Developing a sense of virtual community measure.
Sense of virtual community is an important feature of virtual communities. This study develops a sense of virtual community (SOVC) measure, building off the strengths of a widely used measure of sense of community (SOC) for face-to-face communities. Although there is overlap between the senses of community for face-to-face and virtual communities, there are significant differences. The new SOVC measure is compared to the SOC measure on 265 members of seven online groups, explaining at least 7% more of the variance from exchanging support and member identification. This study represents an important step in developing a valid measure of SOCV.
Blanchard
Anita L
AL
Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, North Carolina 28223, USA. alblanch@email.uncc.edu
D003198:Computer Simulation; D003625:Data Collection; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D012929:Psychological Distance; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012938:Social Perception; D014584:User-Computer Interface