Develop a Platform, Encourage a Conversation, Build a Community

Over the last few years we have seen a number of niche e-community develop.  They all seem to follow the trusted and true method of Develop a Platform, Encourage a Conversation, Build a Community. Everything from Dogster, to online car forums, to scuba specific chat groups on Orkut follow this sort of methodology.  I am very excited that the American Cancer Society is right there in creating the Relayforlife.org e-community for volunteers.  The community encourages the volunteer participants to share ideas and build upon each others successes.  IN this way the individuals as well a the organization all derive value from the exchanges. The organization gets the opportunity to listen to the needs of the volunteers as they share concepts amongst themselves.  It can then act accordingly and help drive what the volunteers want forward.  I am very excited to see how this project grows, as it closes in on 1,000+ users.