Virtual community

The virtual community or digital community refers to that section of data processed among themselves whose links, interactions, relationships, communications and techniques take place in a virtual space. Virtual communities are formed from certain groups of people who share common tastes within the great Internet network. They are organized and carried out from online services. It can be about any subject or any technological study, there are no denials. Communities know that they are networks, they evolve in this way, expanding the members, diversifying among themselves, they are born in cyberspace.

They are groups of individuals and institutions organized cybernetically around a range of specific interests, whose interactions, links, relationships and communications occur through the Internet.

Virtual communities can be very diverse and specific, involving people from geographically and culturally distant backgrounds, arranged around a common theme of their passion or interest, and a virtual “space” that can be determined by a Web page or an online service.

The term virtual community was first used by Howard Rheinhold in his 1994 book The Virtual Community: A Borderless Society.

However, the first virtual communities already existed since the 1970s of the 20th century, particularly around the exchange of data specialized in military, scientific and academic fields, thanks to the communication mechanisms of the then rudimentary Internet, such as Bulletin Board System or BBS (in Spanish Sistema de Tablón de anuncios).

Today virtual communities have evolved to such an extent that there are millions of users who access them every day, and the number of functions.

History

The idea of virtual communities arose at the beginning of the 1990s, when the Internet appeared, and in the case of computer communities prior to the implementation of ARPANET and the development of the BBS or Bulletin Board System ('System of Bulletin board'). The first virtual communities were born in the 70's and multiplied during the 80's, scientific, academic and military in the case of ARPANET, and civil for BBS. But it was not until the 1990s when they developed exponentially, thanks to the lifting of the ban on the commercial use of the Internet, the birth of the World Wide Web (WWW) and the generalization of tools such as email, chats and instant messaging.

Civilian users, without access to the Internet, implemented and popularized the use of the BBS, a system that worked through modem access via telephone line to a central office (the BBS) that could be based on one or more telephone lines. On the BBS it was possible to start conversations, post comments, exchange files, etc. For the same reason that they were accessed by telephone line, they were independent communities. It was very common at the time for private individuals to use their own home equipment to provide service with even a single input modem.

Virtual communities are a very useful tool from a business point of view, since they allow organizations to improve their internal work dynamics, their relationships with their clients or increase their procedural efficiency. Regarding its social function, virtual communities have become a place where the individual can develop and interact with others, thus acting as an instrument for socialization and recreation.

Virtual communities are a massive online phenomenon and closely linked to the explosion of social networks, capable of interconnecting this type of virtual organizations or creating their own, around massive communication axes and different times and modes of interaction.

According to estimates by Kozinets (1999), in the year 2000 there were more than 40 million virtual communities on the Internet. In the case of development organizations, online volunteers play a crucial role in the creation and development of virtual communities.

BBS vs Internet

With the appearance of the Internet and its free access to the civil community in general, the BBS quickly fell into disuse, since the limitation of sharing a single space was widely overcome by free Internet access to many networks at the same time, allowing create groups of diverse interests and contact them in the same telephone session.

In addition, the growing interest in the Internet from different groups prompted the development of technologies such as databases and greater security that allowed the general public to set up, more economically, interest groups with greater scope beyond the borders of countries headquarters and obtaining exchange with other interest groups over long distances without the need to close telephone connections with unique groups.

Although some of the most famous BBS migrated their platforms to the Internet, its use is rare for the new generations that have grown up with the most popular platforms, which currently allow you to create communities in a few minutes such as Yahoo! Groups and Microsoft Groups among others.

Definition

A virtual community is a group of people comprising subjects (individual, collective, institutional) who:

• They want to interact to meet their needs or perform specific roles.
• They share a particular purpose which is the reason for being a virtual community.
• With computer systems that mediate interactions and facilitate cohesion among members.

The greatest obstacle that exists to the development of communities is the difficulty of their internal organization. In many cases, too much time is wasted creating the structure of the community, with which the true sense of it is lost, confusing the structure with the being of the group.

The virtual community is defined by 3 different aspects:

• The virtual community as a place where individuals can maintain social or economic relations. As they take place in cyberspace, there are no geographical limits, just a reference on the internet. This allows the union of people at large distances, facilitating communication between them.
• The virtual community as a symbol: since the virtual community has a symbolic dimension. Individuals tend to feel symbolically linked to the virtual community, creating a sense of belonging.
• The virtual community as virtual: They possess traits common to physical communities. The differentiating feature of the virtual community is that it develops, at least partially, in a virtual place, or in a place built from telematic connections. Unlike traditional communities, a face-to-face relationship between members is not needed.

Objectives

The main objectives of the virtual community are the following:

• Exchange information (get correct answers).
• Offer support (empathy, express emotion).
• Conversing and socializing informally through simultaneous communication.
• Debating, usually through the participation of moderators.

What are virtual communities for?

In principle, virtual communities have the purpose of exchanging specialized information around a topic or axis of topics that can be any: science and technology, literary creation, sports or film fanaticism, etc. Those who collaborate in them are at the same time consumers, producers and/or replicators of the information available in this regard. On the other hand, they are a useful tool for corporate environments, allowing an internal organization of communications, as well as a closer and more direct contact with consumers, organizing a community around the product or the brand (branding or loyalty). It also operates as a space for socialization and exchange of a diverse nature between people of all kinds, within the framework of social networks and culture 2.0.

Types

There are different types of virtual communities:^{[citation needed]}

• Discussion forums (moderate, not moderate, open or closed)
• Social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)
• E-mail and e-mail groups
• News groups
• Video conferences
• Chat (webchat, IRC type chats, multimedia chats)
• Multiple User Dimension: It is a system that allows users to become the character they want and visit imaginary worlds in which to participate together with other individuals in games or other activity
• Content managers
• Peer to Peer Systems (P2P)
• BBS (Ad Board System)

And, in addition to those of a computer nature, there are those that are linked through other means:

• Chat boxes, popular in the early 1990s, which consisted of a telephone center in which several users coincided.
• Radio amateur communities, as old as the same invention and still in force on open radio channels and exchange information without being physically on the same site.
• Televisives, usually with a host program that concentrates the contacts of the members and exchanges with them through the television broadcast.

Aspects to consider

The following are the main aspects to consider in order to achieve the maximum development of business initiatives supported by virtual communities:

• A virtual community is based on two fundamental pillars: communication and a desire for relations between members with common interests.
• Measuring success.
• Strengthen the feeling of community.
• Analyze needs.
• Foster self-management.
• Minimize impact.
• Specialize papers.
• Technological structure

Benefits they provide and various others

The main benefits that virtual communities provide in business are the following:

• Branding
• Relationship marketing
• Cost reduction
• Income provision
• Development of new products
• Introduction of new products
• Building barriers to entry
• Acquisition of new customers
• Ciberculture
• For a user without professional interest, the reason for belonging to these communities may be to feel part of something or simply to know and share about their interests.
• A virtual community serves to study comments on competition products and services. A more than profitable environment to monitor your progress or failures in the field.