One of the things I am exploring at Bear Ideas is how to help clients build and grow niche , local communities online.  The media giants have been swallowing up the very large online communities like myspace, friendster, flickr, youtube, facebook, etc.   And some newer ones focused on a particular area like technorati for blogs and yelp for reviews or 43places for travel.  All have large community components driving their content.

The basic technology these are built on, is readily available in the open source community.  It takes customization to be distinct, but it is accessible to small business.  Myspace has 175 million members in the US...  which starts to feel less like a community, and more like  a large society.  So why do communities need to be mega?

Many smaller, local businesses have built significant offline communities locally around themselves.  These will translate nicely online, and have a built in audience.

My friends Michelle and Derek at Sustainable Connections.  They have built a community network business up in Bellingham, Washington that has both a vibrant offline and online community contributing and learning about sustainability on a local level.  It serves a very small radius around Bellingham directly, but through their site their ideas get disseminated throughout the world.

I am working on a new one, for a local photography company serving the northwest... helping to prove the concept.