Howard Rheingold – The Virtual Community

In “The Virtual Community,” Howard Rheingold discusses the development of the internet, focusing on the potential it holds, as well as some of the problems it faces. Written in 1993, and referring to events as long ago as the late 1970s, this piece gives us an insight into perceptions of this technology at a time when it was not taken for granted, before it had become such a large part of our culture. It also is interesting to ask to what extent the internet has realised its potential, and whether it has navigated the problems Rheingold points out.

Virtual Community =_df “social aggregations that emerge from the Net when enough people carry on ... public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace.”

Rheingold begins by explaining his first contact with, and initial reactions to, virtual communities: “The idea of a community accessible only via my computer screen sounded cold to be a first, but I learned quickly that people can feel passionately about e-mail and computer conferences. I’ve become one of them.” He goes on to list some of the things he did over the net: becoming involved in support groups and international communities; playing an educational RPG; searching for information about legal outcomes and weather; talking in chat rooms; and following accounts of Tiananmen. Rheingold sums this up by saying that “people in virtual communities do just about everything people do in real life, but [they] leave [their] bodies behind.”

There are many positives to this type of interaction, including those that come with any community: the ability to do practical things such as finding gardening equipment, to more important things like sharing cutting-edge scientific research. What Rheingold is most excited about, though, is the “liberating potentials” of the net – readily accessible information and an increased ability to reach an audience.

However, the net also faces problems. The main problem stressed by Rheingold is that people may miss out on the huge potential of the net – they may fail to learn about, and how to use, its liberating aspects. This is because political and economic powers may gain control of its development, and shape virtual communities to their own end. Rheingold’s frontier metaphor is useful here. The net, at this time, is like the old west – individuals are free to do many things, pursue great things. When the rest of civilisation follows, what is created will set the type of life lead from that point on. If those on the frontier are not careful, when the rest of civilisation (in this case, government and companies) arrives, they will take over.

The rest of this article gives a bit more history and explication, but this is less important for our purposes here.

Some questions: consider the definition of “virtual community” given by Rheingold. Also consider some things you might call virtual communities, such as facebook, or those that follow and comment on blogs. Are things like “human feeling” and “personal relationships” part of these contemporary communities?

How, and to what extent, has the net realised its potential?

Conversely, to what extent have businesses and governments prevented the net from realising its potential? Rheingold seems to think that only “big power and big money” pose a threat to virtual communities; is this too naive - does the net face troubles from all areas, as “A Rape in Cyberspace” suggests?