seminar on virtual community

1. Virtual Community and
Web Portal Strategies
NIMISHA.T
13MCA11030

2. Virtual Community
 Also called a Web community or an Online community.
 It is a gathering place for people and businesses that
does not have a physical existence.
 Exist on the Internet in various forms
– Usenet newsgroups
– Chat rooms
– Web sites
 Offer people a way to connect with each other and
discuss common issues and interests
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3. Virtual Communities (Continue…)
 Helps companies, customers, and suppliers
interact in a mutually beneficial way .
 Three key elements are required to make up a
virtual community:
 Cellular-satellite communication technology
 Intelligent software agents
 Electronic marketplaces
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Cellular-satellite communications
technology
 Can be packaged with
• Notebook computers
• Personal digital assistants (PDAs)
• Mobile phones
 Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)
Allows Web pages formatted in HTML to
be displayed on devices with small screens

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Web Page Displayed on a
PDA(Personal Digital Assistant)

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Electronic Marketplaces
 Marketplaces
– Can serve people who want to buy and sell a wide
range of products and services

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Intelligent Software Agents
 Programs that search the Web and find items
for sale that meet a buyer’s specifications
 Some software agents focus on a particular
category of product

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Virtual Communities (continued)
 Virtual learning community
One form of a virtual community
 Can help companies, their customers, and
their suppliers plan, collaborate, and transact
business
 Google Answers
Gives people a place to ask questions that are
answered by an expert for a fee

9. 9
Google Answers Page

10. Virtual Communities (continued)
 Most web communities are Business-to-Consumer
 Business-to-Business community also emerged
 E.g: Milacron’s Milpro site
They manufactures machine tools and sells
them to a wide variety of industrial customers.
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11. Milpro virtual community site
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Early Web Communities
 The WELL ( “whole earth ’lectronic link”)
• One of the first Web communities
• Founded in 1985
• Began as a series of dialogs among San
Francisco authors and readers.
• Members pay monthly fee to participate in its
forums and conference.
• Purchased by Salon.com

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14. Early Web Communities(continue…)
 GeoCities
• Free web space for members
• Sells advertising to generate revenue
• Owned by Yahoo!
 Tripod
• Founded in 1995
• Offered its participants free Web page
space, chat rooms, news and weather
updates, and health information pages.
• Purchased by Lycos (search engine site)
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Web Portal Strategies
 Combinations of virtual communities, search
engines, and Web directories.
 Provide a high degree of “stickiness” that is
extremely attractive to advertisers.
 Top 10 most-visited web sites included 7 web
portals.
 Examples include AOL, Excite, Infoseek, Lycos,
MSN, Netscape Netcenter, Snap, and Yahoo!

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Stickiness of Popular Web Sites

18. homebid.com
 Smaller business that create a portal site
 Conducting online auctions of residential real
estate
 But plan to become an all-purpose real estate
web portal by allowing
• Buy home
• Finance it
• Register for electricity
• Telephone
• Other necessary services
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19. homebid.com home page
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Mixed Revenue Portals
 Time Warner’s AOL unit
• One of the most successful Web portals
• Charges a fee to users and has always run
advertising on its site
 Yahoo!
• Now charges for the Internet phone service
originally offered at no cost.

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Internal Web Portals
 Run on intranets
 Can save significant amounts of money by
replacing the printing and distribution of paper
memos, newsletters, and other correspondence
 Can become a good way of creating a virtual
community among employees

22. THANK YOU