Community~Shared History?

Just wanted to comment on one little thing that 's been nagging me. On page 7 of Barab's book, Lave and Wenger talk about a community having "a significant history, a common cultural and historical heritage"...I don't think that is true for online communities. YES you need to have some common ground, something in common with eachother. But in my guild, we are mostly women. Most of us are under the age of 40 and either mothers or college students. We are all adults. We all love Neopets, the site where our guild is at. We share a few common values like respect, kindness and generosity. And that is what has gelled us together and made us a community. We are from different COUNTRIES and continents, but we still have much in common. A significant historical heritage is not necesarrily true for us, but we ARE a community.

Secondly, I thought class yesterday was very interesting! I thought our first, totally ONLINE class was a challenge. I think discussions were good, we had a GREAT moderator in Kelly...but the problem is that everything takes LONGER to get through...so it is definately more time-consuming doing it that way. But I still thought it was fruitful:) I feel like we are getting to know eachother a bit better and that is also helping us communicate in this way more efficiently.