Community Affairs

A quick trip to Dictionary.com yields the following top two definitions of the word “community”:

1. a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage.

2. a locality inhabited by such a group.

If I were to ask my wife to define a community, her response would probably come close to the first definition above. When most people use the word “community”, the inherent implication is that one is dealing with a place…somewhere concrete. Think of all the uses of the word that we hear & see all around us: community service, community center, community theatre, community college, etc. All of these uses of community deal with the places that we live and are made up of the whole or a subset of the whole population of our town, city or region.

With all due respect to the traditional definitions, today’s communities can span the globe and be comprised of folks who have never even met each other in person (and maybe never will). The internet has created online communities that can range from down right silly to life-changing. And location just doesn’t matter when it comes to these communities. A world-wide community of developers works 7x24x365 developing Open Source Software that is driving the majority of innovation in the enterprise software world. Cancer survivors around the world support each other through online communities such as those found at the Bladder Cancer Web Café (http://blcwebcafe.org/), The Testicular Cancer Resource Center (http://tcrc.acor.org/tc-net.html) or Cyclists Combating Cancer (http://www.ridetolive.org).

Let’s get one thing straight about online communities: it is NOT about the technology. I don’t care whether your preferred method of joining in on the online fray is Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Utterz, Podcasting, Blogging or plain ol’ email. Online community is powered by one thing, and one thing only…people. In my experience as a member of Cyclists Combating Cancer (CCC) for the past four years, many of the relationships that I’ve created with others online have become as important and valuable to me as any that I’ve created through the traditional community. I’ve had the opportunity to meet in person many of those with whom I’ve developed online friendships through CCC, but there are others whom I may never meet. Either way, the camaraderie that we share and the friendships that we’ve developed are genuine and heartfelt. Because online communities are full of people who tend to have sought each other out based on some common interest or purpose, it may actually be easier to create a meaningful or deep connection with someone in an online community than in the traditional community. Just think about it for a second. In a traditional community, those with whom we tend to spend most of our time are not necessarily those with whom we share a mutual hobby, interest or passion, but those with whom we share proximity. See…we’re back to location and the first definition of community. But just because we live next door to someone or sit in the cubicle next to them or end up sitting next to them on the train every morning doesn’t mean that we necessarily have enough in common to develop a meaningful relationship.

Don’t get me wrong…I’m a big supporter and fan of the traditional community. Life just wouldn’t be the same without Friday night high school football games (I am in Texas after all), Saturdays with my sons at the little league fields and the annual Fourth of July parade and fireworks. I love the way my local community comes together when there is a need to stock the local food pantry at Thanksgiving or to raise money and gather donations for victims of a natural disaster. My point is not that the traditional community is irrelevant or dead, but that online communities can be equally vibrant and meaningful.

So, how have online communities changed your perception of community? Have you become part of any communities that have made a major impact on your life?