1 post tagged “virtual community”
There's a whole range of books and thinking about virtual communities, focusing on how you construct a system online to build community, strengthen ties between people, welcome newcomers and recognize leaders, etc. I've most recently been reading Amy Jo Kim's book on the topic, but there's a lot of others, and you can't help but seeing the word "community" in any book about online conversation software.
In some parallel universe, there are books and thinking and writing about neighborhoods, new urbanism, the power of being local, and other ways to connect up with people who are within a few hundred feet or a few miles of you. I have Superbia! (on "new suburbanism") on hold at the library now, for instance, which talks about tearing down fences in your neighborhood and holding potlucks.
In personal experience there is a lot more of a tie between these two topics than has been satisfactorily explored, and I'm casting about for someone who has done a good job. A lot of the older online community books never even acknowledge that people might see each other in person, let alone organize their days and years around periodic meetings. The local community stuff generally doesn't get much farther than suggesting a mailing list and doesn't tend to incorporate much in the way of nuance in mixed online/offline community.
Suggestions? I know there should be case studies somewhere, where someone has treated the online and the offline existence of a group as two parts of a connected whole.
