A Virtual User Community: Cultural Backgrounds in the Design of an Internet-Based Service

The aim of the research work presented in this paper is to explore a virtual-user community's influence on the design of a new, multimedia-based Internet service. The virtual community considered here are the researchers and associated administrative staff who are working on, or managing, collaboration projects or common tasks in distant laboratories all over the world. The acceptance and the attitudes of the community were studied and applied in the design of a new service offered by the Virtual Conference Centre Portal (VCCP) - Global Plaza. In this study, the cultural backgrounds of the user community were considered and the findings are discussed. The studies were carried out with communities coming from three continents: Africa, South America and Europe. The paper gives a brief presentation of the VCCP's service facilities and an analysis of the results of the performed studies.