Extension 437

Community Building on the Web

I'm re-reading this wonderful book on creating online communities. It's a little dated but still relevant. My major takeaways:

• Online communities are social organisms.
• The role of a community builder is to help people get to know each other better.
• Community builders can create the conditions for communities to emerge.
• Online communities aren't easy to create, but an understanding of design principles helps.

How is CivicSpace Labs different from Drupal?

Here's one way they're different. Different modules.

Asset Based Community Development

So I've been spending quite a bit of time on ConsultantCommons, a new online community knowledge space sponsored by CompuMentor. Apparently there's a name for what we're doing: "asset based community development," which has the adorable acronym of ABCD.

Penguin Day Bay Area

Yesterday I attended the first Penguin Day in the Bay Area.  Photos appear in my Flickr photostream, and I posted information about my xVNC SpeedGeek station to the Wiki.