This article presents a theory of dynamic virtual communities. It places the communities into a matrix according to the commercial purpose and organizational structure. The model is then elaborated upon to show the dynamic nature of virtual communities. The descriptions of the model attempts to show the differences between different types of communities from a common point of view. The model at...

Project COGITO aims at an agent-based interface for B-to-C applications that is not merely re-active to some user request, but pro-active and capable of engaging in a goal-directed conversation with the user, e.g., by taking the initiative to recommend new products. The approach combines content-based filtering, where user profiles are generated based on content features extracted from document...

Virtual communities of patients provide health-related information and mutual support for members. This paper presents a structured analysis of virtual communities of patients and the demand for novel electronic services. Results include success factors of virtual communities of patients, the structural relations between success factors, demand for new and long-term members and newly and long-t...

Purpose – In this study, the authors use the term “e-quality” to refer to information quality, system quality and service quality. This study aims to focus on e-quality, exploring and comparing users’ perceptions of digital libraries and virtual communities in the hope that the results of this study can help lead to better understanding of the exact nature of e-quality as perceived by users. De...

Virtual communities have become significant applications for the Internet. Previous studies usually treated virtual communities as places for people to share and exchange information and did not explain the social value of communities well. This study treated a virtual community as a stage on which people can present themselves to other users while others can see the shows of people to satisfy ...