Finally, it is not obvious that the information corpus built by virtual communities resembles the commons of rural communities to which they are very often compared.
The empirical rules identified by historians and sociologists who analyzed such real communities seem very different from those followed by virtual communities on the Internet.
the borders of virtual communities are not clearly defined, their participants cannot easily modify the interaction protocols. there is no graduated sanction system nor procedures for resolving conflicts, etc.
It seems that the collective information corpus which online communities gradually constitute raises fewer appropriation and free-riding problems than the classically studied commons (common grazing, fishing reserves, irrigation systems, etc.).