Virtual Communities: Linking People and Markets Electronically

Virtual Communities: Linking People and Markets Electronically1 Paula M.C. Swatman Department of Information Systems MonashUniversity Melbourne, Australia [email protected] Andy Bytheway Information Systems Research Centre Cranfield School of Management Cranfield University of Technology Bedford, United Kingdom [email protected] Marina Cavill CIRCIT Melbourne, Australia [email protected] Joan Cooper Department of Information and Communications Technology University of Wollongong New South Wales, Australia [email protected] W. David Wilde Centre for Information Systems Research Swinburne University of Technology Melbourne, Australia [email protected] 1 This panel paper was an invited contribution in the proceedings of the 7th Australasian Conference on Information Systems 1. Introduction Since the commercialisation of the Internet in the early 1990's, its use has grown exponentially. Exact usage figures for Internet usage are impossible to obtain, but suggestions that around 40 million people use the Internet each day can be found in a variety of sources (see, for example, Hobbes’ Internet Timeline). One of the most popular areas of the Internet is the World Wide Web, which offers a friendly, attractive and accessible interface to businesses and individuals from all walks of life and one of the uses for which the Web has proved highly successful is to link communities of various kinds together in a virtual network of common aims and needs. The process of bringing together four people from two States of Australia and another from England, in itself, required the creation of a virtual community. All panel members had some common knowledge—about the essence of a community where people are linked electronically rather than through the more common method of physical presence—but each person had a unique viewpoint and a background in a different aspect of “virtuality”: C electronic markets, where multiple buyers and sellers within a market place (and this term can be defined very widely indeed!) use electronic means to communicate information, trade their product or service and finalise the transaction(s); C virtual organisations, where people join together to form an organisation with a common purpose for a long or short period. Virtual organisations can be of many types, but two in particular are of interest here:those where a physical organisation uses electronic communications to allow people to work together, despite their being located at geographically dispersed locations; those where people from many places (and, perhaps, many source organisations) are brought together to perform a particular task (such as a design project) -enabling the virtual organisation to call upon the most skilled experts for that project without regard to location or time factors; C communities of interest, where people and organisations concerned with a particular topic (such as the “health community”) use electronic means to exchange basic documents (such as patient information, in the case of the health community), to provide specialised services (such as analysis of test results) and to offer facilities not normally available in an area (such as telemedicine's remote surgery facilties); C regional community networks, where people and organisations located more or less contiguously can use electronic means to provide information and services to members of the community who would not otherwise be able to receive such facilities. This type of virtual community is particularly important in large, sparsely settled areas (such as the Australian bush), where electronic service delivery may well be the only possible form of delivery available. Each author, therefore, has presented his or her own view of the virtual community—taken together, these perspectives provide an understanding of the issues and their implications for the implementation of virtual organisations, virtual groups and entire virtual communities around the world: C Andy Bytheway, from Cranfield University of Technology in the United Kingdom, talks about the realities and implications of virtual organisations; C David Wilde, from Swinburne University of Technology, talks about virtual communities in more general terms, discussing the people who join such communities and why they find them attractive; C C C Joan Cooper, from the University of Wollongong, discusses communities of interest in general—and community health networks as an important example of this group; Marina Cavill, from the Centre for International Research on Communications and Information Technology, discusses the realities of regional community networks—what makes them work and why they are important to rural areas; and, finally, Paula Swatman, from Monash University, discusses the concept of electronic markets and explains why she believes they are a form of virtual community. 2. Virtual Organisations - Realities and Implications 2.1 Forethought Brenda sighed as she switched off her terminal and arched backwards to relax her shoulders. “Tomorrow,” she thought, “I really must let Pam know how I've been getting on. A quick email should deal with that - the same client, the same assignment, the same general kind of work, the same project manager” - Pam was the project manager in question. Three years working steadily for the internationally known agri-chemicals giant had allowed Brenda to build a formidable reputation as one of their most reliable and valuable contract programmers. So few people had her deep appreciation of organic chemistry and, at the same time, her knowledge of advanced programming techniques. One of these days she really should go and meet the client again, she thought - three years since the induction interview when she first won the assignment and not a single face to face meeting since. In that time she had only met Pam three times, and that was at the Company's annual social function. With a wry smile she turned around and stepped into the rear of the house to join her kids, who were just arriving home from school. What a great way to work, she thought. You might be tempted to assume that the prologue is an invention. It is not. Brenda is real, the client is real, Pam is real and the “Company” is real. At the time of the anecdote - the mid 1980s - the company employed about 1,000 people in a totally unique manner and in defiance of the norms of the time. The Company still exists but interestingly it is less “virtual” than it was, as we shall see later. 2.2 Discussion How do we recognise a virtual organisation? Where do we see other examples of virtual organisations today? Shall we quote the loose associations of students who gather to commune on the Net on a daily, global basis? (Trapp, 1996) Shall we quote the mighty Boeing Airplane Company and the 777 design project? (BBC, 1995) Shall we quote the 12 authors who together wrote the 1,000-page tome entitled “Lotus Notes 4 unleashed” (using Notes, naturally, and never ever meeting)? (Tamura et al., 1996). Each of these examples has its key features: fluidity and social fulfilment (the students), multi-disciplinary working and complexity (Boeing), and tight focus in team working (the authors). Which characteristics define a virtual organisation? Can we categorise them in different ways? Do they have to use information technology in order to be virtual? We need to address some of these issues before we try to derive any theories about virtual organisations, and how they might behave. I believe that an organisation is distinguished by its culture and not by simple convention. I therefore choose to use a cultural orientation in looking more carefully at how we might recognise a virtual organisation. A model for analysis A favourite model at Cranfield School of Management is the “cultural web” of the organisation, as documented by Johnson and Scholes (1989). Although it is a soft model and informal in its conception and use, it provides us with a seven-way filter on the cultural aspects of organisations, and it is usually effective in use. I propose that we use the model simply to explore its efficacy in clarifying the question of categorisation and characterisation. On the way through, let's just assume that the virtual organisation is one that uses computers and digital communications. Rituals and Myths: Every organisation has rituals and myths. For example: banks that expect to make the numbers add up every day, and software houses with horrendous stories of project disasters in their distant history. Surely the virtual organisation will have its own rituals and myths? Rituals are easy: logging on, pulling off email, the informality of communication, sloppy spelling with poor grammar and not caring about it, the highly efficient use of time (after all, why did we buy the damn computer if not to make better use of our time?). For the students, the daily ritual of logging on and surfing the web is more than just a distraction from lectures, it becomes something that is essential to the completeness of their day. (Whether they actively pride themselves in poor spelling and grammar is left as a matter of conjecture). The mythology of the virtual organisation already includes a few famous names, but perhaps we need a few more years before the enduring mythological stories begin to be established. One that comes to mind (from a UK resident point of view) is the hacking of Prince Philip's email which has now almost achieved the status of a myth even though it was a hard fact, as proven in a court of law. Symbols: Where conventional organisations take pride in their buildings and corporate images, the virtual organisation needs none of these. The ultimate symbol may well be the outcome of one's efforts, as in the case of Boeing (the 777 airplane) and the authors (their book). At a lower level, important symbols are the computer, the telephone, the email signature and more abstract things such as FAQ files that are mundane but nevertheless extremely important in helping a virtual organisation to work well. Physical symbols unsurprisingly take a much lower profile than in the ordinary organisation. Power structures: Traditionally, companies have run on a command and control basis. Hierarchies of power that divided the workforce in order to more effectively rule it, and strict requirements for the gaining of approvals and authorities. The virtual organisation will have none of this. Power is achieved more by example than by other less direct means. The individual persona is no longer an issue. Everyones' focus comes to the image that one presents when communicating, and it is no longer important what one looks like. The visual record of the Boeing 777 project (a multi-part BBC documentary programme) suggests that operational power was dissipated although Boeing - as the main player - maintained the ultimate power. Remote subcontractors working on different major components eventually had to come together and real meetings seemed to be quite out of the usual North American style of leadership and decision, with interminable argument and much sweat and blood on the carpet. Organisation structures: In a similar vein, the structure of a virtual organisation is something much more subtle than an organisation chart. The roles that people fulfil take on greater significance and fluidity in working denies the rigidity that one finds in conventional organisations. The organisation of the 777 team was complex and both task and process driven - a reflection of the complexity of the overall engineering objective. The organisation of the Notes book authoring team was much simpler, being based on the outcome: each author simply contributed a chapter or two. The “ matrix organisation” is something that some of us already know: by putting the task and the process into such tight focus, and by defining the means to own and share information, virtual working allows the operationalisation of the matrix idea that has been so difficult for so many conventional organisations. Control systems: Controlling people who never meet and who communicate only within the constraints of an electronic communications medium is potentially risky. How do we know whether Jimmy was at work yesterday if we can't see him? Oddly, in successful cases the reality is that people take on personal responsibilities that would be unlikely if they were literally in the presence of their peer group. Control becomes a personal issue and, from the ground up, individuals demand a context that provides excellent support in terms of tasks and control infrastructure. The communications system that is at the heart of the virtual working idea provides control flows as well as information flows, and the possibility presents itself for the virtual team to be very much better organised and controlled than the ordinary team (which - if it chooses - can always nip down the corridor to check out problems; the result is more likely to be that they will be forgotten). As an example, people I know are increasingly in the habit of providing to clients the “document information block” with copies of documents they have worked on, information about when the document was started, how many revisions there have been, and even how many minutes of work have accumulated. At this level, it becomes possible to track the time and effort of people who have been involved in the document. Routines: “Routine” sounds like the sort of thing that people in large conventional organisations do. There is nothing routine about virtual working, surely? Not so - it is just that the routine is different and may be tightly integrated with other critical social and family routines. Tensions between one's different domains of existence can be eased and much more effective use made of time except when the different domains co-incide: the neighbour that calls for coffee when you are just finishing a difficult report for the team leader, or having a difficult telephone conversation with a client. The uninformed neighbour simply does not understand the conflict and is offended if told to go away. Consider the students: they email and surf and have a more fulsome day; if they wish they can still attend all their lectures. The problem comes when lectures get in the way of an interesting chat. But, 'twas ever thus!. Paradigm: And so to the matter of the paradigm. In the Johnson & Scholes “cultural web” the paradigm is described as the set of beliefs and practices that is taken for granted within an organisation, but which is nevertheless discernible to the outside observer - helping such an observer to distinguish the organisation from others. What have learnt about the paradigm of the virtual organisation from the other six aspects of culture? The common thread running through the discussion is something to do with a different attitude to time and process. The recurring focus is on the outcome of everyone's efforts rather than the traditional values of location, status and position within a hierarchy. However, for me the overriding factor is the way that information becomes the single most important binding medium in a virtual organisation. Without information and the means to share it there would be nothing, and so I offer this as the conclusion: above all else, the virtual organisation is characterised by its ability to manage information, and its ability to communicate and deploy information in the achievement of its purpose. 2.3 Afterthought The story about Brenda is a true one and the company still exists, as noted already. What is interesting is that it happened so long ago and that the company has since reverted to more conventional working. Why should this be so - are all virtual organisations doomed to evolve into normality? In the case in question, the objective of the key stakeholders since the mid-1980s has been to float the company on the London stock market. This was finally done in April 1996, at £2.45 per share. Six months later the shares are running at £4.22 and doing very well indeed. However, in order to “render the organisation fit” for the stock market it was necessary to re-organise it so as to make it more conventional. The argument was that institutional investors need to invest in something that they can recognise. And so we have to turn to the earlier history of the company. In the beginning it was not information technology that made the company what it was. It was the wish to find a new mode of working that was not predicated on “nine to five” working, “going to the office” and “fixed rates” of pay. In the early 1980s the company already had a twenty-year history of virtual working, using the regular mail and the telephone - without offices, without fixed hours of working and with uniquely variable rates of pay. In order to make it work, they simply re-wrote the book on how to run a company and how to run projects. The key corporate competence which all this possible was the effective management of information as a corporate resource, at all levels and without allowing physical considerations to be a constraint. For many years, as propounded by the Founding Director, the central paradigm was flexibility and fun for the workforce. For many of us, this was the truism that made us stay with the company and help to create the success that it is today. 3. Virtual Communities - Attractions and Adherents 3.1 What are they? There are many definitions and no great consensus on the definition of a virtual community. Perhaps the most widely known definitions are the result of Rheingold’s work. “A group of people who may or may not meet one another face to face, and who exchange words and ideas through the mediation of computer bulletin boards and networks” (Rheingold, 1992). A further Rheingold definition (1993) defines virtual communities as “social aggregations that emerge from the [Internet] when enough people carry on those public discussions long enough with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace”. But Fernback and Thompson (1995) analyse the virtual community in a great deal more detail. Starting with the notion that a community is based upon the structural process of communication they proceed to demonstrate that a community is a developing and dynamic concept as the condition of the human species changes. Van Vliet and Burgers (1987) contend that in the post-industrial community there exist three elements, social interaction, a shared value system and a shared symbol system. Upon these are based the four realms of a community, namely social, economic political and cultural. The social realm is about social interaction, the economic realm implies production, the political realm implies goals and direction, and the cultural realm comprises the shared value and symbol systems. The new factor is the introduction of communications technology which has collapsed time and space, restrictions which caused the pre-industrial community to be a very local concept. And so we return to Rheingold’s definitions. Do virtual communities, which rely upon this technology, conform to the notions of community as expressed above? There are certainly examples of the four realms. The social realm is demonstrated by email, billboards and chat. The economic realm is demonstrated by a level of commercialism that has been introduced into certain virtual communities, for example, the Blacksburg Electronic Village. The political realm is evidenced by goals and etiquette restrictions of virtual communities and the cultural realm is indicated by such communities as Frognet (Oudet, 1995) which is a community established in the USA for French speakers and attracts membership from several other countries. Falk (1995) advances the notion that virtual communities exist on a continuum of “robustness”. Robustness is defined as a measure of overlap with the real community and simply means that email replaces other forms of communication. Thus, if email communication were to cease, a virtual community at the least robust end of the continuum would no longer exist. To the extent that a virtual community would continue as usual but without email communication is the extent to which it would be placed on the more robust end of the continuum.. 3.2 Types of Virtual Communities It seems that the notion of the pre-industrial community as a village is pervasive and it is not uncommon for a community to incorporate a map as its main menu. For example, the Cleveland Community Free-Net has such items as the Administration Building, the Post Office, the Public Square, the Courthouse and Government Centre, the Arts Building, the Science and Technology Centre, the Medical Arts Building, the Schoolhouse, the Community Centre and Recreational Area, the Business and Industrial Park, the Library and the University Circle. This suggests that mental models of the community notion are still regressive. Virtual communities spring up with specific objectives—Frognet, for example, was established to enable French speakers to communicate in French about France. This example shows, however, that social interaction, although fundamental to the notion of community, may not be sufficient. The major service provided by Frognet is a news service, called Frognews, and received by more than 7000 subscribers. Other services are Frogjobs, Frogmag and Frenchtalk. A predecessor electronic cafe, Frogtalk, was replaced by Frenchtalk since the service was run by the French Embassy in Washington and attempts to silence certain sentiments resulted in accusations that Frogtalk was a gulag not a cafe. Frenchtalk is now uncensored and is no longer managed by the French Embassy. Whereas the glue binding Frogtalk is cultural, the driving forces behind the Cleveland Free-Net is public community computing and citizen empowerment. It started as an experiment in making available medical information has grown into a sophisticated community network serving some 30,000 citizens. The WELL or Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link had its roots in free speech and exchange of ideas. As the promotional literature says “The WELL is a meeting of minds and a confluence of diverse social and professional elements: writers, artists, educators, programmers, lawyers, entrepreneurs, hobbyists, parents, musicians, and many more”. Figallo (1993) likens communities such as WELL to small towns. “The main attractions of these local Internet ‘towns’ will prove to be their characteristic on-line conversations and social conventions and their focus on specialized fields of knowledge or problem solving. The WELL is a seminal example of what these small pioneering towns on the Internet highway system will be like.” 3.3 Who joins a virtual community? Rheingold’s (1992) paper entitled “A Slice of Life in My Virtual Community” is essential reading for anyone who is unfamiliar with what membership of a virtual community can mean. Rheingold is a member of WELL and by his own admission he “was lonely, hungry for intellectual and emotional companionship.......Others like myself also have been drawn into the on-line world because they shared with me the occupational hazard of the self-employed, home-based symbolic analyst of the 1990s -- isolation. The kind of people that Robert Reich, call "symbolic analysts" are natural matches for on-line communities: programmers, writers, freelance artists and designers, independent radio and television producers, editors, researchers, librarians”. There are, however, barriers to joining such a community. Romm and Clarke (1995) describe a “virtual community in society” model which includes three sets of variables. The first set are those which affects individual’s decisions to join the virtual community. The second and third set are those which explain the effect of the virtual community on the immediate environment and those that explain how a virtual community transforms society. The first set of variables comprise technological, motivational, task and system.. The technological variables relate to computer hardware and software and the available telecommunication facilities. Telecommunications are clearly adequate in many countries as subscribers to the Internet have been growing at an exponential rate for the last few years. The fast changing areas are software development, interface software, browsers, etc., and control of that software. There is still considerable room for improvement in the software area. Motivational inhibitors relate to such factors as user conservatism, resistance to change, lack of confidence, etc. which it is argued can be overcome if the other inhibitors can be diminished. The task variable is seen to be of enormous importance and relates to the benefits from and relevance of involvement in the virtual community. If the task, that is, the major objective of the virtual community, is seen to be of overriding importance and relevance, then membership of the community becomes increasingly attractive. Finally, the system variable relates to the fit between the system and the environment. This includes the social environment so, for example, if a potential community member perceived that s/he was omitted from information and expertise as well as participation in certain community functions, the attraction of membership of the virtual community would increase. 3.4 Questions about virtual communities Much research remains to be done before virtual communities are understood. A search of the WWW reveals a surfeit of discussion. The following list of questions was reported by a group of researchers called the Virtual Communities Focus Group and who discussed their approach on the Web: a) b) c) d) e) Why do people seek community through a computer rather than through face-toface contact? Why is participation in on-line communities so addictive? What can be done about the emerging criminal element in virtual communities? How does one's gender affect communication on-line? How will commercialization of the Net affect communities in a virtual environment? This is a start. Other questions include the freedom of the the Internet. Singapore, for example, is implementing censorship in a methodical way. (Ang, 1995). How will the law of electronic communities develop? (Harter, 1995). These are very early days indeed. 4. Communities of Interest - the Health Community Network The Internet has been used for many years by academics, scientists and researchers to share information and ideas, collaborate on research and exchange messages. In other words a virtual community for the promotion of research. Since the internet was commercialised in the early 1990's millions of users have begun to explore the internet. Many have joined communities that have sprung up to serve their needs for communication, information and entertainment. An example of one such community is “ Well” . It is one of the oldest virtual communities on the internet and was launched in 1985 by a group of high-tech enthusiasts located in San Francisco. Over the years numerous such communities have sprung up on the internet catering to users needs. Thousands of users communicate with each other through these communities and overtime many have developed strong personal relationships off line. Virtual or Electronic communities meet four types of consumer needs : a. Communities of transaction primarily facilitate the buying and selling of products and services; and delivering information relating to those transactions; b. Communities of interest bring together participants who interact extensively with one another on specific topics; c. Communities of fantasy, where the user creates new environments, personalities or stories; and d. Communities of relationships where users come together around certain life experiences that are often very intense and can lead to the formation of deep personal connections. The four different communities are not mutually exclusive and one community may satisfy several needs. One global community which is beginning to realise the benefits of the internet and virtual communities is the health sector—a community of interest which is showing strong growth around the world. An important feature of the health community is the requirement for access to a variety of information sources—not only written material, but access to experts, specialists, consultants and others for the community members to gain advice from in the delivery of healthcare. Of course once a health community goes on line many other benefits follow such as on-line ordering of tests, electronic delivery of results, immediate access to x-rays, and electronic prescription services. Once a community is well established it can look towards true telemedecine facilities, where healthcare providers use the network for electronic exchange of information and advice—and, in addition, patients can gain directly by using the network for delivery of healthcare. This is particularly relevant where the specialist is geographically isolated from the patient seeking care. Confidentiality, privacy and hence security are major concerns when dealing with the health community. The result of this has been a major move towards an intranet for serving these virtual communities. An intranet is a private network that uses the same technologies as the Internet. Intranets provide all the features of the internet while offering security aspects not found on the internet. In addition most intranets have a link to the internet so the community members gain the benefits from a closed private network while having access to the global network. An intranet offers the possibility to healthcare providers of delivering efficient effective health care while cutting costs. Healthcare is information intensive, with clinical information being mission critical to the outcome of patient care. Healthcare providers must have access to educational and clinical references to ensure that up to date treatment protocols are utilised. Access to hardcopy of this information is not always readily available and texts become quickly outdated. On-line access to the latest drug information, the latest surgical techniques and health material will considerably improve healthcare delivery. The other important feature of the internet is not only access to written material but on-line access to experts, specialists, consultants and others. This adds a new dimension to healthcare, instance access to expert advise 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Of course once a health community goes on-line many benefits follow such as on-line ordering of tests, electronic delivery of results, immediate access to x-rays, and electronic prescription services. Once a community is well established it can look towards true telemedicine facilities. Not only do the healthcare providers use the network for electronic exchange of information and advice but patients can also benefit directly. The network can deliver healthcare direct to the patient for example when the expert medical practitioner is geographically isolated from the patient seeking care. The New Zealand Government could be considered one of the world's pioneers in the development of a virtual health communities . Before the word “intranet” had even been coined and while the Internet was still basically the sole preserve of academics, scientists and researchers with the New Zealand Health Information Services had developed its health information management strategy, which was released in 1991. A major component of this strategy was the “ Health Communications Network” (Johnston 1994). The New Zealand Cabinet approved the funding for a “ Health Communications Network” in December 1992, and implementation occurred from July 1993 to January 1994. The strategy behind the design of this network is “to make all information that, in many cases, already exists in today's systems, readily available, in order to provide co-ordinated and integrated care and treatment for individuals” (NZHIS 1996). New Zealand's 2000 Health Strategy, a revision of the 1991 plan, has a Health Information network shown below. The new vision is based on Internet standards, with standard TCP/IP protocols, standard Email communications and HTML forms for the transmission of information between users. Commercial initiatives such as supporting EDI over the Internet will make the system accessible and understandable to the consumers. To promote and encourage the full potential of the network, “ NZ's health intranet”, members of the community have access to a virtual medical library, practice guidelines and on-line help. Healthcare providers actively use the network for communications, from seeking expert advise to notification of upcoming conferences and meetings. Value-added broad-band networks will be developed to capitalise on advances in remote diagnostic technology and support the transfer of medical images between users. (NZHIS 1996) Australia to has tried to develop a Health Communication Network, but with considerable less success than New Zealand. While New Zealand's network is forging ahead with the Government passing privacy legislation specifically for health data (NZHIS, 1993), Australia's network is still running pilot projects. Australia's HCN began operations in 1994 with a number of pilot projects (HCN, 1995B). Australia's HCN has been developed on the premise that the Government will not be directly involved but just facilitate the development of such a network (http://www. hcn.net.au/hcn/intro.html). While Australia's HCN makes use of the telecommunication system it is not based solely on digital communications as NZ 's HCN. In fact some of the pilot projects in telemedicine have been based on the use of FAX (HCN, 1995A). The Australian HCN now has a home page (http://www.hcn.net.au/hcn/) that actively encourages health professionals and practitioners to take advantage of a fast, high quality electronic mail and internet access it provides. Health is a very private and sensitive topic, privacy and confidentiality are crucial in the success of a an on-line community. The NZ Government's commitment to privacy and confidentiality in its world first health privacy legislation (NZHIS, 1993) and its continued commitment to ensuring that the telecommunications infrastructure is in place to support the health community have provided the basis for trust in the system and a willingness to use the network by the healthcare providers. The lack of success of HCN in Australia compared to NZ may reflect in the lack of a recognised long term strategy by the Australian government such as the NZ's “ Health Information Strategy for the Year 2000" (NZHIS, 1996). However, with the commercialisation of the internet, there has been a virgining of smaller health virtual communities around the country. Some of these can be found in NSW and Victoria. In NSW the “ Mid North Coast Internet” (http://www.midcoast.com.au/) facilitates through its pages a Medical Services. This provides the healthcare community of the mid north coast of NSW with on-line access to information on Local Hospitals and Medical Services, a guide to Australian Medical Resource, Australian Universities Medical Schools and international resources such as the Harvard University's Hospital Web. In addition healthcare providers can gain access to the Australian drug Foundation, the Australian Paramedical Resource Directory and Pharmacy Web Australia. The benefits of one stop access to such resources are enormous to a profession which is fighting a competing battle between cost cutting and better health service delivery. In addition to this type of development organisation and practitioners themselves are working to establish on-line communities. A large Medical Association in Sydney with over 2000 members is currently developing its own broadband medical intranet. The main aim is to give its members easy and secure access to a range of internal and external information resources and services. This intranet will provide a platform for flexible, interactive multimedia communications between medical practitioners (eg. email, bulletin boards, video-conferencing, distant education and medical alerts). In the Illawarra a major pathology laboratory is developing in-house intranet for more efficient access to information and more timely delivery of information throughout its laboratories. At the same time it is implementing via the internet on-line delivery of reports to its clients. It is hoped to encourage clients to make full use of the internet for orders, queries, results and general pathology information. This laboratory hopes to lead the way in the Illawarra to the development of health electronic network availing itself of all the benefits to be gained from a virtual community. 5. Regional Community Networks - Success Factors When considering the success factors for regional community networks I had in mind mainly geographically based networked communities. I have amended the text to incorporate communities of interest based virtual communities, as well as geographically based ones. Vision It is important to have a vision for what the virtual community intends to achieve and to maintain that focus. Analysis of key strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats faced by the proposed virtual community would form a sound basis for development of such a vision statement. A clear vision up front provides a means to tightly focus on supporting and enabling positive changes towards achievement of the objectives for setting up the virtual community. Leadership A key ingredient for success is for someone or some organisation to champion the cause of developing the virtual community. It is important to seek out and involve those individuals in an organisations or an area most capable of making things happen and ushering in changes. The sort of people that should be targeted are those who are willing to question the status quo, to ask what is needed, and who can get things done. The buy-in from such people is the best insurance that the virtual community can address the broad range of challenges posed by a particular virtual community. Broad Community Engagement The virtual community needs to represent the interests of the geographical area or the community of interest it serves. In order to effectively engage and involve the broad community, there is a need to: C ensure the leadership represents all the people intended to serve i.e. composed of active, engaged agents of community change - people from diverse backgrounds, with a range of relevant opinions and experiences. C establish a marketing communications program to proactively and deliberately reach out and engage community members to enable the network to become an integral part of a region or community of interest and an important part of people's daily lives. Such an outreach and engagement should ensure a buy-in among people of the community and an ongoing relevance of their needs. Relevance The greatest value of virtual community networks comes from focusing on local issues, in the case of regional geographical virtual communities and key relevant topics of interest in the case of communities of interest. Virtual communities are doing a good job when they are connecting people and distributing information on a national and statewide scale, but it is also very important to represent local information and communications in response to locally determined needs. A thorough and comprehensive understanding of the needs of the virtual community is fundamental to the success of the community networking process. Relevance is critical. A good understanding of people and institutions to be served and the institutions and services to be involved is required. A needs survey that reaches out into the community, attempts to speak to a wide range of interest groups and stakeholders and makes a concerted effort to understand their needs is an important step in this process. Another consideration is one of filtering and context. It is the difference between information and knowledge. The vast amounts of local, national and international information and resources need to be organised, filtered and structured around meeting virtual community needs. Network access must synthesise information for the benefit of the community and structure it if is to solve community problems and satisfy community needs. That could mean taking reams of Austrade information and putting it in a useable context for local producers and manufacturers. Or organising education material to fit the skill requirements of the specific community of interest. Or filtering international R&D material on environmental protection and presenting it in terms that are understandable and useable by local conservation groups. Or taking information about Federal and State assistance packages and tailoring them to address the virtual community's situation, and highlighting local contacts and assistance. The key is that the information is placed in a context people can use towards fulfilment of their virtual community's needs. Being able to access the "right" or "relevant" information is an important consideration in developing successful virtual community networks. It is therefore essential that a virtual community network be more than just a posting service or pass-through service. Its relevance lies in being able to take the oceans of unfiltered information that are out there and placing it in a local context, making it relevant to the day-to-day lives of the people the virtual community serves. Access Ease of access to relevant information and knowledge involves providing comprehensive physical access to the virtual community network and improving its ease of us. Unless every individual, organisation, and community encompassed by the virtual community network has the means to access the interactive communications and the opportunity it offers, it will be difficult to deliver the benefits envisaged by the virtual community network. A strategy for providing access to a virtual community's information should therefore be a priority consideration. Wide community access to the virtual network can be essential in establishing a critical mass of users required to realise its value. This was similarly true of previous communication networks like the telephone, the fax, the mobile network. Their value increased as the number of points or people they could reach increased, and this value grew exponentially. Education and Training Information and communication technology preparedness is every bit as important as the nature of the infrastructure itself. Without it, even the most advanced infrastructure will lie fallow and unused; with it, even the most basic facilities can be used to improve competitiveness and quality of life. Community education, training and user support are critical ingredients for the success of a virtual network, as are ease of use and convenience of use of the service offered. For many would-be users a blank computer screen is a formidable barrier. Certainly computer interfaces have improved markedly over the last few years, but it is still a chore for most people and a barrier for many. While the Internet offers a significant tool for mobilisation of community groups for the exchange of information and resources, it does not overcome the need for thorough training, education, and user support. Open Technological Base A community needs to build up its technical capacity and functionality to ensure openness and interoperability. It is important to understand the issues of growth, scale and interoperability and how they relate to the virtual community network system. Basic areas to consider when building a strong technological base include: Infrastructure: It is critical to build a telecommunications capacity to be able to handle a high percentage of peak load activity. Early negotiations with the telecommunications service provider in order to determine telecommunication infrastructure requirements/options is therefore important. Systems Management: A virtual community network requires appropriate systems management. Functions such as back-up/recovery, security access and encryption, capacity and performance management, problem diagnosis and a host of other considerations need to be considered. Network Gateways and Interfaces: A virtual community network should support cross-communication with other communities, allowing interoperability, and filtering and structuring of information into a local context. Networking tends to often develop in a piecemeal fashion, with separate niche networks for different sectors. Significant economies of scale and other benefits can be achieved by being able to interconnect with other networks. Distributed Systems Interoperability: There is no one technical solution that is right for all virtual communities - or even for all groups comprising a specific virtual community. The virtual community may provide one central system, but provide enabling technology to interconnect other systems, thereby allowing local networks run by different segments to work with the regional network. It is this core system, as well as the internetworked connections and information integration capability, that is likely to typify a successful virtual community network. Support Infrastructure The quality of the support infrastructure can be a key ingredient in a virtual community's success. Telephone support, education and training, consulting services, periodic needs assessments, promotional seminars, fund raising are just some of the infrastructure support elements a virtual community may need to address. It is also important to bear in mind that the skills required to manage a growing virtual community network are very different from those required to create the network. Funding To serve the needs of a community, the virtual community network must first survive. To survive and expand, it is absolutely essential that an economic model for self-sufficiency be defined and implemented. As soon as possible, the virtual community should move aggressively towards self-sufficiency and end dependence on outside funding. As a general principle for success, a virtual community network should endeavour to establish a sustainable funding base from fee-based services and other sustained funding sources, such as revenue from local advertisers and sponsors. Collaboration Virtual community networks are developing in a highly dynamic and fluid situation - politically, economically, socially, and technologically and should therefore be looking at the local and external collaborators that will enable it to continue to serve a geographic area, an organisation or specific community of interest. Strategic partnerships with other organisations, such as education institutions, associations, local businesses, local, state and federal government, media, service providers and the like should therefore be encouraged wherever appropriate. Much of the relevance of a virtual community network will depend on the currency and relevance to specific objectives of the user. Because virtual community networking should be an enabling mechanism, rather than an end in itself, it should inspire action by facilitating communication, coordination and collaboration among those who wish to see the broad virtual community objectives realised. These may include particular groups who can find mutual benefit by supporting the virtual community networking initiatives. 6. Electronic Markets - Virtual Trading Communities Electronic markets have been with us since the 1940's, when the first telephone-based system, “Selevision”, was developed to market Florida-grown citrus fruit (Henderson, 1984). Since the early 1970's however, the concept of computer-based electronic markets has changed the concept in a number of ways: C computer-based electronic markets are more sophisticated and have far more features than the earlier, phone-based systems could ever hope to be; C computer-based systems are able to offer buyers the chance to “see” the product they are contemplating—without the need to move the goods to a physical marketplace; C “Sale by description”, which these days usually includes graphics and multi-media presentation of information, enables the separation of product from the process of trading: C EFT provides the facility to extend the “ marketspace” (Rockport and Sviokla, 1995) facilities to the financial side of trading. Electronic markets enable the exchange of goods and services ranging from airlines seat reservations (Copeland and McKenney, 1988) to cut flowers. The Rotterdam wholesale flower market (Kambil and van Heck, 1995) is in the process of transforming its existing “physical” electronic market—where flowers are present physically but trading is done electronically—into a “virtual” electronic market, where the physical goods need not be present (Fong et al., 1996). Some products, such as foreign currency (perhaps the most widely used and successful electronic market of them all), are immediately successful in this “ marketspace”, whereas other attempts to create such a market fail within a very short time. Reuters’ attempt to replicate their success in the foreign currency market by creating a similar electronic market for air cargo was spectacularly unsuccessful. Christiaanse et al. (1996) suggest that this was largely due to the fact that air cargo sells on differentiation of services provided, rather than on the simple sale of cubic metres in an aircraft’s hold. The form of electronic market in which the concept of a virtual community is best exemplified is the “virtual” electronic market, where communities of buyers and sellers interact in a totally electronic “ marketspace”, without the need for physical contact at any stage of the trading process. Fong et al., (1996) illustrate this concept graphically: Region A Pr o d u c e r Pr o d u c e r Bu y e r s Region A Pr o d u c e r Bu y e r s Pr o d u c e r Vi r t u a l Electronic Market Bu y e r s Pr o d u c e r Region B Pr o d u c e r Region B Buyers Pr o d u c e r Pr o d u c e r Pr o d u c t s a r e t r a n s p o r t e d d i r e c t l y fr o m p r o d u c e r s t o b u y e r s Communicat ion Flow Ph y s i c a l Pr o d u c t s f l o w Figure 2 - a “ Virtual” Electronic Market” As Figure 2 shows, such a marketspace is very similar to the concept of a virtual community (either of the regional community network or the community of interest varieties). If we look again at the example of the cut flower market, we can see that the growers of this fragile and short-lived commodity (the most numerous of whom are primarily based in India or Kenya) can sell their product to the purchasers (perhaps based in Japan) without the need for the flowers themselves to leave their country of origin until the sale is made. The goods can then be flown directly to the purchasers, without the need (as at present) to make a stopover in Rotterdam. A number of issues are crucial to the success of such an endeavour: Representation and specification of the product: the purchasers must be satisfied with the “virtual” representation of the product which is the only form available in a virtual market. This requirement is not quite as simple as it may seem—purchasers of agricultural commodities of all sorts are inclined to distrust any form of representation and to prefer the actual product itself. Gradually, however, this attitude is being overcome by the obvious benefits of avoiding transport. The Australian CALM system, for example (Johnson, 1994) allows cattle growers to test the market without the need to transport their animals to the auction (with the consequent loss of condition this entails). Mutual trust between buyer and seller: traditionally, buyers and sellers in agricultural markets have tended to trade on the basis of familiarity and trust. To exchange this comfortable arrangement for trade with partners known only electronically might well prove difficult. Virtual markets must therefore offer more than simply trading facilities—participants need to be able to get to know one another, using techniques such as electronic mail and/ or electronic conferencing (Fong et al., 1996). Appropriate functionality within the marketspace: many new electronic markets have failed by trying to offer too many, unnecessary facilties before they knew what was required (Fong, 1996). Each market has its own needs and requirements (just as each community network does) and the successful electronic markets are those which provide the necessary facilities, while avoiding flashy, expensive and unnecessary features. Trading communities, therefore, can be seen as a variant of the “communities of interest” group discussed earlier in this paper. Their requirements are, perhaps, more clearly defined than those of many other communities of interest—but they can be linked effectively by electronic means. The need for more human means of interaction (such as electronic mail, to enable buyers and sellers to “get to know” one another) is also reminiscent of the factors making electronic communities such as Blacksburg Electronic Village in the United States so successful. Koch (1996) calls electronic markets “ mutable markets” and points out that “[the term] ‘marketspace’ describes the transition from physically defined markets to markets based in and controlled by information. In this transition, information does not merely add efficiency to the transaction; it adds value” . 7. Conclusion Virtual communities come in many shapes and sizes—and exist to serve many purposes. Our own “virtual community” of authors has attempted to present a number of these purposes and to point to issues which we believe are important for the future development of virtual communities around the globe. As the World Wide Web becomes an intrinsic part of our society, the human urge to join together with like-minded people will express itself in the form of virtual groupings more and more frequently. Indeed, it is possible that virtual communities will become an entirely normal form of human communication within a very few years. While the motivation for developing a virtual community ranges from the frivolous (communities of murder mystery fans, for example, are springing up all over the world) to the severely practical (health community networks may soon be the only effective method of providing adequate medical facilities to people living in remote rural areas, for instance), the one factor which is common to all virtual communities is that they fulfill a need. Communities set up without consultation by governments have simply failed—while small, poorly-funded communities which serve a real need may well prosper. This does not mean that funding is a bad thing for virtual communities (CommerceNet, for example, which is extremely well funded by the U.S. government, is thriving), merely that unless there is a need for the community, funding alone will not provide the necessary impetus. 8. References Ang, P.H., (1995), Censorship and the Internet: a Singapore perspective, , Proc. INET Armstrong, A. & Hagel III, J., (1996) “The Real Value of On-Line Communities”, Harvard Business Review, May-June, p.134-140. BBC (1995), A documentary TV series describing the development of the Boeing 777 airplane, which was largely achieved using electronic representations of engineering data with extensive use of subcontractors around the world. Better care Through Communications: The Health Communication Network, HCN, January, 1995B. Christiaanse E., Been, J. and Van Diepen T. 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