Community Paper - Assignment B - Essay Example

Individuals can also belong to psychological communities, which involve personal interaction governed by sentiments of trust, collaboration, and altruism. This definition by Aristotle expanded to acknowledge that the world has contracted into a global village. One characteristic of such a community is bringing together of isolated individuals giving rise to communities which are unrestricted by geographical location. With the emergence of information technology there has been a creation of networks and cyber communities that link organizations and individuals across the globe through the internet irrespective of national boundaries (Stuckey, 2008).

A community is a network of self-organized individuals with a common cause, agenda, or interest and these individuals collaborate by sharing information, ideas, and other resources with an aim of progression. In this regard, virtual communities consist of individuals in an online discussion on matters of common concern, or of those who frequent a certain website for such purposes as socialization. This, therefore, implies that a community is a cluster of individuals with a common interest that arise from their association.

An instance of a community is a college community, which involves individuals attending college. A neighborhood community comprises of people who live in a neighborhood and an online community made up of members of a certain website such as Facebook. Characteristics of a community The common defining characteristics of a community have common components, which are the people in the community, social interaction, common ties, and a place. Stuckey (2008), notes that the most essential characteristic of a community is the people People The people in a community involve a group of individuals who possess common initiatives.

These individuals identify themselves with a thing or event that is larger than the summation of their individual relationships. A community must have people, and without this fundamental characteristic, a collection of any other thing cannot qualify as a community. These people can also be a group entity who have a common identity or are located within some defined boundaries. A community can, however, be restricted by limited membership to the community, but the individuals in the community must have some relationship with each other often because of a common ground.

Rituals, social agreements, and social policies must govern the people in a community. These policy agreements and rituals ensure that each member of the community is valued. The people in a community are often organized according to the roles they play in the community. Sociability of the people in a community generates content for the community (McMillan & Georg, 2006, p.130). In the college community, this characteristic of people characterizes the students and the college staff. These individuals are guided by the college rules and follow the social agreements put in place by the college.

Emergence of roles also emerges in such a community where the roles of the staff and that of the students are clearly differentiated. Online communities also have the characteristic of people and are exemplified by the participants in the discussion or members of a website. It is only real people who can form a virtual community and it are necessary to note that computer robots, despite their abilities to engage in activities similar to that of