A Theoretical Method of Measuring Virtual Community Health The business environment in which a virtual community operates will impact its overall health. If the environment is supportive of virtual com- munities, they will have a better chance to suc- ceed than if the environment is toxic. Since the investment is made, it is reasonable to measure the health of a virtual community's business en- vironment to ensure it is supportive. There are several business processes that can benefit from developing linkages with virtual communities. Benefits accrue to both the process and the community. Processes become more robust and the communities have a continual stream of relevant discussion topics. As opposed to attempting to directly measure the health of a virtual community, indirect mea- sures based on the performance of key elements of linked business processes may be established. Using a modified version of the Productivity Measurement by Objectives methodology (Fe- feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace." (Chapter 1). Wenger, McDermott, and Snyder (2002) define a Community of Prac- tice as "groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis." (p. 4). Distributed Communities of Practice (DCOP) (Daniel, Sarkar, and O'Brien, 2006) focus on communities of practice that are wholly supported by virtual means. A question to be addressed is whether DCOPs in the workplace are a subset of virtual communi- ties. Simply because web-based technologies are used by businesses does not mean that businesses have created virtual communities. Rheingold's definition weaves an emotional component with a technology component, forcing the question `does utilizing web-based technology in a business setting constitute a virtual community?'