Virtual Eco-Communities

Abstract

Product-oriented environmental research has shown over the last few years that successful ecological development, introduction, use and recycling of products take place in highly cooperative networks: Virtual communities are a relatively recent phenomenon of networking based on communications enabled by the Internet. The roots go back to the cyberspace movement and had a non-commercial background. Virtual communities are associations of individuals or organisations sharing specific values or interests who communicate via electronic media (the Internet in particular). The paper will deliver an overview on how virtual communities can be used for ecological product improvements. This paper therefore raises the question of virtual communities in the context of a better ecological product strategy. The central subject of the lecture will be to what extent virtual communities are suitable for promoting ecological product development, marketing, use and utilisation processes. This issue will be examined by taking the requirements field of "Energy" as an example.