@article{62c9c411ca7a4e7ababc7808fe4d87c0,
title = "Online communities",
abstract = "The combination of low-cost access to increasingly powerful computing and networking capabilities combined with a deregulated internet has facilitated the rapid development of a new social phenomena, that of the online community. The potential for near universal internet access and the ability to communicate at costs lower than ever before in human existence has facilitated the development of online communities which work to fulfill two basic human desires, first, to reach out and connect to other human beings and secondly to obtain knowledge.This paper examines the concept and practice of online communities: first, by establishing an understanding of their historical and technological roots; and then by developing a three-dimensional taxonomy through which the properties of the communities can be examined. Case study examples are utilized to illustrate the community types within the taxonomy.",
keywords = "Cyberspace, Internet, Networks, Online community, World Wide Web",
author = "Robert Plant",
note = "Funding Information: A natural early adopter of the online community open-regulated space was education and in 1989, prior to the deregulation of the Internet, a group of researchers from TERC, a not-for-profit education research and development organization in Cambridge, MA with funding from the NSF created the LabNet project [39] . LabNet was conceived to aid high school science teachers {\textquoteleft}teach science in a more experimental, collaborative, and in-depth, project-enhanced approach, using technological tools where appropriate. The project is designed as a community of practice, connected mainly by a telecommunication network{\textquoteright} ( http://www.terc.edu/papers/labnet/Guide/02-About_LabNet.html ). The research group in 1995 described its community base as follows: {\textquoteleft}The LabNetwork, carried on America On Line. (AOL), currently provides a meeting place for over 700 teachers to support each other in experimenting with new teaching strategies, reflect on their teaching experiences, problem-solve, share resources, and build collegial connections with their peers. AOL provides the necessary (and very user-friendly) software free of charge for the most commonly used school computers, and offers extensive user support, competitively priced rates, experience in serving over 1,000,000 users, and a commitment to building easy-to-use interfaces to new features such as Internet services. The LabNetwork provides message boards (where members can initiate and carry on extended, public dialogues), file libraries (with science materials and project database), online chat areas (for real-time conferencing), and a private e-mail system (which supports an Internet gateway and easy computer to computer transfer of all kind of files). The network was designed by teachers primarily for the use of the teaching community, and its evolution is linked to teacher contributions. Teacher-moderators help to initiate, contribute, moderate, and sustain dialogues, and help to link reflection on the network with action in the classroom{\textquoteright} ( http://www.terc.edu/papers/labnet/Guide/02-About_LabNet.html ). The LabNet experiment continued until February 1998 whenand technology developed from this and other early sites e.g., the ARPA backed Computer Aided Education and Training Initiative (CATI) have been adopted by other educator communities such as the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT) ( http://www.melot.com ). ",
year = "2004",
month = jan,
doi = "10.1016/j.techsoc.2003.10.005",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "26",
pages = "51--65",
journal = "Technology in Society",
issn = "0160-791X",
publisher = "Elsevier Limited",
number = "1",
}