The ABC's of Online Community

Online community is having growing social and commercial impact on the Web, but what does “community” mean online? Can the level of community be measured? This article addresses these questions by articulating an evidential conceptual model of community synthesizing earlier definitions drawn from the literature and adding new conditions. It illustrates, by means of a small case study, how the level of community can be gauged based on evidence of core community conditions. The four conditions, purpose, commitment, context and infrastructure, we believe are necessary and sufficient for modeling and gauging intra-community “glue”, and that without this glue sustainable community cannot manifest.