Definitions of Community in the Digital Age

From Karen Christensen’s Berkshire Blog:

“But what is community, anyway? A famous article, from 1955, listed 57 definitions - like ketchup. Just what kind of community are we talking about here today?

I usually say that communities are human webs that provide essential feelings of sharing, belonging, and meaning. Tom Bender, a historian at NYU, wrote that community is ‘a network of social relations marked by mutuality and emotional bonds.’ But I emailed Tom this week and he pointed out something else worth keeping in mind, that the ability to collaborate, to create a sense of community, with people who are different from us, might be the most important thing for companies to develop. That’s quite a different thing from cultivating communities where there are already strong ties.”