Identity-making & Digital Communities

Today I came across a scholar, Danah Boyd, who's doing some interesting work on identity-making in digital communities. I was especially interested in the way the metaphor of the body reoccurs in her work:

Identity Production in a Networked Culture: Why Youth Heart MySpace:
"The dynamics of identity production play out visibly on MySpace. Profiles are digital bodies, public displays of identity where people can explore impression management. Because the digital world requires people to write themselves into being, profiles provide an opportunity to craft the intended expression through language, imagery and media. Explicit reactions to their online presence offers valuable feedback. The goal is to look cool and receive peer validation. Of course, because imagery can be staged, it is often difficult to tell if photos are a representation of behaviors or a re-presentation of them."

Broken Metaphors: Blogging as Liminal Practice (PDF)
"In essense, these blogs are digital bodies, complete with fashion markers intended to convey cultural subcultural signals that only have meaning to those with shared values."
"Of course, just as with any virtual corporeality, the act of having to type oneself into being results in gaps that that trouble any clean reading of digital bodies."

Another interesting one: G/localization: When Global Information and Local Interaction Collide.
I find this idea of "familiar strangers" - that "two people who take the same bus every day for years may never interact, but if they were to run into each other in a different environment across town, they would say hello and talk about the bus" - and the way this translates online very compelling.

How do you create a viable digital community?