Online Community

I have been focusing a lot of time on developing content driven websites. Among the most popular of these types of sites are the online communities. Tho I use very few myself, the process, the sociology, and of course the technology fascinate me. I came across this article and decided grab part of it...

Here's an excerpt of the article:

A community, a.k.a. community of interest, is usually thought of as a large group of people with some common reason for associating. These days that usually comes down to the user group but in practice a community can be any group that is passionate about a product or service and wants to improve it. Communities are as old as the hills and I have often cited the informal gatherings of enthusiasts for the steam engine that sprang up spontaneously in the English Midlands in the middle of the eighteenth Century. In a short time these enthusiasts helped turn an unwieldy contraption into the heart of the Industrial Revolution.

Not much has changed. Today and the idea of community is making a comeback for many good reasons. First among them, communities work, and also, with social media all the rage, communities have become very affordable and computing technology has amplified their impact, making them a great vehicle to drive innovation and growth. It’s no surprise, then, that lots of vendors are elbowing each other aside to claim the mantle of community and at this point, a confused public might well ask, “What makes a community anyhow — and how do I choose a partner?” Below is my unscientific summation of what to look for when trying to select a community.

Read the full article here