Open Source Communities: “The Art of Community”

The Art of Community” is a book written by Jono Bacon , founder of the Community Leadership summit and brave Ubuntu community manager, to let people know the difference between creating a technological platform and managing a living community-driven ethos.

The book, a must read for everyone interested in understanding communities, has been released also under a Creative Commons license, and is backed also by an online community.  The list of praises for the book is impressive, and includes (among others): Matt Asay, Ian Murdock, Mark Hinkle and Danese Cooper.

The book is very well structured, and provides the reader with all necessary information about how to create, develop and manage on line communities. Jono helps to avoid a common mistake, i.e. confusing the end -  a wealthy and vibrant community – with the medium (forum, mailing-lists, wiki, etc).

More important to say, this book is not only for open source communities, and it is definitely the best manual to build successful communities.