Design for network communities

Abstract
Collaboration has long been of considerable interest in the CHI community. This paper proposes and explores the concept of network communities as a crucial part of this discussion. Network communities are a form of technology- mediated environment that foster a sense of community among users. We consider several familiar systems and describe the shared characteristics these systems have developed to deal with critical concerns of collaboration . Based on our own experience as designers and users of a variety of network communities, we extend this initial design space along three dimensions: the articulation of a persistent sense of location, the boundary tensions between real and virtual worlds, and the emergence and evolution of community.

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