As we’ve talked about, when you have a commonly held goal/topic/cause and a platform where people can stay connected, you have the potential for building a really big and powerful community.
Social news site Reddit has quickly become “the front page of the web.” They have a large community that scours the Internet for the best and most interesting links. And it’s not even just a single community. It’s really a number of communities rolled into a single platform.
On Reddit, there’s this feature where someone can stop by and open themselves for questions by anyone. The community has become so big and powerful that last week President Barack Obama stopped by for a session of Ask Me Anything (AMA). It was the perfect opportunity for him to make himself accessible (or look accessible) during this election period.
Similar idea but at a different scale… over the last few years, we’ve seen the DC technology community grow at a pace that I never imagined. Recently, we’ve really seen the DC government take notice. The DC Mayor’s office has gone out of his way to support our efforts. I’ve also had a number of conversations with DC city council candidates that want to make supporting DC tech part of the platform they run on.
As a community grows, people external to that community start to take notice and want to meet/interact with your community. If you’re leading/managing a community, this is something to keep an eye on.
Oatmeal Stout - Justin Thorp's blog 