What makes a Community?

We had a good discussion in my class on what makes a community, and more importantly, how does the virtual world help or hinder this. Often when we think of a community we think of a group of people who come together and are bonded by something. say the location that they live in; or perhaps a church community, or even a group of people who are really passionate about a certain sport. When all these people who have this interest are able to come together and be happy and talk about their common interest and express their passion, then you have a very successful community.

Lets think about this for a second, if I were a person who wanted to be apart of my local community of the town that I live in, I could go talk at my local town hall forum, or perhaps just go talk to my neighbors. If I wanted to participate with my favorite sports team fans I can go watch a game at a bar or at the sporting event. But what if I wanted to be apart of a community of people who are really passionate about cooking, who do I talk with about that? Chefs at a restaurant? Perhaps a simple solution to this is to go online. one of the best parts about the internet is there are tons of places online to get together with people who are passionate about the same thing as you. There are chat rooms and online forums, whole websites dedicated to the things you are interested in!

I think the virtual world and tech really provide a community to everyone about anything. For me, I am able to meet people who share a passion for the same online games I play, and I have made some great friends with strangers because of it. Even if it, say a sports community you are willing to be apart of, you have no idea how big of a community there actually is, until you see how many likes there are on the sports teams facebook page. :)