Online or virtual communities parallel typical physical communities,such as neighborhoods,clubs,and associations,except that they are not bound by political or geographic boundaries.These communities offer several ways for members to interact, collaborate,and trade.Virtual or online communities have been around for a long time and predate the World Wide Web.The Usenet (usenet.com) provided the initial platform for online communities by making it possible for users to exchange messages on various topics in public newsgroups, which are similar in many ways to online bulletin board systems. While the Usenet is technically not part of the Internet, much of the content can be accessed from Internet sites like Goggle Groups.