An online community is a virtual community with hope to impact people across the globe with its many services. The plan is to provide a unique atmosphere for a particular group of people as well as surfers who are interested in bonding in a special way. To understand what a virtual community is, one must think that it serves only a particular group of people who forms its culture. It is boundless and it seeks the interest from a main point of view across the universe. The idea for a cyber community can only be achieved from having an internet service. This form of technology has created one of the most powerful uses of information. According to Wood and Smith, in the book, Online Communication, “Computer technology is increasingly shaping humans interaction (p.26)”. Technology has done such great wonders that a community does not have to be geographically bounded. It bridges people together in a cyber interactive world to form its community. It shares text information across the network to homes in every city mainly in America, next in Europe, and the Orient with the Third World countries lacking in its uses.
Visiting an online community site, led one to observe the many functions, operations, and services that are available. One can register as a member or as a guest with little information about the character of the person entering the site. Wood and Smith also agree that, “The internet allows us to determine how much of an identity we wish to display as online presentations (p. 61)”. What are so impressive about these types of sites are its chat rooms, e-messages, and discussion boards. The site also offers many links to other areas of interests. These links are avenues to the community. They are loaded with infamous information ranging from government to where to find the best of any manufacturing goods. A virtual community tends to look like a real community of a small town but not in a literal sense. The focus of this paper is only to deal with a small fragment of its virtual conception such as the composition of its activities, the function or purpose of the community, its audience, and its effectiveness of such a community. The world is getting smaller and smaller within a virtual community.
The Composition of the Activities
The composition or make-up of any online community is unique. It consists of various links which also includes sub-links. Some of these links are individually created from other entities. And, with permission, they are incorporated into the one master field. When business links are added to the system, they become networking channels for the users. It is good advertising practice. Other links serve as library of information. Not only the links must be studied but the various programs written just to get things up and running are special. Cybernetic technology is really amazing. With support, portal information, and the display of the data, gives the audience a sense of great mechanism.
An online community has multimedia use, interactive use, and hyperlinks. Each one serves as a masterpiece within the society. As a non computer expert, it leaves me with a breath of awe just to see how much information in the form of texts, images, and other stuffs that are displayed. The administrators or designers must have taken on a tremendous load of responsibility to manage a site. Perhaps, the work may have been contracted out to small computer firms in order to set up and manage portions of the site. The electronic surveillance is also a challenge. Even the communicators are part of the make-up since they are relying on the users to work the system. Since the community is just booming, there are other areas such as laws and maintaining a site that are in consideration.
Purpose or Function of the Community
The function or purpose of an online community is to tightly bond people together in a virtual world. Whether they are living close by or in other parts of the world, they are given the same opportunity to find out all the factual information or share factual information. They may request information on its government, share ideas on political matters, and have a central place to see where all the festivals or activities are scheduled. Better yet, they can talk to relatives or friends via the chat lines. It even went as far as providing discussion message board and e-mail address services just for its users by having interpersonal relations via a computer mediated communicational avenues. The purpose may be broad but knowing people on a whole especially young people, they like to party, and having such a virtual intelligence would please them. Like what the above authors said, “Using the internet should be fun (p.73)”.
