SUMMARY

"bianca", the first large scale World Wide Web virtual community, has grown and evolved from its humble start in February 1994 experiencing many of the aspects that compose the field of computer-mediated communication (CMC). Over time, bianca's design, development, and underlying software have continuously changed and reacted to user needs and user feedback.

Here, we first study aspects of the Web as a medium for conducting a virtual community. We then describe the bianca site itself, explore it's system architecture and software design, and examine it's user interface. We also study aspects of computer-mediated communication in general and how they relate specifically to bianca. Throughout, we observe how bianca has evolved with a user centered design by supporting and nurturing its growing virtual community.

[ Next: Introduction  |  Table of Contents ]