Abstract
Virtual communities represent the gathering of people, in an online “space” where they come, communicate, connect, and get to know each other better over time. Virtual communities can be created for different purposes moving from the simple socialization among people to the collaboration among remote people working on shared projects.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Multi-Agent System: A multi-agent system (MAS) is a loosely coupled network of software agents that interact to solve problems that are beyond the individual capacities or knowledge of each software agent.
Peer-to-peer Network: A peer-to-peer network is a type of computer network in which each node has equivalent capabilities and responsibilities; that is, a computer network where each node is able to simultaneously function as both “clients” and “servers” to the other nodes on the network.
Virtual Community: A virtual community is a group of people communicating or interacting with each other by using computer networks rather than in person.
Recommendation System: A Recommendation system is a program which attempts to predict items (documents, Web pages, persons, etc.) that a user may be interested in, given some information about the items and/or the user’s profile.
Software Agent: A software agent is a computer program that is situated in some environment and capable of autonomous action in order to meet its design objectives.
Information Management: Information management is the entire process dedicated to the handling of information acquired by one or many disparate sources in a way that optimizes access by all who have a share in that information or a right to that information.
Social Software System: A social software system enables people to rendezvous, connect or collaborate through computer-mediated communication and to form virtual communities.