Do you remember your group projects?

I was reflecting on the open source technology community, specifically JBoss.org, and was thinking what makes them a tight and active community. I believe one reason is that they are working together on a project. They are contributing their knowledge, time and skills to make something together for all to enjoy.

Think about the people that you have connected with in your office or the people you remember from your college classes. Most likely they are people who you worked with on a project.

If you want to make your community tighter and more involved think about projects they can work on together.

Here are a few examples of online collaborative projects:

Write an ebook - Upon the publication of Seth's last book, Tribes, he had his private, online community create an accompanying ebook. The final product was a viral 240 page free ebook and a great way for the community to come together on the Ning platform to work on a project.

Contribute to a document or wikki - President Obama called for recommendations on making the government more transparent, participatory and collaborative. The White House is asking Americans to work together to create a document using the collaborative platform, Mixed Ink. The final document titled, "Open Government Directive" will serve as the unified voice to the executive branch agencies. 

Encourage teams and partners - Beach Body is an online health and fitness community. They believe that collaboration and encouragement are the key to successful weight loss. When you start the program you are encouraged to join a group, have a 'Beach Buddy' and online coach. They provide social networking features such as a personal blog, message board and chat room to give accountability, support and motivation to reach their goals together.

**Keeping with the collaborative essence of this post, what are some examples you have seen of communities using collaborative projects?

Comments

[Elisa Phillips]

Seth's mantras are always simple and no brainers. The hard part comes in when you actually execute and stick with it (a la the dip). Here a few more examples which may get readers thinking to start something:

1. Netflix $1M prize - 4 engineers won the $1M prize for making the suggestive engine more than 10% effective.
2. Group Volunteering: a few people at my company organize a volunteer day where we go and renew school parks, tidy up people's homes so they have a better living space for their children, etc.
3. Marketing collaboration: Working with a marketing decision maker, their creative agency and their media agency on a project many times brings out the best ideas and execution.
4. Dancing: one of my passions is dance, more specifically Samba. No partner needed as you dance in a group. Knowing there are people counting on me to show up to class and practice motivates me to go!

[Rebecca]

Hi Gaurav,
Tripadvisor is a great website. I had a friend last night say that the community comments on this site were a huge help when planning her honeymoon.

The travel guides on Tripadvisor's travel network is one example of a project bringing the community together.

[Gaurav Varma]

www.tripadvisor.com

How about this ?