The stereotype: the geeky nerd hunches over his computer screen late at night, while cobwebs grow around his feet. Popular theory is that going online isolates you from the real world, siphoning you off from human contact. But what about the Illinois girl who moved to the Big Apple, and met people through her Elvis Costello mailing list? And the recipe swapping parties that organized spontaneously out of cooking rooms in AOL? Truth is, online communities are sprouting up everywhere as more and more people get into electronic communication expressly for the sake of interacting with others who have similar interests and opinions. Virtual communities may actually make making friends easier. First came the local Bulletin Boards [BBS], then the regional services like ECHO and the WELL, and then the pay-for-use proprietary services CompuServe, AOL, and Prodigy. Users dial in to a centralized computer system with such services, and see whatever the System Operator has put up. On newsgroups and message boards (accessible through the World Wide Web, USENET, and proprietary services depending on the type of group) users choose topics, read other users' contributions -- and then can add their two cents (called a "posting"). Jesse Erlbaum, creator of a New York based BBS called Belfrey, says he wanted to create a place where "complete strangers could make use of my computer while I was away, to create entire worlds with their own rules and history." His concept was "tabula rasa" -- a blank slate upon which the denizens of the place would create their world. An ascii-based system that uses a command-line interface (meaning no graphics or sound), he encouraged the virtual populace to post messages and talk about whatever they wanted, however they wanted. "There seems to be endless room for new personalities, points of view and expression," he says. "The BBS experience is a rich two-way communication with other people in the form of messages, chats, files, and games, all under the umbrella of a particular BBS's identity or 'personality'." More specialized groups exist in the form of listservs (which are much like mailing lists) and special interest groups that you can email your comments to, and which either deliver all the comments of others in the group to you, or hold them for you to view at a later time. You're bound to find many which are of interest to you. There are non-web email discussion groups lists (at the searchable database Liszt you can search through 65,000 groups), and newsgroups (15,000 can be found at another search site, Deja News), along with Web based discussion forums (Forum One, a guide to online discussions, lists some 37,000 of them). Real-time services on the Internet itself are the relative new-comers to the discussion world, with Web pages and online chat groups allowing large numbers of like-minded people to gather together in cyberspace in one single location and talk the day/night away. Services like the PALACE use avatars -- graphic representations of the online user -- to offer their users the chance to present a "face" to the online world (their identity remains a mystery since gender, age and other factors are often not represented accurately). But amidst all the graphics and animation, online communities are truly defined by the overall personality that they assume. STIM is an electronic magazine (e-zine) with attitude, one that attracts a particular audience who appreciates the original content and smart-ass point of view. Mikki Halprin, head Ed, tells us that the community created around STIM comes from their slightly skewed look at the world, letting users do things like send "Fax Bombs" or watch a "STIMCAM" video of folk at work. STIM users, like other online gab fans, participate not only in Stim-originated conversations, but also start "threads" topics themselves. "It's not always STIM-related," Mikki says. "A lot of times it's about real life issues and just about having a place to hang out." Communities often center around a single theme that the users can feel "belongs to them." Topics range from knitting to Napa valley wines, with a strong online core of users interested in sci-fi and computer-related topics. Vanguard Media is a multimedia production house that's very involved with anime (Japanese animation), and lots of "fan-boys" gather to discuss anime and related topics both at the Vanguard web site as well as their BBS (which can also be reached over the internet using the TCP/IP protocol). Brian Cirulnick, Chief Techie, tells us that "anime is one hot topic," and that they have a strong core of users who are passionate about it (just behind Star Trek in level of popularity, according to Brian). The drive to share common interests and attitudes creates communities, and now communities are creating homes. Users find not only other users, but a sense of place, in online locations like CYBERTOWN -- which not only lets users have their own "apartments," but also creates 3D Virtual Worlds where they can move about. Co-designer Tony Rockliff points out that several of the newer sections of CYBERTOWN -- including the Campus -- have been created by residents. "We have survey sections in the town where residents can let us know what they'd like to see or do in CyberTown," he says. Town hang-outs range from the Badlands and the Cyberhood to the Old Town and the Spaceport. "We want an active, thriving community that people are happy to be a part of and are able to contribute to and get contributions from," says Tony. This is echoed by users who love the idea of living in a town on the Internet, and who feel that the creation of a community makes getting on the Net a more social activity. Other sites also allow users to "homestead" -- GeoCities gives users free home pages, and lets them choose which of the twenty-nine theme communities most fits their style, from Politics (CapitolHill), to Poetry (Paris), to Science Fiction (Area 51), to Theater (Broadway). Soon, we'll see even more sophistication online, as 2D gives way to 3D and the Palace's flat rooms give way to interactive Roger-Rabbit-esque worlds. But does online interaction mean that the "real world" holds less appeal? Well, some users may certainly find virtual cities more attractive than the humdrum real ones that their bodies inhabit -- after all, there's no violent crime, no disease, and no trash in cyberspace. And those who are afraid of the world might certainly use cyberspace to find a new place where their fears don't exist. But in the final analysis, online communities will continue to grow because people want to connect, not because they want to escape. And the world is made smaller, and finding people is made easier, by this new technology. Marshal Rosenthal is a writer and photographer based out of New York City. His reports and features on technology and digital entertainment can be found in online/print publications both in the States and abroad. First, a correction relating to last week's column: Steve Jobs did NOT prefer the LISA to the Mac. He was, in fact, instrumental in building a small team of "pirates" who created the Mac, in near seclusion and secrecy, in a building across town from Apple's main Cupertino campus -- even as Apple's new head honcho John Sculley continued to put Apple's R&D/promo money on the seriously flawed Apple III and the interesting but astronomically expensive Lisa (both of which were doomed). For Jobs to now save the Mac by selling his NeXTStep Os allows him to get the last laugh on Apple TWICE!! For more detail, see: "Insanely Great: The Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer that Changed Everything." By Steven Levy. New York: Penguin, © 1994 OTHER INFO The Belfry Modem: 718.793.4796 Web: http://www.belfry.org Telnet: Belfry.org Vanguard Media: Modem: 212-242-7685 http://www.vm.com (client for BBS available here also)