Difference between Group, Community and Club

Before starting some definitions and terms need to be made clear. Especially the question, why HESTIA is a club and not only a community should be answered in the next passage.

Definition Group

Encyclopedia Britannia defines (social) groups as “set of human beings having some interrelation with each other.” (Benton, 1974, p. 245). This excludes a common interest; it could also be the same background like family or living in the same village.

Not an activity makes you a group member, but the background. If someone joins a group (like on a social network) he/she can stay passive.

Definition Community

The Encyclopedia Britannia from 1974 (no online communities existed in that time), defines a community as “a group of people with common characteristics and interests living together within a larger society.” (Benton, 1974, p. 47) 

The current definition of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia defines “In biological terms, a community is a group of interacting organisms sharing a populated environment. In human communities, intent, belief, resources, preferences, needs, risks, and a number of other conditions may be present and common, affecting the identity of the participants and their degree of cohesiveness.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community, 2011)

Internet communities are only mentioned in the small sentence “To a growing part of people the meaning of the word "community" indicates a smaller or larger group of internet users signing up to become members of a community page/system on internet.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Community#Internet_communities, 2011), which leads to the conclusion that online communities are per definition not different from offline communities. 

Compared to a group the members of a community are active, the work for the community.

Definition Club

A Club is defined by the Cambridge Encyclopedia as “an establishment where people associate to pursue social, political, or sporting activities. In the US, country clubs and women’s clubs are well-established. In London, clubs for men developed in the 17^th-c from the taverns and coffee houses where men met to do business. These clubs (…) were used by members of the aristocratic and professional classes, and excluded women. Some have relaxed their rules, most continue to provide meals, library facilities, and overnight and accomondation.” (Crystal, 1990, p. 272)

This definition mentions three important facts which distinguish clubs from communities. First, the clubs are only opened to a certain group (in the definition men of the aristocratic and professional classes). HESTIA fulfills the same, by being only opened for project managers (or future project managers) working with virtual teams.

Second most of the clubs still have rules and structure. HESTIA will be a closed group, which gives advantages to its members. Also a structure will be developed in chapter 5.3 Structure.

Third clubs provide accomondation. Whereas communities (especially online communities) are spread all over the world clubs are very often locally based, with a club house, pub or hotel. In that case HESTIA seems to be more like a community, but with the online portal the club house of HESTIA moves into the internet. In the media solution will happen, what usually happens in the club house, decisions will be made, current topics discussed, but also private exchange.

A club allows members to be either passive (by joining to club and support it with money) or active by campaigning for the club.

Definition HESTIA

Following the definitions HESTIA is defined as a closed business society of project managers associated together for social intercourse and for the promotion of finding better ways to deal with virtual teams. 

Note: The detailed sources will be delivered with the thesis.