User:Dlaperle

An interest network is a social structure in which relationships are built around common interests. Participating in an interest network enables people to discuss, learn and engage more deeply with one another over shared interests in a communal setting. Interests may range from the mainstream (cooking, travel, football, politics) to more niche interests (knitting, dubstep, home brewing, model trains).

Individuals assembling to share interests can be traced back to ancient states when people first started living together in larger groups. Some of the earliest references to interest networks are from ancient Greece where associations were formed around the interests of religious practices, burial, trade, privateering and communal meals.

In the Stuart period of 17th century England, interest networks started to be referred to as “clubs,” the word implying an association to promote comradeship and social discourse. The most common social interest networks of this time focused on topics such as literature and politics.

Historically, interest networks consisted of people meeting at a physical location, such as a clubhouse. With the introduction of the Internet, the need of physically meeting no longer was necessary and it is now common for individuals to form interest networks over the Internet. The Internet’s reach has also facilitated the development of very niche interest groups that would be less common given a smaller set of individuals.

The majority of Internet interests networks consist of forums, also referred to as message boards. A forum provides an online discussion of posted messages by community members. Discussions unfold through a hierarchical or tree-like process where a member initiates a conversation topic and other members respond. An initial post starts a new discussion and can be replied to by anyone within the community. The initial post and replies form what is termed a “thread.”

Other formats that interest groups take place online are chat rooms and microblogs. Chat rooms differ from blogs in that the conversations occur in real-time and posts are not archived once the chat session ends. Microblogging shares attributes of chat sessions and traditional blogs with posts that provide content that is smaller in size that is archived. With the rise in popularity of smartphones, high-end mobile devices that provide users with Internet access in addition to mobile phone service, microblogging has grown in popularity.