That's pretty much been my experience with online communities. I used to be a part of a programming support group that actively coded applications, and we met in an IRC-like chatroom routinely. The "core" group was essential, although it usually just took one or two of the most active members to be there to keep the discussion moving along.
I took a hiatus from such online communities, and have only come to recently re-discover them for a new purpose. Instead of a technical group, something that Morgan might be more interested in is a purely social, friends-only networking website. The purpose? Use the Internet to make real-life friends. Now that the Internet has been demystified, and more than just computer savvy and "socially marginalised" people waste hours each day online, groups such as MEETin.org have taken hold. (It used to be a Yahoo! group, and occasionally they'll still post events and advertisements.
In a lot of ways, I think online communities mimick natural face-to-face social groups. There are its charasmatic leaders, a bunch of regular, core people, and then those on the fringes. New people may check out the group's vibe, and then disappear. Occasionally, somebody new enters the core constituency, but that's relatively rare... much like in most other cliques.
This is why I'm very interested in research like what Morgan's conducting... to discover the substantial differences between virtual and physical communication.
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I took a hiatus from such online communities, and have only come to recently re-discover them for a new purpose. Instead of a technical group, something that Morgan might be more interested in is a purely social, friends-only networking website. The purpose? Use the Internet to make real-life friends. Now that the Internet has been demystified, and more than just computer savvy and "socially marginalised" people waste hours each day online, groups such as MEETin.org have taken hold. (It used to be a Yahoo! group, and occasionally they'll still post events and advertisements.
In a lot of ways, I think online communities mimick natural face-to-face social groups. There are its charasmatic leaders, a bunch of regular, core people, and then those on the fringes. New people may check out the group's vibe, and then disappear. Occasionally, somebody new enters the core constituency, but that's relatively rare... much like in most other cliques.
This is why I'm very interested in research like what Morgan's conducting... to discover the substantial differences between virtual and physical communication.