To my mind, the UR article on defining community is Hillery, George Jr. 1955. "Definitions of Community: Areas of Agreement." Rural Sociology 20:111-122. There have been follow-ups, including Barry Leighton and me, Wellman, Barry, and Barry Leighton. 1979. "Networks, Neighborhoods and Communities." Urban Affairs Quarterly 14:363-90. And a NetLab rant at computer scientists, who were really sloppy in usage: Wellman, Barry, and Milena Gulia. 1999. "Net Surfers Don't Ride Alone: Virtual Communities as Communities." Pp. 331-366 in Networks in the Global Village, edited by Barry Wellman. Boulder, CO: Westview. Everything old is new again! Barry _____________________________________________________________________ Barry Wellman Professor of Sociology NetLab Director wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 You're invited to visit & contribute to the new version of "Updating Cybertimes: It's Time to Bring Our Culture into Cyberspace" http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _____________________________________________________________________