A quote from Stewart Butterfield, founder of Flickr:

"A lot of our success came from George, the lead designer, and Caterina. Both of them spent a lot of time in the early days greeting individual users as they came in, encouraging them and leaving comments on their photos. There was a lot of dialogue between the people who were developing Flickr and their users to get feedback on how they wanted Flickr to develop. That interaction made the initial community very strong and then that seed was there for new people who joined to make the community experience strong for them too."

My thanks to Ellen, one of the ABV consultants, for bringing this quote to my attention.

Several thoughts come up from this quote:

• Communities work best when they make participants feel welcome, encourage participation, and create a culture of valuing contributions. This happens by design and intention, not by accident.
• Flickr is a great example of a community helping to shape a business. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the most successful features of Flickr today came as a result of input from the community. (If any Flickr fans can give an example of this, I’d love to hear it.)
• Vibrant communities are generative. It builds on itself. It’s not static. Something new is always emerging.

What great communities do you belong to and what makes them hum?