The Vine

One of the best books I’ve found on community does not have a single author.

It has dozens of them. And it’s free.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/files/CurrentTribesCasebook.pdf

The Tribes Casebook is a project of the online community www.triiibes.com, launched by author/blogger Seth Godin while researching his latest book.

Each case has a lead author commenting on topics ranging from rugby to Burning Man. (The very first entry, Tribes You Don’t Want to Belong to, will bring tears to your eyes.) What I love most, though, is that the casebook was contributed to or commented upon by more than 3,000 members of Triiibes. Observations on community written by a community.

In Seth’s own words:

“There’s a lot here. Big ideas, small ideas. Useful case studies, irrelevant asides. Links to fascinating information and black holes and time wasters. Of course, different people will have different judgments about what’s what, so we left it all here. You decide.”

We’re excited to launch the blog that’s not really a blog. It’s more of a conduit for Vine members (or prospective members…or simply interested followers) to stay connected virtually with the updates and outcomes that emerge from our in-person gatherings.

It has an editor, but it’s not just one person’s voice. It’s a community of voices sharing stories of the seeds that were planted at the conference and are now bearing fruit in the real world. Because our vision for The Vine is to be more than a think-tank, but rather an action-tank.

Yes, you will also find content and links and opinions here. (We’re not shy when it comes to speaking up about what we like, or don’t.) But more importantly you will find a channel for sharing and supporting and staying in touch with one another’s endeavors.

To that end, we openly invite your contributions. If you have a story about Vine-sparked ideas, inspirations, initiatives or partnerships that you’re now implementing, we want to hear them. Just email me and we’ll get the word out.

Welcome to our little community.

In his talk at The Vine, Charlie Leadbeater referred to the video he created to visually represent the ideas from his latest book, We-Think. (You may recall…the video that elicited a dismissive exhale from his 13-year-old son.) Well imho the son was unfairly critical. It’s pretty damn clever.

Here you go.