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)”.

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.

People want to get connected all the time, every time! Then again, they may not want to talk about things on a face to face basis. They may not want to get into regular and routine relationships. They may not want to get into commitments, but still they want to share their day, discuss their issues and go to sleep with a lightened hearts by the end of the day!

The social networking sites are an easy tool for such sharing without commitment, such comments without commitments, such smiles and laughs without serious involvements and such happiness without hurts!

The social networking sites are a means of relaxation after a hard day of work, after a hard fight with some one and after a prolonged boring conversation with a friend or with a neighbor!

The social networking sites come in all sizes and shapes and by all ways and means! There are sites that want you to “digg” deep into the matters and there are sites that allow you to “stumble upon” anything of your liking, a video, a picture, a website etc.

You may “clipmarks” your interests and share it with the rest of the world! You may even tag your “delicious” stuff or simply “fave” your likings and share it with the virtual community!

You may just “Flicker” about your pictures and you may even have a “face book” on your own in some of these sites!

You may meet your “classmates” in one of these sites and you may even maintain a “Live Journal” in one of these other sites!

There are hundreds of such social networking sites which are frequently by millions of members and guests!

Generally, you can navigate into or away from any of these websites! As long as you are decent, keep your comments out of the vulgarity framework and behave with responsibility by not hurting the other people in the site, you are always welcome to these social networking sites!

It really feels great to meet people, to share our knowledge and thoughts with them, to feel relaxed and relieved of the tensions and anxieties of the day to day life and living, to feel welcomed by a group of people whom we had never ever seen in our lives, but somehow got connected into a network of familiarity and happiness!

The faces and the icons provide us with the warmth which only comes with the sharing of happiness, the comments and the follow up comments and then the follow up of the follow up comments…it's interesting, energetic, amazing and absolutely wonderful!

There is something magic in becoming a part of the social networking sites!