We’re very proud of the community here at Icrontic, and as cool as it is right now, Lincoln and I have to think all the time about where we’re going, and what’s next for us.
Before I dive right in, we need to lay some groundwork. Let’s look at what the Icrontic community actually is, and where we’ve had our most success:
Strictly from a subjective standpoint, the best times are always the times when people get together; sure, we have a vibrant online discussion forum, a brilliant and hilarious IRC presence, as well as a fantastic gaming community—but all of those things are just online analogues for face-to-face connections. Everybody who’s been to an IC event knows what I mean here; when we meet for real, the dynamic reaches a whole new level and the community takes a huge leap forward from being “just another website” to an actual group of real friends, from all over the world.
Our biggest successes in the past couple of years can all be measured by their introduction of new blood into the community. I believe we’re in our third phase of growth, and we’re looking forward to what’s next. First, some history.
Our first big initiative was Folding@Home, which was a fantastic community building exercise. Take a bunch of like-minded geeks with powerful computers, give them all a single common cause, throw a bit of competition and discussion into the mix, and you have a way to bring people in from out of the woodwork. The excitement has waned over the years as power bills have gone up, but the people that Folding@Home brought in to the community have stayed and become fast friends as well as sturdy, long-term members of the core community.
Our second big influx of new blood was the game Team Fortress 2. Due to the ‘perfect storm’ of a superbly fun game, a brilliantly conceived matchmaking and distribution service (Valve’s Steam), and fact that we had our own server and community behind the game, we have added tons of new, lifelong friends into the mix. No single game has ever had more impact on this community, and people are still playing it today (almost 2 years later!), still becoming friends and coming to Icrontic events for the first time.
The next big wave (Which I believe we’re still in) is Icrontic’s extension into the new social media space created by Twitter. Not many tech sites have a presence at all in Web 3.0, much less a very strong one like we do. Strong, skillful, and consistent efforts from our editorial staff have paid off a great deal. We have a giant new audience, more legitimacy than ever, and more importantly, direct dialog with industry leaders. Not only have we gained new members, but several new writers as well.
So where do we go from here?
I’m going to let you all in on a little secret that has been mulling around in our heads for quite a while now. We have been seriously talking about making an Icrontic brick-and-mortar location for the last couple of years. Looking at the pattern of growth, one realizes that making friends and meeting people are the core of our existence. Yes, we serve our purpose on the web as a site that covers the things that geeks love, but to those who become members, this becomes a lifestyle of friendship and community involvement.
I realize that the term “brick-and-mortar” location is very nebulous. What we actually intend is to create a space that will serve as not only an office for this website, but a meeting space and retail location that will serve refreshments, provide workspace and internet, host events, and serve as a hub for our lifestyle. We love technology and the geek lifestyle, and we want to promote it and provde a place for people to explore it.
Envision a combination internet cafe, coffeeshop, performance space, co-working location, meeting room, LAN gaming center, tea house, clothing store, training facility, and you start to get an idea of where our heads are.
For those who are intimately familiar with our community, it’s probably easier to think “a real world Icrontic.com” and you’ll get the idea.
We have envisioned a space where we could hold regular events such as nightly gaming, training workshops (such as learn to overclock, build your own PC, remove spyware, etc.), coffee/tea tastings, you name it; all the things we love can be represented here. Oh, and it would be nice to have a place we can reliably hold the Expo Icrontic every year! 😉
The social networking craze and ever more-connected technologies all point to one road – hanging out with people face-to-face is where it’s at. I’ve been hitting up a lot of the local social networking events, such as StartupWeekend Detroit, Tweetea, and all the various random meetups. The theme is always the same: There is so much energy here, so much potential, so much so much so much. We think that Icrontic represents the very best of technology enthusiasts, and we want to bring our culture to the real world, because we think it’s worth it.
This is not a concrete “we are doing this” — it’s more of a statement of intent, to show you where our heads are for the next couple of years, and to let you know how we see things from where we stand. Icrontic has always been a community made up of many facets; there are many ways to approach this group and get involved. We want to add another one, and we believe creating a physical meeting space will help us grow.
A site can dream, can’t they? 🙂
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