Cyber-communities: Idle talk or inspirational interaction

Based on the idea that community is a basis for the development of the scientific mind and that collaboration, discussion and self-correction are essential to the advancement of scientific truth, research was conducted in a large online community to establish to what degree intellectual challenge, inspiration and collaboration can be found on the Internet in such communities. An online community in The Netherlands was used for a case study, results were gathered through participant observation and a questionnaire directed at the users. The results showed that, although there appears to be agreement that the community is a learning environment, there is insufficient evidence that this particular community inspires collaboration and discussion to a degree where the advancement of scientific truth is sought. The discussion deals with some of the issues that may have influenced these results, and suggestions for further research. Key words: scientific mind, informal learning, computer mediated communication