I gave a talk recently to TAG Austin on the Open Source aspect of Bootstrap Austin. The audio and slides are available on the Boot Rap. Through the services option for full membership in Bootstrap Austin, we now have 80+ bootstrappers (of our 500+ members) providing some kind of negotiated product or service to the group. The bootstrapper benefits by gaining reputation in the community, experience and improvement of their product or offering. Bootstrap become a customer and Evangelist for the bootstrapper and gains in the richness of offerings for our community. If the Bootstrapper has learned something through serving Bootstrap, s/he can take that learning and monetize it outside the community. Indeed, the Boot Rap itself is an example of this; it is produced by a Bootstrap member company, HearThis. They record, edit and produce Boot Rap and make it available on iTunes and on their website.

If you are a community builder, I hope this gives you some ideas. If you have interest in using any of the technologies/services to build your community, please contact those companies directly.

# posted by Bijoy @ 8:26 PM