Cyberspace

John Coate's essay with Cyberspace and Building an Online Community explains the online community and what it consits of. Coate states, "The first two entries of "community" in the American Heritage Dictionary call it 1.) a group of people living in the same locality and under the same government; and 2.) a group of people having common interests. If you believe the "space" part of "cyberspace," and you consider that a Terms of Service for use of an online service could be called a kind of government, then #1 works in the online realm. Second, consider that "common interests" are the only real reason that people get online to communicate, then #2 works well too. Make a hybrid of these two and it gives a pretty good working definition of "online community" (Coate 1). So, what does this definition mean to an online community. Its definition is strong meaning that the space could be the "cyber space."

Today, we see so many different online communities like second life, many people are now on twitter, facebook, and the previous big hit was facebook. Many find it easier to communicate through the computer because it is not that there is a face to face conversation, rather you are online and you could be technically who you want to be. As the essay states, being online attracts open minded independent people. It is for people who love wordplay, language and writing.

The mind pool is also an important topic talked about in Coate's essay. He states, "The mind pool: When it works right, an online gathering is a kind of organized mind pool. Everyone picks each other's brains. The informal nature of online conversation encourages people's amazing generosity in sharing the things that they know. It's a potluck for the mind" (Coate 1).

Everyday there is a new person who visit the online community to get a taste of the virtual world. Many people become addicted which continues for an ongoing period, and they even start lives through the internet, which is known as the website second life.

In conclusion, it is a topic that seems very new to people, but the internet is not virtually as new as everyone thinks. It does have a history and many do not know about.