The only way to escape from the precipice of perpetual extinction is to reach critical mass. Beoordeel Imagined Electronic Community Presents a history of how online community has been represented in models of Internet commerce and critically examines representation of these communities within business texts. Discusses why academics have an interest in organizing alternative models of online community formation. When fully functional, the Alliance comprised fifty IT professionals responsible for managing 70,000 desktop workstations, nearly 1,200 servers, and networking hardware on five continents. To succeed, an online community needs to fulfill its members' needs for affiliation and knowledge.
Affiliation is the members' desire to belong to something.
Knowledge is the members' desire to know something. The web system behind the online community needs to support affiliation and knowledge. If you run an online community, then you probably don't need anyone to convince you of its business value. Forum managers and community staff know that the communities build loyalty, give valuable feedback, and contribute to increased sales. But corporate management wants quantifiable statistics to demonstrate that the community effort is paying its freight.