Virtual Communities: Bibliography and Resource Guide

Kim Gregson
Department of Telecommunications
Indiana University
1997-1999

These links haven't been abstracted yet.

Armstrong, Arthur and John Hagel, "The Real Value of On-Line Communities", in Harvard Busienss Review, May/June, 1996, p. 134-141.
The authors describe four kinds of online communities that businesses could set up to attract and keep customers on their web sites. The community types are transaction oriented where the company focuses on selling product, interest based where people with similar interests and hobbies come together for discussions, fantasy based where customers take on roles or run pretend sports l eagues, and relationship supporting communities where users are drawn together to offer mutucal support and form deep personal connections. The authors suggest that companies that can combine several/all of these community forms will see the bigges t return on their investment.

Bartlett, James, "The Golf Bag" in Forbes, 20 November 1995, v156 #12, p. 71(3).
The author discusses golf discussion fora as examples of lively successful virtual communities sponsored by a variety of busi nesses.

Baym, Nancy, "The Emergence of Community in Computer-Mediated Communication" in Jones, Steven (ed), CyberSociety: Computer-Mediated Communication and Community, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1995, p. 138-163.

Belson , David, The Network Nation Revisited, 1994.
URL: http://www.stevens-tech.edu/~dbelson/thesis/thesis.html
This is an undergraudate thesis written in May, 1994, from a student at the Stephens Institute of Technology. It is an attempt to update the ideas presented in the 1978 work The Network Nation written by Starr Roxanne Hiltz and Murray Turoff, which predicted what they believed the future of computer media ted communications to be. Those authors made 14 specific predictions and the bulk of the thesis deals with updating those points. He has also included a chapter on virtual communities, probably the most directly related bit of the thesis to the topic o f this guide, and a chapter on his survey methodolgy.In general he found that the use of computer mediated communication has not become as popular and wide-spread as the authors of the 1978 work predicted.
Cafasso, Rosemary, "Business is Booming" i n Computerworld, 2 December 1996, v30 #49, p. 134.
This article looks at business sponsored virtual communities, specifically investment oriented communities.

Bruckman, Amy, "Finding one's own space in cyberspace" in Technology Revie w , January 1996, v99 #1, p. 48 (7).
This article describes how difficult it can be to determine if any particular online community is right for an individual user. She also recomends ways that online visitors can shape communities that they visit to make them more hospitable. She also points out that just as we wouldn't stay in a place that made us uncomfortable in real life, we should not stay online where we are uncomfortable. But, there are many communities to visit and most people should find one that will be a good fit.

Cerulo, Karen, "Reframing Sociological Concepts for a Brave New (Virtual?) World" in Sociological Inquiry, v67 #1, February 1997, p. 48-58.
Part of a section on technologically generated communities

Chaplin, Damon, Creating Web Communities
URL: http://www.december.com/cmc/mag/1996/may/chaplin.html
Part of a special issue of CMC magazine about Publishing on the Web. This art icle is an overview of a prototype project named Axis which combines online bulletin board type discussion areas with a easy to access knowledge base that users can go to to find background information on the topic being discussed.

Cortese, Amy, " Doing a Land-Office Business in Cyberspace" in Business Week, 5/5/97, p.70.
Part of their special report on Internet Communities. This article describes GeoCities, "online neighborhoods based on themes" where users can have free space for their web pages. The members create the content which reduces the cost to operate GeoCities. The company has several revenue streams - advertisements, premium services, sale of branded merchandise, and an online mall. A brief background of the company founder, David Bohnett, is included.

Eng, Paul, "A Coffee Klatch for Moms and Dad" in Business Week, 5/5/97, p. 76
This small article describes iVillages' Parent Soup. It has 200,000 parent/users and 450 scheduled chat sessions a week. For reve nues, they sell advertising and are publishing a book of advice for parents. THey also plan to host seminars online for a small fee and are developing other themed areas.

Erickson, Thomas, "Social Interaction on the Net: Virtual Community as Parti cipatory Genre"
The author presents his idea that online discussions are not communities but rather a literary genre

Hagel, John and Arthur Armstrong, net gain: expanding markets through virtual communities, Boston: Harvard Business Sch ool Press, 1997.
This book is an outgrowth of the Armstrong and Hagel May 1996 article. While the powers book deals iwth specific hands-on techniques, this book is more descriptive. The four chapters in Part 2 deal with building and growing virtual co mmunities. At the end of the book there is a step by step list for businesses wanting to get started building their online community. There is also a three page bibliography for more information.

Hof, Robert, "Breaking out of the Yak Pack" in B usiness Week, 5/5/97, p.74.
Part of their special report on Internet Communities. This article describes TalkCity and the company's many chat sites. They sell advertising and develop chat sites for other companies.

Jones, Steven, "Understa nding Community in the Information Age" in Jones, Steven (ed), CyberSociety: Computer-Mediated Communication and Community, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1995, p. 10-35.

Kling, Rob, "Synergies and Competition between Life in Cybersp ace and Face-to_face Communities", in Social Science Computer Review, Spring 1996, v14 #1, p. 50-54.
The author discusses briefly the difference between community in the sense of the in person relationships people experience and the types of re lationships that might develop on on-line fora. He suggests that more research needs to be done on the relationship between electronic forums and in person social interactions.

Kollock, Peter and Marc Smith, Managing the Virtual Commons: Cooperation and Conflict in Computer Communities, January 1994.
URL: http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/csoc/virtcomm.htm The authors look at computer mediated communication and cooperation on Usenet N ewsgroups.

McLaughlin, Margaret, Kerry Osborne, and Christine Smith, "Standards of Conduct on Usenet" in Jones, Steven (ed), CyberSociety: Computer-Mediated Communication and Community, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1995, p. 90-111.

Powers, Michael, How to Program a Virtual Community:Attract new Web visitors and get them to stay!, Emeryvill, CA: Ziff-Davis Press, 1997
The author starts with discussion of what a virtual community is and presents a brief history of Muds, some of the first virtual communities. He then presents 3 different platforms for building virutal communities - perlMud, the Palace, and Sony Community Place. Software to build each of these types of communiteis is included on a CD with the book. There are sections on building great places and designing attractions to bring in visitors and on building accessories for visitors to interact with. He ends with a discussion of the future of virtual communities.

Reid, Elizabeth, "Virtual Worlds: Culture and Imagination" in Jones, Steven (ed), CyberSociety: Computer-Mediated Communication and Community, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1995, p. 164-183.

Rheingold, Howard, The Virt ual Community: Homesteading on the Virtual Frontier
URL: http://www.well.com/user/hlr/vcbook/
The complete text of the book is available on-line. The author discusses the virtual community that has been built on the Well, a BBS based in Cali fornia.

Row, Heath, Social Studies
The author points out that more and more web sites are claiming to be communities and promoting their interactivity when in reality they allow the user to interact only with information provided by the company. The author suggests that busiensses need to let comuters interact with each other and to leave their opinions and ideas on the site for others.

Smith, Greg, Virtual Community in Real Reality...
URL: http://panizzi.shef.ac.uk/community/virtreal.html
A version of this paper was presented at the October 1995 Communities Online Conference.

Smith, Ma rc, Voices from the WELL: The Logic of the Virtual Commons
URL: http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/csoc/virtcomm.htm

Schwarz, Heinrich, Cyberspace - Overlapping Virtual Communities, 1994.
URL: http://www.mit.edu:8001/afs/athena.mit.edu/user/s/c/schwarz/www/MUD.html
This is a set of thoughts for a class the author taught at MIT in Fall 199 4. In real life people visit a number of different social situations and take on a number of different roles. In virtual communities, this can all happen simultaneously as the user can be logged on to several diferent communities at the same time and be monitoring and interacting on all of them. He looks in particular at the roles people play in MUDs.

"Special Report: Internet Communities" in Business Week, 5/5/97, p. 64-85

Turkle, Sherry, "Multiple Subjectivity and Virtual Co mmunity at the End of the Freudian Century" in Sociological Inquiry, v67 #1, February 1997, p. 72-84.
Part of a section on technologically generated communities

Turkle, Sherry, Virtualit y and its Discontent: Searching for Community in Cyberspace , 1996.
URL: http://epn.org/prospect/24/24turk.html
From The American Prospect no. 24 (Winter 1996), p. 50-57. This is adapted from the author's recent book, Life on the Scre en. In this selection, the author describes people's actions within virtual communities constructed inside MUDs and MOOs. In some long running MUDs and MOOs people have created democratic societies and debated serious political issues - issues relevant to the virtual community. It raises the question of whether such a facility on a community network could be used to engender discussions about local issues - local to the geographic community, not just the virtual community. These discussions are held real time but people can be anonymous if they desire. People who can not get to physical discussions can still participate in the virtual discussion.

Wellman, Barry and Milena Gulia, Net Surfers Don't Ride Alone: Virtual Communities as Communities, April 1996.
URL: http://www.acm.org/~ccp/references/wellman/wellman.html
A version of this paper was present to the American Sociological Association in August 19 95. The authors point out that there are few detailed studies of virtual communities. This paper reviews the literature on virtual communities and then adds some new insights from the literature on computer supported cooperative work. They discuss the que stion of whether there is really reciprocity and attachment among the members of virtual communities and briefly look at how virtual communities affect what they call real-life communities.

Wellman, Barry, Janet Salaff, Dimitrina Dimitrovna, Laru a Garton, Milena Guilia, Caroline Haythornthwaite, "Computer Networks as Social Networks: Collaborative Work, Telework, and Virtual Community" in Annual Review of Sociology, v22, p. 213-238, 1996.
This is a more complete look at the literature on virtual communities and computer supported cooperative work than the 1996 article on "net surfers".

Whitley, Edgar, "Is it Possible to really play with identity in cyber'space'?: A Review Based on the Sociology of Knowledge"
manuscript dis tributed when Dr. Whitely visited IU's School of Library and Information Science in 1996.

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This page last updated 7 July 1997 by Kim Gregson