I live in a little court. That’s what they call a dead end built after 1990.

We have seven neighbors on the court. We moved into the court in 2003. All of our neighbors have lived here longer than us. That’s pretty amazing considering the house buying/selling frenzy that preceded the housing crash.

Anyway, as is common in newer home developments, I have a little patch of lawn on the right side of my house and a little patch of lawn on the left side of the house. Same with all my neighbors. Because the court goes in a circle, it doesn’t matter how big your back yard is: The front yards are pretty small.

So when I mow my front lawn, I go ahead and mow the patches of my neighbors left and right. It takes an extra five minutes, even with a reel mower. Over the years we’ve all developed this habit. It takes very little effort; we never talk about it; but everyone does it.

And every once in awhile it comes back to me how delightful it is to have good neighbors.

Yesterday I spent most of my time in the back yard. In fact, I only went out in the front yard after dark to help my daughter put some things in her car.

So today I went outside to go for my morning walk and found a wonderful present: My entire front yard was newly mown and all the leaves picked up! Apparently, yesterday, both of my neighbors took care of their yards. And tuned up mine as well.

I was struck with how nice it is to live in a community. Sometimes, especially at this time of year, we find ourselves going from one crowd to another. Crowds at the game. Crowds at the restaurant. Crowds at the store.

But a crowd isn’t much of a community. Communities develop from interactions between individuals. A little give and take. A little giving without taking. And sometimes a surprise when you’re on the receiving end of simple generosity.

So on this bright Fall day as Winter approaches, I am thankful for my neighbors and our little community.

:-)

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One of the really great things about the internet is its ability to build communities. You might call them “virtual” communities, but that implies that they’re not real.

Internet-based communities are very real.

I know from my own experience that people can come together in a series of online communities and have those communities spill over into “real, live” get-togethers. I’ve seen it on the arthritis new groups, the technology groups, and in my own seminars.

This happens in part because people are self-interested (they join a group to pursue an interest, gain knowledge, etc.), but also essentially social beings. After all, we all want to “hang out” with people who share our interests. Whether it’s at a BBQ or an online group, we gravitate toward people like us.

Now let me tell you about a spectacular example of building a real community online.

There is no better analogy for a community than building something with fiber. [Disclaimer: Here's what I know about knitting. It involves sticks and colored string and is best accomplished in groups.]

When we build communities, we tie strings from point to point to point and create a web. Interlinking online points create an obvious web. When we extend that to “real world” activities and events, the web expands even more. And the connections grow stronger.

Over at http://the-panopticon.blogspot.com, Franklin holds court. His blog is about . . . everything. His schtick is that he writes about knitting. And about his imaginary friends, the sheep and the ball of yarn. It’s all very entertaining.

So Franklin has quite a following. Google “imaginary sheep knitting” you will find The Panopticon.

Anyway, Franklin recently had a real-life adventure because of his work in building a community online.

Frank is writing a book. He’s a photographer and has a project to photograph 1,000 knitters. Of course he blogs about the project and has held several sessions to get knitters together so he can snap photos.

My wife knits, and she belongs to some knitting groups. So, two of the members of the local knitters’ guild invite Franklin to come to Sacramento (from Chicago) for the weekend. They advertise that he’s coming, and set up an opportunity for knitters to come by and get their picture taken for the book.

The event was a huge success. People actually bussed in from three hours away to participate. Why?

Because, on one hand, Franklin has been building a community. He gets lots of interactive feedback from his blog. Or perhaps the comments are just a lot of I-Love-It snippets. Either way, readers dig in and love it. And participate.

His report is at http://the-panopticon.blogspot.com/2007/11/there-and-back-again.html. (The role of the charming husband was played by yours truly. And my wife is a wonder to behold.)

On the other hand, Franklin participates in the broader online community. Instead of simply posting stuff and going away, he communicates with people and interacts with the community.

The combination of building a community and participating in a larger community results in a community that cannot be contained online. Eventually it must overflow into the physical world. And so Franklin has the 1,000 knitters project. And he gets invited to fly across country for three days of activities. And people travel hundreds of miles to meet him.

Outside of all the other things people have going in their lives, they carved out time for this. Why? Because it’s fun. And they get to meet up with lots of people who have similar interests.

And because the online world IS the real world.

Here’s the best thing about this event: The entire online knitting community is a little stronger because of all the connections made that weekend. The Guild is stronger because members from across California got to meet each other. Social gatherings and online posts pumped up the event. The reports were all positive. Other groups will want to do this.

Over on my technical blog I’ve been trying to help build communities for years. It can be a lot harder than it looks. So even if this isn’t my community, I appreciate the effort it takes to make it happen.

So here’s a tip of the hat to Franklin (and Beth and Cindi) for building the community web and making it a little stronger.

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