Today, millions of users around the world log into Web platforms to participate
in online communities. Some of these communities group people that interact
frequently in a face-to-face manner, such as the community of a course or a
neighborhood. These communities are partially virtual because their members
interact through both, a physical and a virtual space. These partially virtual
communities have particular features and needs, and to the best of our
knowledge, there are no guidelines concerning their modeling and evolution.
This paper addresses the challenge of supporting the design of partially
virtual communities. In particular, the article proposes a conceptual model to
help design these communities, based on a literature review, a previous field
study and the authors experience. This model is expected to help designers and
community managers establish the basis for developing and maintaining
sustainable communities in order to ensure a certain level of activity through
time.