More on Community Building: Hosting a Party vs Building a Building (Tiny Screenfuls (JoshB)) by Josh Bancroft

Following up my last post on how building a community is like hosting a party, I saw a great post this morning from Doc Searls, wherein he riffs on how companies come to him all the time, and say “we’ve built this great site, why don’t more people visit it?”:

The other day I was sitting in the company of leaders in one industrial category. (I won’t say which because it’s beside the point I want to make.) A question arose: Why are there so few visitors to our websites? Millions use their services, yet few bother with visiting their sites, except every once in awhile.

The answer, I suggested, was that their sites were buildings. They were architected, designed and constructed. They were conceived and built on the real estate model: domains with addresses, places people could visit. They were necessary and sufficient for the old Static Web, but lacked sufficiency for the Live one.

This goes RIGHT along with what I’ve been saying about how community building is like hosting a party. So many people come to me and say “we’ve built this great community site. Now how do we get people to use it?” They’ve built a building. A house for the party to happen in. It’s a usually necessary first step (the party COULD happen “in the streets” on Twitter, FriendFeed, etc. without a “house” of its own), but it’s ONLY a first step.

Once you’ve got a party house, stop worrying about the house, and start worrying about getting people to come to the party and have a good time!

Posted in: blog , building , community , party

Nostalgic sadness in the evening (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

So, last night, I went to pick up my AOL furniture that I bid on (with aksident and stodgycat). Two blue/green chairs and a trestle "training table," which is actually a desk. Chairs are awesome, slightly dingy, but that's not unexpected. They WORK, and have all their parts, which is good. One has teeth marks in the armrest, which look like a little child was biting it. stodgycat thought it might have been one of his old chairs that one of his kids had bitten into. Cute. The desk is exactly what I wanted, minus the shelf that went above it (computer folks, think a solid, massive version of the the old IKEA "Jerker" desk). I am very happy with my purchase. The auction staff (a guy and some young woman) were VERY friendly and helpful.

But going through the old Reston building? Hurt. Hurt more than I prepared for. The delivery was via the old cafeteria, which made sense because of the kitchen equipment they auctioned off. You know how when you moved out of a home you'd lived in through many years, and as you move the final stuff, you look back at some old room where your life changed a dozen times, and it seem so weird to see it empty? Like there are still remnants of pictures, poster tacks, a stain from a party, or whatever? Yeah. That (x10). I was so used to the crowds there, and all the offices with the funny and weird things outside of them. People walking back and forth, the hum of the massive computer rooms that surrounded you behind blank walls. The beeping of turnstyles and badge readers.

Like ghosts.

stodgycat wore his old "AOL 7.0!" promotional shirt. Even aksident said, "*I* remember this place! We [her, cheesy_reads and her younger sister] used to wait for dad in the lobby and run around. It was SO much fun!" That would have been the early 2000s, when she was 6 or 7. To her, half a lifetime away. And I can relate.

I started working there in 1999 with my NOC job that stodgycat got me. International Operations. The toughest job I ever loved. I used to wander the building at like 5am with a mobile phone tied to the desk trying to stay awake, looking out at the smoky windows at the duck pond in the early morning darkness.

I am glad I left AOL, but that doesn't mean I don't have many happy memories there. Posted in: aol , building , furniture , reston , work

Rebel XTi/400D - First Shots (LtParis) by LTParis

After much debate on which camera to get (Rebel XT, XTi, 20D) I decided to go with the Rebel XTi after getting a huge discount through Dell. No complaints from me! I got the Rebel XTi with the Kit lens, a 50mm prime lens, and 2 2GB memory cards.

I took some new shots on this camera, hope you like them.

    

Posted in: bird , building , landscape , photography , photos , sunset , water