There's thousands, perhaps millions of posts about community development best practices, especially since this has become a career track for many. I'm not a trained professional community manager but have accumulated enough experience in the domain to feel that I can start a community.
A few months ago I founded the Internet of Things Barcelona and the Internet of Things Zurich meetup groups in order to contribute to and participate in a global network of folks also interested in IoT projects: Madrid, New York, London, Amsterdam (are there others I've missed?). Both IoT-BCN and IoT-ZH had their first meetings in the first week of December 2011.
I love Barcelona and it is definitely a hot bed of innovation but this group had not had time to ramp up before our meeting. We were only 5 dedicated and curious people who did not know one another and we just had a casual chat about what we think Internet of Things will become, although none of us had any hands on experience.
In Switzerland, the first IoTZH meeting was in Bern. It was co-located with the Mobile Monday Switzerland 28th meeting. The room was full to capacity and many of the attendees were people with whom I've crossed paths in the past 7 years in Switzerland. Although it really wasn't the case, this felt like a room of my closest friends and we shared out pleasure while listening to the well-prepared content delivered by the five invited speakers. The venue is also easy to access and warm. Based on the success of the IoTZH meeting I contacted several folks and we organized our second meeting in Zurich.
Based on these experience, and many others I've had in the past 20 years doing evangelism through community development, I suggest that there are a few key requirements for a community to feel alive and to grow:
- a variety of people who share an interest but from different levels or points of view. Although it's rare to have this, if everyone is at the same level, there's not a feeling of potential for personal or professional growth. The topic of interest can be broadly or narrowly defined. I really like communities in which there's a balance of academic people (students, faculty or researchers) and people with business backgrounds and interests.
- critical mass is another key ingredient that really distinguishes a community from just a "group". There's not a magic number for all communities, but for communities sharing a technology interest, regardless of whether they are meeting face-to-face or virtually, the number is close to 100. More is better!
- novelty is another component that certainly helps a community. What I mean is that the members feel that they are part of something that's not easily repeatable. New topics to be discussed, new problems to tackle, new speakers, even new meeting places which involve a bit of risk. Novelty helps members feel the adventure with each phase and, for many, that's enough reason to return.
- finally, at least one person or a small group must feel personally responsible for the care and nurture of the larger group. Without a lot of love and devotion, beverages and food for those that meet in person, a community doesn't function well. But there's also logistics: a meeting venue, invitations, a hashtag and a twitter handle. The founder or leader doesn't have to live in close proximity to others but needs to feel passionate and, in this situation, members usually respond.
It's getting easier, with tools on the Web, to form, to nurture and to participate in communities. That said, they don't have to be permanent. If a community lacks one or more of the components above, it's time for it to close, quietly or with a splash!