Community is defined several different ways in our readings. Shumar and Renninger state that a physical community is understood to exist in contiguous space and to be temporally synchronous. They share concerns, resources, quality of life, help etc. Bruckman and Jensen define community as a group of people interacting with one another in some fashion.
A virtual community is defined as involving virtual interaction, social imagination, and identity using communication via websites.
A virtual community differs from a physical community because it is not defined by proximity but by it's contents of individual interest and can extend the range of physical community. They are alike in the fact that people interact with each other and share interests.
I think common interests, a sense of belonging, and the need to interact and have a voice is what brings people together in a community, physical or virtual. The virtual world enables imagination, identity, and value.
The internet has altered our sense of boundaries, participation, and identity by allowing for recasting of self and community, meaning that a person or group can revise their sense of possibilities.
As far as my experience with a virtual community, it is limited to classes at OUHSC. In this case I believe 100% that the people learn and construct knowledge by sharing with others in this type of community. I look forward to learning more about other virtual communities this semester. I have never been involved with any of them.
Thanks, Tomi

Hi

Finally figured out how to use this, I think. Looking foreward to learning about all of it.