What is different about virtual communities?

By SHILA FLORA

Cyberspace has been considered an alternative space in which individuals and small groups, rather than multi-nationals and nation-states, control both the flow and availability of information and the uses to which that information is put.
Anyone with access to an internet-ready computer and a basic knowledge of how the internet works can post ideas and information which they consider important and build their own interest groups and networks, and many do.

Alongside the White House website, small, less well-known political organisations can also post their manifestoes, activities and agendas. Millions of internet users can potentially tap into these sites and connect with like-minded people all over the world. For the first time the internet allows the possibility for the creation of truly global communities.

It is an inexpensive and relatively accessible method through which to advertise a presence, inform others and share ideas and opinions.

The global communities forged in cyberspace can also be seen as a welcome alternative to the realm of global elites which retain power and dominion over the everyday lives of people worldwide. Virtual communities have the potential to empower their users, raise an alternative agenda, give access to different ways of seeing the world, foster international perspectives on important issues and to encourage a global response to matters which affect us all.

Cyberspace is a realm which is filled with ideas and as such the physical abilities of its users and the bodies which they inhabit are generally unseen. In a world which is obsessed by appearance, which judges others by certain physical standards, by colour of skin, by age, by dress perceiving inability to meet certain standards as failure, then the internet is heralded as a space where physical barriers can be overcome and where it is possible to reach out to others without divisions of space, culture, race or gender intervening.

In cyberspace it is assumed a person will be judged by their ideas alone, revealing only that which they wish to share with others and without fear of being rejected if they do not conform to 'the ideal'. On the internet, we are often reminded, people can even adopt alternative personas and become whoever they wish to be. It is unsurprising then that it has been suggested that:
...through use of, and exposure to, these new technologies, users will adopt new forms of behaviour explicitly linked to the technology itself' (Rutter 2001:371).

It has also been argued that virtual communities are particularly focussed and effective in their aims. Wellman (1999) argues that the internet allows the development of communities of interest which are uniquely built on specialized relationships. Communities built in cyberspace, he argues, are self-selected, they do not depend on the chance meetings, whether through encounters in neighbourhood or at work, but are based upon the active selection of community members by participants on the basis of personal interests and personality traits. Unlike 'physical communities', these 'virtual communities' have no need to negotiate difference or disorder and are far removed from the '..dense, disorderly, overwhelming' urban spaces in which communities have been forged in the twentieth century (Sennett 1970:xvi) [3] . Wellman is also encouraged by the fact that the constituency from which communities formed via the internet are selected, is in no way bound by geography but potentially consists of the millions who are on-line across the globe. He writes:
For better or worse, the shift to a personalized, wireless world will afford truly personal communities [emphasis in original] that supply support, sociability, information and a sense of belonging to individuals (Wellman 2000:15)

Wellman clearly welcomes the growth of such communities and sees in them the potential to develop highly significant relationships. He makes the case that, because these communities are not constrained by geography or chance encounters, they are fully chosen by their members. For Wellman, this leads to relationships which are purer in essence, uncluttered by the expected niceties and polite conversations which characterise our physically bounded relationships and avoiding the fear and danger which can be part of encounters in disorderly streets. Harcourt suggests that this aspect of the technology has been particularly useful in encouraging women's use of the internet, adding that this medium can '...involve women who due to their culture or locality would not be in a position to voice their opinion.' (1999:2) in other spaces.

Dave Carter of Manchester City Council, UK, summed up many of the ideas which have gone into constructing the ideal virtual community when he wrote:
The ability of small-scale initiatives in cities and regions to use the advantages of the technologies, to use cyberspace, to create communication and activity networks free from the usual spatial and temporal constraints is a crucial element in providing a democratic counter-balance to other technological and global trends.

The essential starting for this must, however, be a commitment to creating services and applications that are easy (and cheap) to use, that grab people's interest and imagination so that they want to use them and that, having used them, they become part of their lives enough that they would fight to not take them away. (Carter 1997:151)