Las comunidades virtuales académicas y científicas españolas: el caso de RedIris

Virtual communities of users (VCU) have become an ideal platform for co-operative work and collaborative research. This article describes developments towards Spanish academic and scientific VCUs undertaken by RedIris [the Spanish National Research Network] through the information tools and services it provides. The results show a great dependence on distribution lists and, in general, a low use of VCUs and their services