This was a 2am brain dump post.

-What makes communities work? There is an entire field devoted to this subject on a grand scheme (sociology). Clearly there’s a lot to answering this question. I think it’s really interesting subject though (heck it’s what i proposed for my SXSW panel) and it’s a question worth constantly revisiting for anyone trying to build one. Communities exist on so many scales and there are undoubtedly commonalities that can be found. I think that as with many scenarios we can learn a ton by examining analogues and extracting insights from parallel yet different situations. That could be a life’s work though.

-The middle part of your post is flag waving for GP and totally appropriate. It’s truly a great thing you guys have going. We’re big believers in it and I constantly refer people towards GP. We’d be there more often but the whole proximity thing is a showstopper for us right now given our location and that we need to have laser focus. I like the social aspect of GP but the last hacknight I attended, I found that I got very little work done. Maybe the social benefits outweigh the ability to focus but GP for me right now is like New York: an exhilarating place to visit but not somewhere that I could live.

-In the last part you raise questions on the superiority of centralized vs. headless communities. Again, I don’t believe there’s a blanket answer here that is right for all scenarios – the right answer is “it depends.” I can say the groups that I’ve been involved with and that had good longevity were ones that evolved as organically and decentralized as they could be without unraveling completely- like loosely-channeled chaos. I’m not professing that this is some design pattern for success in this realm but it’s been a common trait from my experience.

My one gripe/concern with SMC and other such groups is that there seems to be this rabid desire to disseminate the gospel of social media as if exclusion and failing to use it is some kind of heathen, lesser form of being. The reality is it may not improve the quality of life for people any more than christianity improved the QoL for the indians. Why do you feel like we need to be constantly finding new ways to pull people into Skullz or SMC or Gangplank etc? I said it back in the day: “these groups will be what they need to be.” I feel like people exasperate themselves trying to recruit new converts instead of just focusing on making the existing thing work. To quote the brilliant author of “Innovator’s Solution” – “Be patient for growth and impatient for profitability.”

Anyways, that’s a long-winded response to your post. I’d say keep the energy level where it’s at, just direct it inward at making a few successes rather than outbound recruitment efforts. If you build it they will come

sean