Online Community

An Online Community is also referred as a virtual community or E – Community.  A group of people that primarily interact thru communication media such as newsletters, telephone, email, online social networks or instant messages rather than face to face, for social, professional, educational or other purposes. If the mechanism is a computer network, it is called an online community. 

Online Community may synthesize Web 2.0 technologies with the community, and therefore have been described as Community 2.0. Web 2.0 is essentially characterized by Online Community such as Flickr, Facebook, and Del.icio.us. A similar trend is starting to emerge within businesses where online community is taking hold. This Online Community can be organizational, regional or topical depending on the business.  

Online Community has different levels of interaction and participation among their members. This ranges from adding comments or tags to a blog or message board post and online video games. Not unlike traditional social groups or clubs, online community often divide into cliques or even separate to form new communities. There are several areas included in Online Community such as, reputation management, collaborative filtering, mailing list management, content management and document management, categorization and indexing. 

An online community is a group of people with common interests who use the Internet to communicate, work together and pursue their interests over time. Online Community depends upon social interaction and exchange between users online. The concept of an online community is very broad. It can be anything from a small close knit group of people who email each other about a mutual hobby to a mailing list or Web site with thousands and thousands of users. Thru Online Community we can able to interact with likeminded individuals instantaneously from anywhere on the globe.