Virtual Community

I learned a lot from Howard Rheingold back in the early 1990s. His book, The Virtual Community was a very useful read for me back then. It covered the history of successful virtual communities in San Francisco that were completely text based (there was a platform called The Well that let 10,000 connect in threaded discussions on character-based terminals). I notice he continues to write commentary on the subject.

I was disappointed by Howard though when in 1997 his Electronic Minds project fell flat and he couldn't afford to put any more resources into it. He was organizing threaded discussions on the Web on very sophisticated topics - envisioning a book club atmosphere for those of us who wanted the Web to have depth and yet provide connections to others. I was sucked in for the first three weeks and enjoyed myself immensely. I was then very discouraged that it wasn't successful for the long-term. I ask myself still whether such a community will emerge eventually. Anyone seen any on-line discussion groups with some well moderated depth to them?

The HIT Lab moderated the sci.virtual.worlds Usenet group for six years in the early 90s. Amazing what information we were privy to and how much good press we got for doing a great moderation job. We had a top-notch cybrarian managing the news group and the fallout. People came to visit us in person from all over the globe as a result. What a shame we couldn't keep her funded! She's teaching remedial computer skills for the King County unemployed. Teaching in English and Spanish and making a difference to the community. But, not *the* community of which I am most interested for CMCs to thrive.