Information scientists have described an information ground as an "environment temporarily created when people come together for a singular purpose but from whose behavior emerges a social atmosphere that fosters the spontaneous and serendipitous sharing of information." (Pettigrew, 1999).

Fisher, Landry & Naumer's "people-place-information trichotomy" provides a checklist of user information behaviors within a physical information ground (2006.)

This project will survey the users of an online information ground to determine how Fisher, Landry and Naumer's people-place-information trichotomy applies to the online experience, identifying similarities in behavior in the online information ground to the reported experience of a physical information ground reported.

Do the user experiences reported as most valued in a physical information ground retain value in an online information ground? How do the identified characteristics of a physical information ground differ when participants communicate exclusively in a virtual environment, rather than meeting face-to-face?