There are a growing number of communications tools which can be used as the foundations of a virtual community. In choosing one or more of these tools it is important to consider the properties that differentiate them.
An important distinction between these tools is the synchronization between the composition of a message and its receipt. The Internet was designed to support store-and-forward, or asynchronous methods of communication. In this type of communication, any one message is received at some interval after it has been composed, usually when it is explicitly requested. In most such systems, particularly EMail and News, this results in the receiver of a message perceiving that the sender is more intelligent or eloquent that would otherwise be the case. This perception arises out of the increased amount of time that can spent composing an effective message.
Real-time, or synchronous, communication on the other hand does not allow for extended delays in message composition. Applications such as IRC, video conferencing and Internet telephony require that participants respond in turn to their conversational partners' utterances. This leads to an experience similar to face-to-face conversation, rather than the store-and-forward exchange of letters.
Some real-time methods use text as the medium of communication, which allows one to trace the history of a conversation with some accuracy, while others use audio and video, where the specifics of conversation a ephemeral, and must be recalled by participants.
Another property of computer-mediated communication is the conversational style that each method supports. EMail and Talk support a person-to-person style of conversation, where both conversants are equal partners in the exchange.
On the opposite end of the scale are the Web, FTP, which are broadcast media. The composer of the message sends it out to many people, most of whom are unable to respond in the same medium, and those that can are generally unable to directly target the original sender.
As a median between these there are forum style methods of communication. Examples of such a style are newsgroups, electronic mail lists and a large number of real-time conversation ("chat") systems, including IRC, WOOs, Web Chats, Sesame, World's Chat, PowWow, and a large number of different types of multi-user environments (MUDs, MOOs, MUSHes, MUSEs, etc.) often known collectively as MU*s. Forums allow for conversation among groups of people, with each person being able to respond to each other participant.
Another obvious distinguishing feature of communications applications is the conversational media they support. Most systems support text, the original media of Internet communication, though some (internet phone) support only audio, while video conferencing supports audio and video. A growing proportion of Internet traffic includes static graphic images, as supported by the Web, and chat systems implemented on it (WOOs and Web Chats) generally also support limited graphics - generally pictures of the conversants. A limited number of applications support a representation of each participant in the conversation. These 'avatars' allow for the positioning of a participant within the setting of the conversation (Sesame) and can also represent the person's facing (World's Chat).
The different tools a number of ways in which conversational partners locate one-another. For some tools, like newsgroups, which propagate messages through replication, no effort is required on the part of the user; the messages are simply available, and they merely need to add their own contribution (the actual mechanics of which local machine holds the message bases complicates the issue slightly, but can be ignored by the end user). EMail on the other hand, requires that the writer of a message know the user name and machine name of their readers Email account, which is known as their Email address.
Many of the real-time tools (video conferencing, internet phone, etc.)require that the connection be made to the machine that the other conversant is using, through the machine's IP (Internet Protocol) address which uniquely identifies a machine on the Internet. Others require connection by all participants to a single server, also based on IP address. In such a case, all communication is routed through the server machine.
For some newer tools (Sesame, WebNews) the space of conversation is defined by a particular World Wide Web page, located either by browsing through the web or by specifying a specific URL (Uniform Resource Locator).
Although it is up to a particular user whether they use an application, some applications require that participants be members of a certain online system, rather than being part of the global membership of Internet users. On such constrained membership systems, one can only communicate with other members. BBS's in fact allow for the use of Email, newsgroups, and chat systems resembling both IRC and Talk among a constrained rather than the global membership supported by the individual tools.
For many of these tools no history of the conversation which has taken place up to the current point in time is available. Without a history of communication, a new participant in the conversation is unable to acquaint themselves with the conversational style of the other participants and the recent course of discussion. While for some tools this is not a problem, either because they are person-to-person, based on real-world conversational protocols, or they have no salient course of discussion, for others it can be problematic.
Membership | Media | History | ||||
| Store-and-forward | Person-to-Person | Global | Text | No | Address | |
| Newsgroups | Store-and-forward | Forum | Global | Text | Yes | Replication |
| FTP | Store-and-forward | Forum | Global | Text | Yes | Server |
| Web News | Store-and-forward | Forum | Global | Text | Yes | URL |
| EMail Lists | Store-and-forward | Forum | Constrained | Text | No | Address |
| Collaborative Hypertext | Store-and-forward | Forum | Constrained | Text, Graphics | Yes | Replication |
| World-Wide Web | Store-and-forward | Broadcast | Global | Text, Audio, Graphics, Video | - | URL |
| RealAudio | Store-and-forward | Broadcast | Global | Audio | - | Server |
| Shared Whiteboard | Real-time | Person-to-Person | Global | Text, Graphics | Yes | Machine |
| PowWow | Real-time | Forum | Global | Text, Audio | No | Machine |
| Sesame | Real-time | Forum | Global | Text, Audio, Graphics, Avatar | No | URL |
| Virtual Environments | Real-time | Forum | Global | Text, Audio, Graphics, Avatar | No | Server |
| Talk | Real time | Person-to-Person | Global | Text | No | Machine |
| Internet Phone | Real time | Person-to-Person | Global | Audio | No | Machine |
| IRC | Real time | Forum | Global | Text | No | Server |
| Web Chat | Real time | Forum | Global | Text, Graphics | Yes | URL |
| Video Conferencing | Real time | Forum | Global | Audio, Video | No | Machine |
| MU* | Real time | Forum | Constrained | Text | No | Server |
| WOO | Real time | Forum | Constrained | Text, Graphics | No | Server |
| Bulletin Boards | * | * | Constrained | Text | * | Server |
Email allows text messages to be composed and then sent to an individual or series of individuals. Each message passes through a number of machines until it comes to rest on the machine that hosts the recipient's mail, where it remains until it is explicitly retrieved by the recipient. This is the oldest form of communication on the Internet, originally making use of simple machine-to-machine copying and explicit delivery paths. These explicit paths, and the convoluted addressing they required have been superseded by a sophisticated domain name handling, vastly simplifying email addressing.
The Internet newsgroup system allows for text messages to be sent to a newsgroup, usually focused around a certain issue or topic of discussion. This allows for people to choose which type of messages they wish to read and reply to. Because news articles are stored in a single place on a local server, and updated through a file replication scheme where each machine copies new articles to all other connected machines, articles spanning a period of time are always available for perusal. This allows for 'casual' readership of newsgroups, where someone might occasionally check a number of newsgroups for articles whose subjects look interesting. This also allows new readers to trace back through the recent history of discussion in order to get a feel for the conversational style found among regular contributors to a certain group, giving them an opportunity to integrate themselves into the conversation inconspicuously.
Although rarely thought of as a communications tool, messages stored in files and in the names of directories allow users of these file repositories to communicate in rudimentary fashion with one another. Generally used by members of an underground file repository to make requests for certain files, or too tell others about other such repositories, the messages are usually written in a shorthand jargon in order to take as little space as possible.
Email lists, like Newsgroups are organized around a topic, but are not as widely available, nor do they support occasional readership. By leveraging of the email protocol, lists redistribute any single message among all subscribers, so each message becomes part of members' email. If one is not explicitly subscribed to a list, it is not possible to read any of the articles, though it is possible to blindly send a message to it. Thus readership is constrained to a known group of list subscribers.
A number of groupware systems also distribute articles, but instead of reaching an Internet-wide audience, the participants are members of an organization. Corporate memory systems such as Lotus Notes, and educational systems such as CSILE are examples of such systems. In addition to text, most such systems also support graphics, and some support considerable more diverse media types, including applets. A growing number of such systems use the Internet as a means of interconnection, and theoretically, given the appropriate access, could be used by anyone on the Internet.
Discussion groups can also be hosted within Web pages. This usually involves the use of CGI (Common Gateway Interface) scripts on the server that handle the various aspects of maintaining a threaded discussion group. To the user, it appears as though the various messages are contained within a Web page. Examples of Web News Systems include Agora and WebNews.
Use of the World-Wide Web represents the fastest growing proportion of Internet traffic, mostly because of simplicity and the vastness of content available. By combining information retrieval capabilities of a number of Internet protocols with the ability to display images and formatted text rather than the unformatted text normally found on the Internet, the Web has become allowed a large number of non-technical people to become Internet users.
The Web is used as a broadcast medium by people who construct Web pages representing their interests or themselves and make them available to browsing by other Web users. In addition to individuals, businesses and organizations use the Web to advertise their presence and provide information. These messages can make use of text, graphics, video, audio, and any of the other growing number of media of the WWW.
RealAudio provides a means to playback a stored sound file without having to bring all of it down from the server on which it resides. This allows for a broadcast similar to AM radio, except that specific content can be heard by an individual at any time, rather than the set times enforced by a scheduled radio broadcast.
RealAudio works in conjunction with the World-Wide Web as a helper application. Selecting Web link that points to a file of this type, initiates playback of the sound, and at that point it can pause, rewound or fast-forward in addition to linear playback.
Talk is a simple system where two people can see what one another are typing; basically a formalization of a number of screen mirroring techniques that allowed this type of communication to occur on early Internet systems. It is the only text-based real-time communication system that shows the typing of another as it happens; all the others send a sentence after it has been completed, allowing for editing within a single utterance.
Internet whiteboard applications allow two people to view a shared drawing space. In addition to simple graphics, writing on the board can be used for communication, though whiteboard applications are generally combined with other Internet communications systems, particularly video conferencing applications. There are a large number of protocols and specific applications used for shared whiteboards, some of which are commercial, and many more of which are limited use academic systems.
Internet Phone applications allow audio connections between two people. Audio compression techniques allow for conversations to take place with only slight delays at each end, even with low-speed Internet connections. Connecting to an individual requires their Internet address, though other users can be found through other means, such as IRC
There currently is no standard Internet phone application, and offerings include IPhone, DigiPhone, and even an encrypted phone application, PGPPhone, though the IPhone has been integrated into several different applications including Sesame.
Internet relay chat, or IRC, is a system in which groups of people can communicate with each other using real-time text. IRC servers have a world-wide usership, with individuals attending to one or more of thousands of 'channels' generally based on subject of interest. Each channel can have its own culture, including known veteran members, conversational styles, and automated participants known as 'bots'. This often makes it difficult for a new member to become an equal participant within a channel, a problem found with many of the tools where the history of communication is not open to examination by new users.
MU* is generic term for a series of systems which include MUDs, MUSHes, MOOs and MUSEs, among others. Each of these systems allows one to explore around an imaginary space and to communicate with other people that are encountered within the space. Most MU* are limited to text as their only medium, though this does allow for a much simpler construction of the spaces, as they need only be described. When a group of people are in the same space, they can talk to one another and perform simple actions, and the room often becomes very similar to a channel in IRC except that rather than gathering based on subject interest, conversations arise among those in geographical proximity. This encourages exploration of the space, which might either be constructed by a select few or may be constructed by all the members of a system.
MU*s generally support internal email and newsgroups, though they can only be used to communicate with the limited membership of each individual system.
A WOO (Web MOO) is a MU* augmented by Web pages for each of the spaces. Although movement among these spaces can occur with the graphical environment of the Web pages, communication with others, as well as other actions, must occur in a text-based Telnet session running alongside a Web browser.
The addition of Web graphics allows those who construct the spaces to give others a clearer picture of those spaces, and allows members to illustrate their environment, but graphics cannot generally be used in conversation, though graphics in the environment might be 'pointed out' in conversation.
Web based chat systems, including WebChat and Talker, are similar to single channel IRC systems, except that they occur within a web page and thus can support limited graphic communication, generally used to include pictures of the conversants. Originally, limitations in the Web protocol did not allow for automatic transmission of new utterances, so explicit requests for conversation updates were required. Some browsers now support timed or server-driven updating, and the use of new interactive technologies such as Java and MacroMedia Shockwave has resulted in a more dynamic (and natural) system.
Video conferencing applications such as CUSeeMe, allow for audio and video communication across the Internet. Generally such connections are person-to-person between anyone on the Internet with appropriate hardware, though forums can be set up by using a reflector, where everyone connected to a reflector can be seen by anyone else connected to the same reflector. Unfortunately if such a group gets too large, the video can become excessively slow to update, and voice communication can break up. The bandwidth and synchronization required by video is significant, and it can often be difficult to maintain an efficient person-to-person communication on the asynchronous packet-based Internet, let alone maintain multiple connections.
Sesame, developed by Web page as they are. Each person using Sesame is represented by a small graphic, generally a picture of a head, which has a position within a web page. By manipulating the position of the head (a sort of Avatar), a user can take advantage of 'virtual furniture' within a web-page, to put themselves into virtual vehicles in order to participate in tours, and to initiate conversation with others by placing themselves adjacent to others. When two avatars are beside one another, they can communicate either using text, or, if there are only two participants, using audio through an IPhone connection.
Web site tours can be initiated by anyone; a small vehicle appears and anyone who has moved their representation onto the vehicle when the tour operator moves too another web page moves to the new page with them. Tour members can engage in conversation with one another, but cannot explore pages not visited by the tour operator.
Sesame's barrier to adoption is the requirement that any Web site which wishes to support this type of interaction must be running an expensive 'Virtual Places' server alongside their web server (a component that is often free). In addition, the client software used by individuals must be purchased by them.
Pow-Wow from Tribal Voice is another tool for communication between Web users, however it is not able to display others within a Web page. A connection must be made explicitly between two or more Pow-Wow users, at which point they are able to communicate using text or audio, and are able to direct one-another to Web pages.
A new class of communication tools present the user with a virtual space in which to communicate. One such tool, World's Chat, presents users with a first-person three-dimensional world through which they can navigate. As they navigate through a virtual space divided into a series of rooms, they are able to see others exploring the space, and if they get sufficiently close to, and are in the same room as, the representation of another user or users, they can converse with those people. By providing a three-dimensional representation of the environment and the users, clues such as the facing of others can indicate what they might be focusing on, which could be a message left by someone else on a wall, for instance.
Bulletin boards are an interesting special case of application types. Most bulletin board systems, whether designed to run on the Internet, or to be accessed through local dial-up, support the features of IRC, email, newsgroups and Talk. However they limit use to members of the particular board, thus creating a constrained user base.
By providing a broad range of tools (though all text based) to a limited set of users, bulletin boards are often the best able to support a long-standing community, though it may be difficult for new members to become full fledged participants in such a community.