#smc_mcr Invisible communities: Can we see them?

Is there a newly emerging type of online community which can be identifiable but is somewhat invisible? This tantalising point came out of last night’s talk by Dave Mee (pictured)at Manchester Social Media Café event.
Dave’s premise, if I understood correctly, was that communities can form online to serve an offline need.
He gave us a few examples which I’d be interested in exploring further here. Sites such as RateMDs.com ,a US service for people to discuss the service that get from their doctors, and EveryBlock a site which encourages civic engagement in American neighbourhoods.
It’s an interesting idea, and one I’m still in two minds about. After all, can a community unknowingly form online in this way? Do the people involved need to be aware that they are part of the community and, most importantly, participate with each other, in order for it to exist?
I realise this blog post has ended up more like the kind-of brain dump users could be more used to getting at my personal blog but by posting it here, I’m hoping it will engender some further contribution from those who attended last night.
Questions, questions!
The full presentation is now below and I would love to engage in further discussion on this topic but in the meantime, I leave you with the most pertinent thought of the night for me – isn’t it time to lost the distinction between “offline” and “online” social contact? (Note I haven’t used the word “virtual” because surely that’s even more redundant).
Social is social is social and the advent of such fantastically disruptive participatory tools surely means that “both” are now simply part of one environment available for the full opportunity of human interaction?
Interested to hear what you think.
A round-up of other blog posts and presentations from the night will follow.