Barry Wellman, Professor of Sociology in Toronto, is noticable as one of those researchers of online social life, who meticously puts up every article he has written (and which is not copyrighted???), on his webpage, both in html, pdf and as abstract. Wish more researchers would do that!
He looks at virtual communities, not from a pure "community" perspective, but primarily as "social networks". He has co-authored some interesting articles on it, including this:
Computer Networks as Social Networks: Virtual Community, Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Telework
and this
Net Surfers Don't Ride Alone: Virtual Community as Community
# posted by Lisbeth at: 18:36