The Art of Creating a Community

An article by Guy Kawasaki on generating community - Let the Good Times Roll–by Guy Kawasaki: The Art of Creating a Community. Aimed primarily at generating communities to support business it has some points that would translate into building communities - particularly online ones - for other purposes. The article is being updated and revised every so often too. Here’s a list of points raised that are expanded in the article.

• Create something that’s worth building a community around.
• Identify and recruit your thunderlizards—immediately!
• Assign one person the task of building a community.
• Give people something to chew on.
• Create an open system.
• Welcome criticism.
• Foster discourse.
• Publicize the existence of the community.

(BTW - a “thunderlizard” is like an “evangelist”)