A REVIEW OF THE CLASSIFICATION OF VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES PROPOSED BY HENRI AND PUDELKO

Abstract

This work presents the choice for the classification of virtual communities defined by Henri and Pudelko (2003) among the classification criteria proposed by several authors. It describes Wenger’s social learning theory (1998), in which the classification of virtual communities is based. It presents examples of each type of community proposed by Henri and Pudelko (2003).It proposes a reviewing of the classification, replacing the corporative approach for  another one, with a social and humanistic characteristic, and adding to this a new typepf classification representing the virtual communities of knowledge (CVC, in Portuguese). It is concluded the remarkable   importance of Henri and Pudelko´s classification as a starting-point for the selection of CVC to be investigated in the master course research in progress at POSICI/UFBA.