Sociability and usability in online social spaces “Three helping one another will do as much as six working singly”

Online communities have become a key source of information and support for many people. These communities enable users and contributors to coordinate their activities. People from across the world regularly meet, greet, get to know each other and keep in contact via online communities; patients are helped to cope better with their diseases; students discuss homework projects; hobbyists pursue their passions; and teens chat about their lives. Scholars use online communities to track academic topics; lawyers seek legal information; and professionals exchange business knowledge. Almost any kind of face-to-face communication can also happen online, although the form and timing is usually different and a greater range of additional functions can often be added to online conversations, such as tracking, archiving, and searching. A variety of software facilitates information exchange and communication including: wikis, blogs, discussion boards, instant messaging, and other Web-based technologies, cell phones, and immersive virtual environments. The variety of applications is growing and changing all the time.