Abstract
In this paper I outline the characteristics of built environments that are believed to be effective in supporting social activity in physical space. I then discuss the degree to which these features can be translated into digital space. I argue that, although we can learn much from studying place-based communities, simply replicating the appearance of participants, architectural backdrops, and urban forms online is an ineffective strategy. Screen-based social sites should be designed with the specifics of the medium in mind. If we wish to build effective online communities, we also need to gain a better understanding of the complex nature of interpersonal and group communication, and of the social, cultural, political, and physical context in which it takes place.
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McGuire, M. (2009). Designing Physical and Virtual Communities. In: Purvis, M., Savarimuthu, B.T.R. (eds) Computer-Mediated Social Networking. ICCMSN 2008. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 5322. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02276-0_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02276-0_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-02275-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-02276-0
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