I think "tribes" is a better term than community because is provides some granuality and acknowledges the different self-interests within a community.

Tribes are communities, or groups of people with an allegiance and a self-interest and a specific look, and a distinct culture. That is a more honest way of portraying yourself in context. Using the term "community" implies a unity that isn't real.

The term Tribes was very much in vogue five or so years ago, but it felt too hipster, too foisted, too orchestrated by the Hippie tech philosophers such as Stewart Brand and ilk. So when Tribe.net, the online community formed in 2003, the term already felt spent.

But now it is coming back, and for all the right reasons. It is coming back from the grassroots, from the groups, the cultures that run under the radar (rather than in the underground ;-)

And with the term, Tribe.net is coming back too. Lucaso, SVW's newest and youngest contributing editor has been showing me how his mid-20s-and-up groups of friends are using digital technologies to communicate, organize and meet. For example, instead of business cards, when they meet people they tell them their Tribe.net avatar name: Luke is Lucaso, Amy is Amyliscious, Dawn is MsZigzag...

And it is these artistic and creative groups that are best described as tribes, and they are thriving and creating new cultures; and the technology is an enabler, it is in the background rather than in the foreground. Technology disappears into the tool kit, and into the walls, and environment.

The creativity of human endevours is what becomes the focus, rather than the technology. Finally, the cart is before the horse :-)