The promises of the imaginary Internet: the virtual communities

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to try and find an answer to the question of why the Internet is such an attractive medium, via an examination of the promises it offers. One of the most popular promises is that of creating virtual communities, something which has grown from more than sixty years of development of various technical programs, experiences and community projects such as the first, limited communities of computer experts Arpanet and Usenet, the popular BBs and more recently, the various - more or less successful - community projects proliferating on the Internet. First, I will present a short historical survey of some of the discourses of the first designers and users, in order to try to present the context from which these promises have emerged. Second, I have attempted to relate these expectations to the emblematic text of Rheingold on VC which covers the most popular experiences of CVs the USA during the 80s. My aim is to identify, via examples (this is not a detailed study) some of the aspects of this promise which are present in varying degrees in the current virtual communities.