Why Online Community?

• My Space has over 200 million users
• Wikipedia has over 10 million articles written in over 200 languages
• There are now over 133 million blogs
• 75% of adult Americans are online
• 84% of all Internet users belong to some sort of online group
• Users are now spending as much time online as watching television
• The average time spent online is 14 hours per week (The activity which users have decreased the most due to time spent online is reading books)
• According to Gartner Research, the average knowledge worker participates in 10 virtual communities and within 10 years, 80% of work by these workers will be performed collaboratively

Third Places

• Places which are outside the home and workplace
• Essential for individual as well as community well-being
• Informal public places
• A neutral ground
• Home-away-from-home
• Inclusive places
• Everyone is equal
• Both newcomers and regulars can be found
• Place where people can socialize, relax, and learn about local events and happenings
• Coffee shop, local pub, or Main Street

The Library as a Third Place

• Provide patrons with public meeting places
• A Free and hospitable environment
• Everyone welcome
• Atmosphere of social equality
• Place to discover neighborhood happenings and to socialize with others
• Regular library-goers mingle with new patrons as well as librarians
• New cafes offer visitors auxiliary spaces for relaxation and conversation
• Libraries have historically been hubs of their community

The Web as a Third Place

• The Web today is about linking people to people, not just information
• About creating connections with other users, it’s social
• Virtual Community - gathering places as well as tools for communication and information exchange
• Neutral spaces in which people gather to socialize and interact
• Both regulars and newbies
• Inclusive places
• Social equality - even more than other places because age and appearance are removed as factors
• Information about local events from communities such as Craigslist and Meetup
• New form of local information in virtual worlds such as WOW, Second Life

Further Reading

• Kroski, Ellyssa. "Online Community and Libraries, Parts I & II", InfoTangle, 9/2006.

• Oldenburg, Ray. The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community, Avalon Publishing Group, 1999.

• Putnam, Robert D. and Lewis Feldstein. Better Together: Restoring the American Community, Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group, 2004.

• Putnam, Robert D. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group, 2001.

• Rheingold, Howard. Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier, Harper Collins Publishers, 1994.