communities

My interpretation of a virtual community is simply an online web of people interacting with eachother.
The first virtual community that comes to mind is this blogging...specifically the blogging with eachother in the class of DTC 475. Since I have a cell phone, in the hiarchy of things im part of the virtual community of everyone with a cell phone, but thats pretty vauge. Lets see, I don't have a facebook or myspace, another virtual community would be playing online with other players in Ghost Recon 2 as we can chat while we play. My interactions in these communities include discussing topics like this, and generate broader range of knowledge toward a given subject. Or there is the discussions on how to kill the oponet faster. You can have numerous experiences, if you are chatting then usually that experience for the day is pretty random as people just discuss their day or the problems they are having. Another virtual community I am apart of, is the National Gun Rights Association. The barrier to entry is you need to be pro gun rights and express that by giving your name and signing the official pro gun rights thingy...i cant remember what its called...to keep the morons (to say the least) from taking our gun rights away.
There are deffinite barriers to any virtual community, obviously you need access to a computer, with internet. You may have to be accepted into the virtual community like this one. If it is a game-based community, you need to have purchased (or pirated) that certain game, download, and meet all the requirements of that game in order to particapate online. For any virtual community you need to have basic knowledge of the computer...like what the keyboard does. what you can do with the mouse. and most importantly, how to generally navigate the internet.
A virtual community is a place online, typing on a keyboard and putting something out for others to read whether it be an extension of the physical community like class, or meeting ppl online and chatting in any forum with people you've never met, where you can take on the role as a man or woman or a freakin monkey in training.