Title: Social and commercial sustainability of regional web-based communities

Authors: Andrew Connery, Helen Hasan

Addresses: Department of Information Systems, University of Wollongong, Wollongong 2522, Australia. ' Department of Information Systems, University of Wollongong, Wollongong 2522, Australia

Abstract: New information and communications technologies have disrupted many traditional forms of community but enabled the emergence of new ones. This paper examines pertinent characteristics of communities, before describing three case studies of commercially operated web-based communities. The research demonstrates the social and commercial value of the concept of community.

Keywords: web-based communities; regional location; sustainability; social capital; economic value;regional community portals; Australia; commercial value.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWBC.2005.006925

International Journal of Web Based Communities, 2005 Vol.1 No.3, pp.246 - 261

Published online: 25 Apr 2005 *

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