Do you interact with others in such ways that, collectively, you:

• Create and share information because you're able to anticipate people's information needs and how they prefer to receive information?
• Exploit the information sharing qualities of available technology thus transcending barriers to communication while reaping multiple benefits?
• Emphasize and/or invite collaboration with people who represent diverse sources of information?
• Connect people and foster social connectedness because you have a common interest in information?

If so, then it's very likely that you're a member of an information community—a concept that we use to describe a constituency united by a common interest in building and increasing access to a set of dynamic, linked, and varying information resources. Information communities may differ in their subject matter (e.g., healthcare, automotive repair, etc.) and are not bound by geography.

By identifying information communities we can promote best practices and design ways of better facilitating information flow through improved communication and data management. Our theory of information communities arose from our study of how people use online community networks for everyday situations.

Most recently, this theory was used to frame a study conducted by Tammara Turner, Karen Fisher and Jeff Kim (University of Washington) on the effects of social types on information behavior within online technical newsgroups.