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Being of the mindset that the group you've willingly joined will continue to grow and prosper and that the contributions you make now will pay off someday many times over. These rewards may come in different forms for different people such wealth, knowledge, or pride but it will present itself if the community is worthy of the investments its members put into it.
A group of like-minded people that share common beliefs and attitudes. But more so, a "place" where we go to have meaningful conversations about topics and ideas we're passionate about. And a "venue" where divergent viewpoints are not only accepted--they're encouraged in order to open up honest, two-way dialogues that will help us grow together.
@arikhanson
It's a brave new world, for sure. It's fast and furious and I love it, too.
The two things I hold close as I navigate each day, building community around me.
1. Behave as though you're standing in a real room with real people. Because you are. Don't pop your head in, scream your head off about things and then pop out. Don't stand in the middle doing nothing but repeating what others say. (Cuz that's just weird and awkward.) Remove the monitor in your actions. If you want a real community, behave as though you're in one.
(And this is the part that gets me goosebumby. Playing the song again as I type.)
2. The technology has been blamed for isolating us. For making life TOO fast. TOO busy. And I agree. But guess what? It's now moving us so fast that we don't have time to live such separate, self-contained lives anymore. We NEED each other again. We're pioneers in a very real sense. The commune in community is coming hard and fast because we're all so busy, that we're leaning on each other again. We're each picking up the tool we use best and digging in to build our neighbors' homes. And I've dreamt of living in that kind of world for as long as I can remember.
Ahhhh, the paradox.
So if ya need an editor, Danny Brown, (wink) ya know where to find this neighbor.
All the best to ya.
A spontaneous support network dedicated to encouraging, facilitating and celebrating each members' success. The shared knowledge, connections and experience of the community result in a powerful force that moves everyone closer to their goals. Social media such as Twitter, Facebook and the meet-ups they enable are only the tools that allow community-minded individuals to reach out to a larger geographic network to offer services and wisdom. The desire to connect comes from the heart.
Twitter/Facebook and other social media platforms along with email have been big tools for me to be part of communities but even larger still are the groups I myself belong to such as being a student, or being part of various organizations. Groups that have stronger organizational structures that ensure the involvement of all members tend to be stronger in community building and members tend to have closer connections.
What I would like to see from communities big and small is much more openness and autonomy. A point where there isn't a need to play politics and members aren't fixed into set roles. Where parts of a larger whole can gather together to do good and improve the larger organization. I feel to often we get stuck in hierarchy and bureaucracy and that limits the ideas and motivation of the community to continue moving forward.
Tools are tools. In the "old" days (15 years ago), communities were built using tools such as the telephone, handwritten correspondence, or with face to face interactions. Communities of old were unshakable and capable of changing lives on a daily basis.
Now, we have tools that provide us access to a worldwide and instantaneous network of like-minded people. The power I, as an individual, now have to listen, learn, share, create and collaborate with people from anywhere, at any moment, is vast and awe-inspiring.
This IS the next big thing. We are living in an era of great change, great challenges and great expectations. It's by virtue of these strong community ties that we are able to meet our planet's most serious issues head on. Community is the great connector, the great equalizer, and quite possibly the thing that will mean our ultimate success in overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds.
Thank you, Danny, for leading the charge - for without great leaders, great communities will never flourish.
Are you writing a book because it's something you want to do or is it because your people are talking about something that you and your book can help?
I see oodles of quote-unquote online marketing mavens announcing their intent to write books--and I boggle. More to the point, when you consider social media is changing daily, what's to prevent your book to be moot in six months when it goes to print? The community is not about people writing books; the community is about this...this...THIS...this conversation, whether it's on a blog or within a social networking site. The community is in the local rotary club, the kiwanis, the elks. That's community. Books? I don't understand why you're doing it.
I would never do something that I didn't want to do myself for myself - hopefully others enjoy it as well. A bit like this blog, really.
And the book is about community in the conversation age - the tools are just the tools and will continue to change. But the community will always be there.
"Online marketing maven"? Think you must have me confused with someone else, fella ;-)
Community is a group based on working towards a common goal and helping each other in any way that they can.
Neither could exist without the other.
A group of people who are connected by a common ideal. At www.pifworld.com people come together to stride for a higher cause. I think that is what communitybuilding is about. On our own we cannot reach much, together we can make a difference. We can fight against poverty, AIDS, slavery and lots of other social problems. I'd like to hear your comments about this.
I agree, and if you check out my 12for12k charity project, along with a #12for12k search on Twitter you'll see a great community of people working towards a common goal.
Community as a whole where we look out for one another offering helping hands along the way is right on target with a dream I have that I would love to implement someday..
A community database in cities (each city has their own) where people post their needs where someone can volunteer to meet that need. It is the essence of community. Reaching out to others to embrace each person's need and responding in kind with volunteer service to help meet that need. A need could be that someone needs help moving and a volunteer could log-in to the community database to browse needs and find this "help with moving" need. Pair up people with needs to those who want to help. In a way, it takes the "micro-financing" approach via Kiva.org and applies it to everyday real life needs where those who sign in to the "community" can help one another.
Are you taking advanced orders for the book?
Thumbs up!