"online community benefits examples", WELL, and: goodreads, lonely planets, photofridays

i am part of them since years. but i think today is the first time i actually looked for a proper definition of them: online communities. and surprise: here's the passageway to their beginnings, i arrived at in wikipedia, a community itself:

"A virtual community is a social network of individuals who interact through specific media, potentially crossing geographical and political boundaries in order to pursue mutual interests or goals. One of the most pervasive types of virtual community include social networking services, which consist of various online communities.

The term virtual community is attributed to the book of the same title by Howard Rheingold, published in 1993. The book, which could be considered a social enquiry, putting the research in the social sciences, discussed his adventures on The WELL and onward into a range of computer-mediated communication and social groups, broadening it to information science in a time when the World Wide Web as we know it today was not yet used by many people.

quick detour: The WELL. that's, i learned: "The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, normally shortened to The WELL, is one of the oldest virtual communities in continuous operation."
Link: The WELL"

Back to Rheingold:
Rheingold pointed out the potential benefits for personal psychological well-being, as well as for society at large, of belonging to such a group.

These virtual communities all encourage interaction, sometimes focusing around a particular interest, or sometimes just to communicate. Some virtual communities do both. They allow users to interact over a shared passion, whether it be through message boards, chat rooms, social networking sites, or virtual worlds." - wikipedia/virtual community

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and while musing on that, i revisited some of the communities i am part of:

Goodreads
a place that makes it possible to talk and read about books (especially non-bestsellers) with other readers who happened to read the very same book. also, a good place to find book suggestions of the non-bestseller kind. i blogged about it a bit more: what kind of books do you like to read?

Lonely Planet Travel Forum: "Thorn Tree"
that actually was my own entry point into the world of online communities. the Throrn Tree offers regional branches. also, they have a cultural forum ("Culture Vultures") and then the glorious Women Travellers, which really is more like an international travel café that is open to every theme – at some point, a whole group of us met up (in Paris, that was. now i get nostalgic.... ach.)

photofriday
shared photo moments from around the world: there's a new theme up every friday, and everyone can join, simply by putting a fitting photo up in his/her blog, and then entering the link there. usually around 200-300 people take part.