B. Mann Consulting

David Crow in Toronto picks up the community platform meme and lists some other tools / platforms available in response to Chris Pirillo's announcement regarding the building of Gnomepal on Drupal.

I already commented on Chris' initiative here, but here are some comments I made on David Crow's post:

Now, which of those listed platforms have portable data? Which of them are a suitable platform for building the (invariably) custom pieces that each community may want as they grow?

The tough part with many systems -- especially closed, hosted ones -- is that they provide great initial starting points, but then often lack in customization or growth options. And god forbid that your platform provider "go away" -- then you're completely stuck, and need to start over.

This is why I have chosen to go with fully open systems, because they can grow with communities and can never be locked down or disappear.

@Varun:
Facebook is ultimately closed and not a participant in the "open web". And it's someone else's platform with someone else's rules. I would hope that we steer around such closed instances and strive to connect openly.

@Peter Childs:
"What I’d like to see is a platform that recognizes communities are networks of interests (people & organizations) and doesn’t try to become a destination"

I think this is spot on -- don't try and a become a destination IN AND OF ITSELF -- but rather add value through various aggregation and hub features. This also seems to argue for mini-networks that cross sites.

Open platforms are as important as open data or any other cross site initiatives. I don't care what you end up picking as your community platform, as long as your data and your users can seamlessly interwork with the other systems out there. The network is not the destination.

In just 9 days, DemoCampVancouver04 takes place at the usual location - WorkSpace.

We've now grown to the point where any of the local watering holes or eating establishments in Gastown have trouble housing the hordes when we leave at the end of the evening, so we've arranged a set of sponsors to pay for some drinks and appetizers at Flux Bistro, just down the road along Water Street.

I'd like to thank Communicate.com, TechVibes, and Peer1 for sponsoring this post-DemoCamp gathering. At only our 4th event, we're already reaching out for sponsorship. In contrast, check out David Crow's update on the 2 year anniversary of DemoCampToronto -- the space alone is $2000 per event! I can only hope we can continue growing our community over the next 18 months as they have in Toronto.

I'm really looking forward to more BattleDecks (well....along with a great set of people, ideas, and companies to present!). Please do spread the word to have people attend -- especially if they haven't attended an "unconference" style event before or are outside the tech industry: connect the tribes!

Add this event on Upcoming and on Facebook.

On Thursday night I was invited to the Microsoft Expression launch event. I was soubly glad to attend because David Crow, who is now with Microsoft Canada, came through town for the event (a post from David about the upcoming BarCamp Vancouver ... which looks to be at capacity already!).