence (Tînnies, 1887).
I have studied the respondents attitude in a couple of fields where changes could have taken place since the members joined ISWorld. The fields are communication /information retrival and if the members have taken time from something else to participate in ISWorld and if they have changed the way of looking for information. On the question if ISworld has replaced other forms of communication of information search, many considered the word "replace" too strong, ISWorld was an enhancement of possibilities. ISWorld had not fully replaced any of the traditional media, but five thought that it had partly replaced communication via phone and letters. The members also answered the question if they had reduced some other activity to participate in ISworld. As many as eight persons said no. The six that remained said that their time had other priorities now. It turned out that these six persons were responsible for webpages, members of committees etc. Most of the others, who argued that they had not taken time away from other activities, claimed themselves to be passive members. I found it surprising that so many said no (on this question) considering that the membership at least means a daily contact for almost all respondents. A possible reason to this could be that it can be difficult to see changes yourself, and to know exactly what task you are replacing. No one keeps track on how they actually spend their time, and if one is engaged in something in a divided manner (pÜ ett splittrat sÑtt): a little bit now, a little bit then, as I am sure many of ISWorlds members do, it is even more difficult and complex.
In addition, it is probably difficult to separate active time in ISWorld from time on the web. If this question had been set "before" and "after" the introduction of Internet and email, differences had been easier to detect.
A third reason which can make it very hard to approximate time spent in ISWorld can be that the members consider it to be a fun activity. They might have taken time from something they do not miss, or valued less.
I have earlier (in chapter 4.3) described virtual communities low barriers of exit. The many opportunities on the net facilitates for the anxious net-surfer to leave the current community if they do not feel the community to be important enough. This compel virtual communities to efforts in keeping their members, and never take them for granted. My assumption is based upon that high level of unity in a virtual community can raise those barriers of exit. An indication of high level of unity could be that the members feel participation. I therefore asked whether the members felt participative in the community, and if they thought that their own effort and contributions were important for the community. Five (out of 12 answers on this question) said that they did not feel participation with the community. Five of the seven that felt participation had some kind of assignment in ISWorlds organisation. Those active had responsibility for webpages, members of committees etc. The fact that many respondents help build the community should have a positive effect on engagement and sense of community. I believe that the usage is more tangible and concrete if the members are active in the community; participating in changes etc.
There were two persons who felt participation although they were not very active, but one of them said that she experienced it "less and less, since her contributions had not had any response." This shows how important it is for virtual communities to create a sense of commitment very early. Two members considered ISWorlds greatest disadvantage to be too low level of contribution. My survey showed that the activity was rather high, more than 50 % contributed actively to build ISWorld. Thus it must be taken into consideration that the survey were made of the group of volunteers which can affect the responses. This observation (from the members) show their belief that ISWorld is built by the participators, this belief also shows in the metaphors I discussed earlier, where ISWorld is compared to a quilt, everyone should contribute with one square. But if too few squares, contributions, are given, the quilt will become too small and of little use. With passive members, the community will not develop and grow. This belief also became visible when I asked them why they gave their contribution. This was an open question without alternatives, and the answers quite different from each other, which makes it difficult to say something general about them. But on the whole, they wanted to make an effort, and they believed in the aim of ISWorld. Examples of answers are "Help to build a world-wide IS community.", "Take and give", "To promote the IS profession presence on the Web."
A third felt that volunteers were not given enough recognition and considered this to be ISWorlds greatest disadvantage. He/she thought that this would have to change if ISWorld will be able to survive in the future. Goldberg (April -96) has the same opinion, he says that new members must be engaged, and induced to participate in discussions, but he also stresses that contributions must be acknowledged.
Another question regarding the function in ISWorld as a virtual community is whether ISWorld competes with any non-virtual community/organisation. Most people thought that there was no competition, as many as nine answered "no". Some thought that ISworld could replace meeting face-to-face, others thought that ISworld was better at info-search that for ex library services. One point of view was that ISworld (as virtual community) constitutes a completely new structure, and will affect existing structures, as corporations, journals and conferences. "It impacts them all. It remains to be seen what the impact will be." The respondent means that it is still too early to see what the real impact will be.
It is difficult to create a coherent picture of consequences for non-virtual communities caused by virtual communities based on the answers. It seems as if there is no effect so obvious that everybody recognises it. Many respondents seemed to believe that ISWorld did not impact other non-virtual communities at all.
During the last couple of months, ISworld has build different Country Pages. The introduction has taken place without debate, and most seem to be positive . I believe that this change in ISWorld can have consequences for the community as a whole. It could for example mean that virtual "boundaries" form within ISWorld, and that the community loses its independence of time and space. Today, ISWorld is a truly global society, a means for co-operation between people from all continents. A division within ISworld could mean/lead to associations based upon geographical locations. Thus participation in these association's would be dependent on space. A result of this could be that participation also becomes dependent on time. I asked if they thought this could happen. The members did not see this as a risk, according to the answers I have received. Eight of them did not believe that Country Pages had negative effects. many put forward positive effects with the grouping. One said. "Differences (beliefs, values, systems, etc.) must be respected and these new pages may be the way." Another person had the same thought, meaning that legal aspect differed between countries and ISWorld therefore can benefit from a division but "This does not prevent that both the global and local communities benefit from these different needs and designs."
Yet another opinion was that Country Pages would enhance the great variety and give members an opportunity to see what is happening within IS in different parts of the world. A consequence would be "opening, rather that limiting our scope." Country Pages could also function as a entry point for new users in ISWorld; "perhaps they will also be an avenue for encouraging participation from people like me who are getting progressively more intimidated by the thought of contributing at the global level".
Three members did not answer the question, two of them thought that ISWorld was not independent of space and time as a virtual community. The third person did not understand what I meant with the term.
The only two persons who put forward negative aspect of the creation of Country Pages also pointed out that it was dependent upon how Country Pages developed: "If the pages link to the same information, it will be an easier format to gather information. If information is isolated, country-pages will isolate constituencies." The other person thought that it was possible that Country Pages would de-globalize ISWorld . To sum up, none of the respondent were directly negative toward Country Pages. I shall admit that Country Pages can have many advantages, for example those named in the survey. Another advantage could be that the division strengthen the identify of the community. Identity is, according to Wickre (April 1996) a quality factor in a virtual community. To create identity members should have a background in common, "shared history is key for community identity." (Wickre April -96, p 7). Wickre mentions geographical areas as an example.
The advantage with Country Pages could then be that the user knows that other members come from a certain restricted geographical area. A communing aspect of ISworld is the profession, IS and Country Pages could enhance this feeling.
In spite of this, I want to bring forward the thought that the division can have negative effects. Traditional geographical communities often work actively to create a sense of community; universities try to build up this feeling on campus, and virtual communities must work even harder with this. If Country Pages gives a stronger identity to the community, the exit barriers will be raised. However, there is a risk that ISWorld are deglobalized and users begin to operate on a national level instead of a global level. In that case, ISWorld will consist of two different communities and thereby competes with itself. This would be to expose the community to needless stress.
To summarise, two aspects have become visible during my work. One is that sense of community is a very vital factor for virtual communities. The other regards something I discovered while working with the answers of the survey, namely how difficult it seems to be to discover consequences of a new alternative like ISworld.
Virtual communities has both lower barriers of entrance and barriers of exit than traditional communities. The low barriers of entrance is an advantage for virtual communities, it makes it easier to attract new members than what is usual. The low barriers of exit however are a dilemma for virtual communities.
For a member to exit ISWorld, he/she only has to mail the listserver and unsubscribe. The community has to work hard to keep their members, my belief is that an important part of this work is to create a sense of community and identity among the members.
In my survey 35 % of the respondents did not feel a sense of community in ISWorld. These members had no assignment in the organisation , which I consider to be a reason for leaving easily in itself. If you have some sort of responsibility towards other members; maintenance of webpages, member of committees etc, it is more difficult to leave the community. At least, the ones affected must be informed, a procedure that function as a barrier of exit. It is also likely that the responsibility has a purely psychological effect. The fact that some members not have a sense of community can also be good for the community. Coate comments this
"There will always be people who will say, "uh-uh, not me. I'm just here for the info. I'm not part of any community, thank you very much." And I think that's healthy. Indeed, some of these people speak up at times when there seems to be an excess of "group-think" taking place."
(Coate, 1993, p 11)
These persons can view things from a different perspective than those "inside" the community. An example of this showed in the survey as the only ones discussing disadvantages of Country Pages did not have a sense of community in ISWorld. These participants have important aspects on the community, but their low engagement makes it easy for them to leave. How can a sense of community and identity be created in a virtual community? This is obviously a large field, which I do not intend to fully cover here, only bring forward one or two aspects.
One way is to encourage members to give contributions, but also to show appreciation for those contributions. One of the respondents thought that this did not happen in ISWorld. Another one thought that his /hers contributions had not been responded to, which made him/her feel that contribution was not important. Encouraging feedback should therefore be a natural part in the organisation for a virtual community.
The other aspect I would like to discuss in my conclusion is that so few of the respondents thought that the participation of ISWorld led to any changes. More than half of the answers said that participation was not particulary time-consuming. Neither had the use of ISWorld Net replaced other forms of communication or search for information.
Another example of my conclusion is when the participators do not believe that ISWorld competes with other forms of organisation, and that a division of ISWorld into different geografical divisions will not have any major or considerable effect on the virtual community at large.
My opinion is still, despite of this, that ISWorld, together with other virtual communities, will have an impact on how we act and how our world will be. Part of the problem kan be derieved from the fact that it is difficult to see possible consequences of the technique at an early stage. (Talbott, 1995)
My survey supports this claim; users have difficulties recognizing changes that ISWorld can lead to. We are always taking a risk when using new technology, whose consequenses are difficult to detect at an early stage. One of the risks are that we regard the technique only as yet another alternative, at a time when we are not at all competent of judging the effects of the usage. Hence, the more complex technique we use, the more watchful and observant we must be. Otherwise we might discover (too late) that the development is neither what we wanted nor expected.
The activity in cyberspace shows no sign on decreasing, it is more likely that it will expand even more in coming years. A consequence is that will be that activities in virtual communities will be even more usual, and more and more people will be engaged.
With this starting-point, research on virtual communities will be important. In the introducing chapter of this article, I stated that empirical material about virtual communities will be an important foundation for understanding of virtual communities as phenomenas.
One interesting field of research could be development of virtual communities. How do people make contact for the first time? How does this contact evolve into a more structured and "community-like" environment?
Research on how virtual communities can affect and change member's patterns of life will be important, but there is also need for studies on how our traditional society will be affected. Virtual communites can very well have an impact on societies cultural, social and demographical pattern as well as members individual patterns of life.
This article has illustrated how important it is for virtual communities to try to keep their members. Further research is needed in this area, for example more detailed studies on why people participate in virtual communities, and what kind of properties successful virtual communities constitute.
URL is the WWW-adress where I found the article. If no year of author is stated in the article, i have stated the month when I got the article from WWW.
Benedikt, M. (1991) Cyberspace; First Steps, the MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Clarke, R.(1996). Virtual Chewing Gum on Virtual Library Seats? Human Behaviour in Electronic Communities, URL http://online.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/II/VALA.html
Coate, J. (1993) Cyberspace Innkeeping: Building Online Community, URL: http://rdz.stjohns.edu/ejvc/sqarv1n4.coate
Cooke, P, (1990) Back to the future, Unwin Hyman Inc, London
Emshoff, E., (april 1996) A Need for Structure in Virtual Communities, URL: http://www.calvin.edu/~eemsho77/vcintro.html
Farmer, F.R., Morningstar, C., Crockford D., (mars -96) From Habitat to Global Cyberspace, URL http.//www.communities.com/paper/hab2cybr.html
FEED, (1995) Public Life in Electropolis, Part Two of FEED's Dialog on Virtual Communities URL: http://www.feedmag.com/95.08dialog/95.08dialog2.html
Fernback, J. , Thompson, B., (1995) Virtual Communities: Abort, Retry, Failure ?URL: http://www.well.com/user/hlr/texts/VCcivil.html
Gibson, W. (1984), Neuromancer, Norsteds Fîrlag, Stockholm
Goldberg, E. (April -96) Some Thoughts About Building Virtual communities, URL: http://home.navisoft.com/edg/communities.htm, april -96
InterNetGuiden, nr 4, 1996, Hur mÜnga Ñr vi? KÑlla: Customised Information.
Lapachet, J. A. H. (Mars 1996) Virtual Communities: The 90's Mind Altering Drug or Facilitator of Human Interaction? URL:
Morningstar, C., (1991) Settlements on The Electronic Frontier, URL: http://www.communities.com/paper/settlmnt.html
Rheingold, H. (1992). A Slice of Life in my Virtual Community, URL: gopher://gopher.well.sf.ca.us/00/Community/virtual_communities92, april -96
Rheingold, H. (1993) Virtual Communities, Secker & Warburg, London
Smith, M. A., (mars 1996) Voices from the WELL: The Logic of the Virtual commons, URL: http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/csoc/virtcomm.htm
Stolterman, E. (1996) Virtuella samhÑllen - En studie av virtuella samhÑllens uppkomst och utveckling i cyberrymden. Projektbeskrivning,
Talbott, S. L., (1995) The Future Does Not Compute: Transcending the Machines in Our Midst, O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., USA
Turkle, S. (1996) "Virtuality and its Discontents: Searching for Community in Cyberspace" The American Prospect no. 24 (Winter 1996) : 50-57 URL: http://epn.org/prospect/24/24turk.html)
Tînnies, F. (1887) Community and Society; Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft, Harper and Row, New York
Wickre, K. (Mars 1996) Virtual Communities Are They Real? Are They Real Enough? Who Are Some of the People Creating Them? URL: ?
Some definitions are from:
The Oxford English dictionary
Part one
1. Age, occupation
2. When did you join ISWorld?
3. How often do you check the emails from the discussion lists in ISWorld?
Alternatives (choose only one):
- less than once a week
- 1-3 times a week
- once a day
- several times per day
4. How often do you log on to ISWorld's web-pages?
Alternatives (choose only one):
- never
- 1-3 times a month
- once a week
- several times per week
5. How do you use ISWorld?
Alternatives (choose one or many):
- read e-mail from the discussion lists
- write own contributions
- search for material via ISWorld links
- search for material by sending a question to the discussion lists
- own alternative:
6. Why do you participate in ISWorld?
Alternatives (choose one or many):
- keep up-to-date with the latest news in the field
- search for matierals
- communicate with collegues
- own alternative:
7. Have ISWorld replaced other forms of communication or information-search?
Alternatives (choose one or many):
- attending conferences
- reading journals
- reading books
- communication via phone or letters
- own alternative....
8. Have you taken time from something else to be able to participate in ISWorld?
9. Do you contribute to ISWorld, and if so, how do you contribute?
10. If you answered question 9, why do you give your contribution to ISWorld?
11. In your opinion, what is ISWorld's greatest advantage?
12. What is ISWorld's greatest disadvantage?
Part two
1. ISWorld has a couple of metaphors to describe the constitution of the community; for example quilt-work, salami slices, newborn babies etc. When you attend ISWorld, do you have a feeling of participation, that your own effort really can affect the evolution of the community?
2. Do you believe that some of ISWorld's tasks compete with "non-virtual" communities or organisations? If so, in what way?
3. In the last few weeks, there has been a discussion about creating country-pages in ISWorld, and a few has already taken form. As it is now ISWorld is a virtual community, and as such, independent of space and time. Do you believe that the development of countrypages can change this?
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