Online communities

Online communities is to share resources and satisfy each others' needs. Online communities discussed in relation to synchronous and asynchronous software (Preece, 2000). So what are these mean? Synchronous software supports communication in real time whereby asynchronous software does not require participants to be present at the same time (Preece, 2000). Synchronous software simple put as web site or instant messaging meanwhile asynchronous software is like email or bulletin boards as known as discussion boards. 

Well, every community group have make some of free and cheap computer software. To show those general software which are:

• GIMP- Gimp is the most widely used free image manipulation and editing software.  

• Picasa - Google's graphics and photo software.

 

 

• Photo Filtre - A free image editor that is a reasonable alternative to the expensive Photoshop. Only available on Windows.

 

These are about the graphics and photos' softwares, it actually related to the online community. It's because these few software must use Internet to access it and some of it are free software, free images and free editing software.  

There's some example of the general software above. But, mostly every graphic designers know an online community, it called Behance. To be honest, I also have an ID at Behance, becaus Behance is a place to share your artworks, to let people discover your creative work. It's a platform where people communicate with each other using their own works. Some of designers may get to know each other from different countries too. Same goes to Pinterest, it's also another leading online platform to showcase and discover some inspirations. 

References

Preece, J. (2000) 'Software', Online communities: designing usability, supporting sociability, p. 133. (Accessed : 13 January 2016)