Abstract
This article investigates the intertwining relationships between the Gemeinschaft and the Gesellschaft dimension of a community network (CN)—that is, of a virtual community whose members' common interest is a locality, in our case the city of Milan, Italy. The article looks through the experience of the last 7 years of life on RCM—the Milan Community Network—to reflect on the role that the sharing of rules of behavior has on the evolution of social structure in a virtual community. It identifies three phases of development—the design phase, the first growth phase, and the most recent phase—and presents the social structure set up to guarantee governance of the CN. The conclusions show that the third phase is not an actual stable state, as the continuous evolution of the societal and technological context requires continuous redesign of the CN itself in order to meet the renewed demands of a new context.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.