It suddenly struck me as terribly appropriate that we were convening on the outskirts of Walt Disney World, because if anyone was a pioneer of virtual communities it was Walt Disney himself. After a couple of years of televised indoctrination, Disney opened Disneyland, and along came synergy. Forty-one years later, the Disney Corp. is still experimenting with ideas of community. I'm hoping to sneak out and have a look at Disney's controversial prefabricated town of Celebration before I head back to the airport. I'm sure it would be a most interesting field trip.
Virtual communities designed to serve marketing purposes are obviously nothing new.
Any one of us can think of lots of examples besides The Mickey Mouse Club. One that always amused me was the Sine-Aid Society. Now, I'm not sure if the Sine-Aid Society ever really existed to the extent that it gave out certificates or anything, but it was an interesting premise, holding out the hope of commiseration and bonding to anyone with a pounding sinus headache. This topic really interests me because I'm not satisfied with PC Magazine's online virtual community, and I believe ours should be among the best. PC Magazine has been in cyberspace since 1985 and a sponsor of online communities since 1988, when we hooked up with CompuServe and set up tons of discussion threads on every imaginable computing topic.