The creators or administrators make sure they cover the interest in-depth with every piece of information one can find on their agendas. According to one online community of its links' messages, it is a premier source of information on all aspects of its culture. It is putting a person in touch with his or her culture. It even professes to even have goods shipped to one's door. It provides door to door services by going beyond to do shopping services for its users or registrants and have it mailed or shipped to their homes. The business of commerce is well presented. It seems as if it has made an attempt to operate like a real community where it covers business and commerce as part of a strong economy within a city.
The Type Audience It Attracts
Because of such isolation and people been busy, technology has made it possible for them to communicate with others. The cyber rat's support group has provided a way to reach these loners by creating a virtual world for them to interact and bridge them together as a unit with a common interest. Some of them are loners, while others are psychologically out of touch with their roots. Many people who have migrated have left their homeland for more than five to ten years. Some have not gotten a chance to return home but using the online community, they can stay in touch with their roots if they choose. Wood and Smith discuss the possibilities of using the online medium for therapy (p.01). With the use of an online community, it appears as if the plan is to maintain a demographic composite of population than can be achieved whether they are living abroad or not.
Another type of audience is the surfers. They are not necessary a particular group but are bystanders in a sense who happens to find the site. Most of the people who fall into this category are people who spent time on internet and just want to end up somewhere. They are encouraged to visit and perhaps become a member. Some of these top of the line hotels within a site give virtual tours. Technology has gotten so smart that one can literally sit in his or her bedroom and view several hotels before one can be committed in making reservation for a particular hotel or travel destination. Other surfers are interested in places for business opportunities and they will scour a site for that type of information. What was so surprising is when a surfer posed a question on a discussion board. He wanted to know how to obtain a visa in order to visit a particular country. An administrator responded with all the pertinent information within the same hour.
After analyzing the online site, one can also see that a hidden audience is involved. This hidden audience is the administrator(s) or netizen(s) who is constantly at work. They have made their site very attractive, and in addition, they have maintained and updated their community with new information in a timely fashion. They also police the environment so that un-welcomed behaviors do not manifest among the registrants. On the other hand, these netizens appear to be friendly as they make the citizens of such community involved with their inputs by asking them to vote in polls.
The Effectiveness of the Community
An online community is a very effective community. It utilizes its skills by building a site that accommodates just about everything. The people are exposed to all sort of knowledge. The knowledge base area is full of very important information. What makes it so effective is that a response to any idea is posted in short interval from the time the question was raised. It seems as if the system is pre-programmed with the relevant answer to a typical question. A site can be very colorful. It is saying, “Welcome, I am here for you to see”. Another way the site is effective is by having the members participating in events. It poses poll questions where one can respond. It even suggests for members to post poll questions. When a community gets a person involved, that is an excellent community. Nobody wants to be left out or ex-communicated from a society. An online community wants everyone who engaged in it to become an active participant.
The virtual support group within the system is a type of social support that meets online and encourages participant to give and receive feedback from one another. Wood and Smith say, “It is like when a family must compensate for a family death (p.17)”. In a real community, the idea is to work together as a team. Well, it is the same with an online field. People are encouraged to assist one another as team members. Such effectiveness must be applauded because it is not easy for any group of people to work and share effectively together as a team much less via a machine - the computer. Some forms of feeling and care has to be manifested during such discourse. Much can be said of its effectiveness.
Conclusion
Since the focus of this paper is only to deal with a small fragment of its virtual conception such as the composition of its online activities, function or purpose of the community, its audience, and its effectiveness of such a community, it is very important to know that a virtual community has the capabilities of a real community. Other areas are been manipulated as well. Jamaica is also making an effort to create an online community to draft Jamaicans and surfers from all over the globe. The internet has become the most powerful force with information for this cause. Wood and Smith make it clear when they state that information properly channeled can ensure that individuals will act as a unit within a framework larger than themselves (p.31). Observing and understanding of an online community has proved that the world is getting smaller and smaller within a virtual community.
