"Community" in Cyber Space?

Is it possible for us to really 'belong' to a community that exists only in cyber space? This depend, in part, I think on how we define the word 'community' and what it means to belong.

Prior to the existence of cyber space as such, communities were physical co-locations of individuals who were gathered for some reason. The reasons for forming communities included residential, economic, child-rearing, safety, etc. Such communities implied a shared set of values and mutual obligations - though how strong these bonds were depended on the individual and on community pressure. In a sense these communities reflected an extended family that was sometimes a real extended family and sometimes an occassional or created family. The obligations and bonds between individuals were reinforced by the physical context and the forced intimacy of the communities. Physical presence and activities made it difficult to take on any alternate or new identities.

Cyber communities, on the other hand, are gathered from a common interest or from an artificial social network. While these gatherings share much in common with physical communities, these virtual communities do not share the same communal pressure or intimacy enforced or created by the physical context. An individual can be or become whatever he or she desires - merely with a few keystrokes and the joining of a new community. Identity is fluid and the possibilities of deception and the transgression of obligations and bonds an easy thing.

So the question must be asked, 'Is real community possible in cyber space?" If community is possible in this new space, do we need to define a new social ethic, new obligations and new bonds to one another?