Creating and maintaining virtual communities can be challenging due to issues like building trust, anonymity, and feeling detached from others. Communication problems can arise from differences in perception and a lack of nonverbal cues in digital communication. To address these challenges, it is important to build trust, provide feedback, mediate conflicts respectfully, and use multiple communication methods including face-to-face when possible. Changing one's reactions and focusing on similarities can help improve virtual interactions and relationships.

1. Creating and Maintaining Virtual Communities Tanya Joosten [email_address] http://www.uwm.edu/~tjoosten http://joostengroup.com

4. Why is virtual community important?

5. 62% Have Computers

8. What challenges have you experienced in the creation and maintenance of your virtual community?

12. Why do we have problems communicating?

16. How does technology impact our interactions?

17. Comparison

18. Joosten || 2008

19. Different Mediums Medium Asynchronous Discussion Forums Synchronous Collaboration Tools Virtual Worlds Technology Text-Only, Static Images, Tables Text, Audio (VOIP), Static Images, Video Text, Audio (VOIP), Static Images, Video, 3-D Cues Written Verbal, Emoticons Written Verbal, Emoticons, Oral Verbal, Nonverbal: Paralanguage, Kinesics Written Verbal, Emoticons, Oral Verbal, Nonverbal: Paralanguage, Kinesics, Proxemics, Haptics, Objectics, Environmentics Feedback Delayed Immediate/Real Time Immediate/Real Time Participants Limited to course size Limited by task, invitees, and bandwidth, Somewhat limited by bandwidth and task, open attendance Media Richness Lean Medium Rich

20. Mediated Communication

25. What can we do?

29. If we change the way we react to others, they will change the way they react to us.