7.1 [REDACTED]: An insightful analysis

"How can a community exist without physical co-location?"

Who cares.

Humans have needs. Some needs require others. Some don't. We organize ourselves so as to best fulfill these needs.

If virtual communities look different than physical communities, it's only because we have a different toolset available.

All that matters is whether our communities, physical or virtual, are able to fulfill our needs. Form is irrelevant.

241 days ago I joined [REDACTED]. As a forum for both hackers and entrepreneurs, this community is entirely virtual. Hackers learn about business. Entrepreneurs connect with hackers. It's sort of like a dating site for "the gifted, the troubled, and the criminally insane."

The common ground is a mindset. This mindset is explicitly stated in a series of seventy-nine essays inked by the forum's shadowy founder. Although this works out to well over two books worth of reading material, the vast majority of participants have read every shred and scrap. The theory has something to do with capitalism, public schools, an obscure programming language, and renaissance painters. The bottom line though is this. Everyone involved has just started a business, is about to start a business, or has just sold their business.

But there's a catch. The guy at the top is not only an eccentric millionaire, but an investor as well. And twice a year he breaks out the checkbook. The forum serves as a networking tool for his firm, and twice a year he invites the best and brightest down to Cambridge for a ten-minute interview.

At the end of the interview a decision is made immediately. Either a check is written on the spot or else founder-hopefuls are sent home empty handed. The system seems to work. Of the first eight investments, four became instant dot-com millionaires after their companies were bought out by Yahoo, Google, and the like.

This is reciprocity. The readers contribute to the site by submitting articles and creating discussions. They get to know each other. Strong bonds form between them. The readers benefit. The investment firm at the top also benefits. But in exchange they fund a select few businesses from within the community each year. Competition is intense. Percentage-wise you're more likely to win a Rhodes. But that seems to be enough. If anything it only encourages founders further, who are chasing not only the monetary investment but the social signaling that accompanies.

On a day-to-day basis, interaction is entirely computer mediated. And for the vast majority of participants, this is the way it stays. Only a lucky few can ever hope to meet the site's founder and the other teams in person. That being said, even the very possibility of face-to-face interaction dictates much of the norms and culture of the site. Users don't want to say anything that will disqualify them from the possibility of funding, no matter how slim it may be. And since posts are a form of signaling, they tend toward being erudite and even insightful in nature. Much different than the general state of the Internet.

Even though this community exists almost entirely through CMC, few think of it that way. All they think about is their needs, be they monetary, social, or intellectual, and whether the others present help fulfill them. Thus, despite the quirky structural norms and social idioms that have no clear analogue in real life, the participants in [REDACTED] seem to be generally cheerful and engaged. And to me, that's just the way a community should be.