On-line LEGO Community Presentation

[Michael Huffman]

At Brickworld this year, I decided to give a presentation on the On-Line LEGO Community.

When I came up with the idea, I just had a rough outline and some fragmented thoughts on the subject. I really didn't think I had much to say on the subject, but the more I thought about the LEGO community, certain ideas started to emerge. And I also thought that I wasn't best qualified person to do the presentation, but to be honest, I've been fascinated with the LEGO fan community for some time now -- the creativity, the personalities, the drama, and the fragmentation -- that such a diverse community should be spotlighted. Originally, I meant for the presentation to be more of a round table discussion... but circumstances didn't allow it to work out that way, so at the last minute, I threw together a slide presentation on my Mac.

When I came up with the idea to talk about the On-Line LEGO Community, I meant for it to be an introduction to the on-line community to newbies; to (1) introduce them to some web-sites they may have never heard of before; (2) give them some tools for keeping up with the on-line community; (3) expose them to the diverse nature we call the LEGO community.

But at the same time, for those of us who have been in the community for awhile, I wanted to (1) address some of the problems we're having as a fragmented community; (2) look at emerging technologies that might help overcome fragmentation; (3) think about the future and how to "play well" together; (4) steps in preserving our on-line past; and (5) ask ourselves how much involvement should TLG play in the development/preservation of the fan of LEGO community.

Needless to say, there's a lot of topics to cover & I didn't cover them nearly as deeply as I would have liked. And after technical problems & 45 minutes of standing in-front of people talking, I needed a drink & started loosing steam -- it was fun, but I could have been better prepared.

Today I added a section on "problems facing the LEGO fan community" that wasn't originally apart of presentation... Anyway, as I think more on the subject, I'll update the presentation (with a new date on the front page), hopefully with more details. I've already have a few more ideas that I want to add to it, but still trying to figure out where/when in the presentation they should go.

Cheers,

--Mike.