Building Community at Hayes Valley Farm
As a way of learning to build community on the web, I worked with a local young professionals association to rally up 20 volunteers to do some volunteer work in real time, out on the field, at Hayes Valley Farm. There’s nothing like working in real time to observe how people get to know each other and interact. The only difference is the type of contribution, on the internet, we’re typically contributing content, whereas on the farm it’s much more about working the land to make things grow.
Hayes Valley Farm is an urban farm experiment right in the middle of San Francisco. The land is owned by the city of San Francisco and people of all kinds come out to do pretty much whatever they want, whether it’s planting seedlings, weeding out clover, harvesting vegetables or digging dirt. As Jay, the organizer of Hayes Valley said, it’s all about a free economy, whatever you put into the land is what you can get out of it. Also, it was important that you find something to do that you enjoy, basic law of specialization, find something you can do best.
Social Media Community vs. Real Time Community
To organize the event, we started out with a Facebook page, where some of the regular organizers of the organization were the very first to post on the page and indicate that they were attending, or show their enthusiasm for the event. Then, others followed so that the the event became a self-organizing entity and we recruited 30 people. In other words, it begins with Social Proof, starting with just a few evangelists.
I noticed this phenomenon too at Hayes Valley Farm. I met a permaculture buff who was one of the first to contribute to the layout of Hayes Valley Farm, and being a more senior guy there, he was very enthusiastic about the Hayes Valley Farm community, and directed us towards a few tasks that we could work on. Anyone on the farm could quickly become an expert at something and lead others through an activity. Even more amazing, there were young kids, as young as 4 years old leading certain initiatives like building a tool shed or making bridges out of wooden pallets so that areas of the farm were easily accessible. People were using their creativity because they were given the tools and free license to do as they wish.
This idea of community building is the same on the web. Once you can find a few invested people who can corral or direct others, community building is truly an organic entity that grows on its own, as long as you plant a few seeds to guide the way. This has to be a consistent effort, otherwise within an ailing community, people will fall away.
What do you think? Are there ways that communities are built similarly in “real time” compared to on the web?
