[The Net 'a la carte': virtual communities of users and integrated thematic telematic services].

INTRODUCTION: Internet and its society of information and communication should be considered to be a smaller society evolving--others would say is trapped--within our society. Therefore, it should be considered not only from a technical or technological point of view but also regarding its human, cultural, social and intellectual aspects. DEVELOPMENT: This article starts with a general view of the present situation on the Internet. We also define the concept of a Virtual Community of Users (VCU). In view of this concept, debate centers on the communities of scientific, professional and academic communities using the Internet, analyzing the present situation, its needs and problems. We continue with the concepts of Virtual Thematic Service (VTS) and Integrated Virtual Thematic Services (IVTS) introduced as a means to solve the needs and problems of VCU. Finally, we describe a real pilot study, based on the IVTS paradigm, known as UniNet.