3rd Place - "Social condensers" -- the place where citizens of a community or neighborhood meet to develop friendships, discuss issues, and interact with others -- have always been an important way in which the community developed and retained cohesion and a sense of identity.
My 3rd place does not exist in the normal sense. I do not belong to any local religious or community organizations. I do not volunteer for the local soup kitchen or coach local youth leagues. None of the normal types of community events bring together people that have similar interests as me. The closest thing is the local user groups, but they almost seem like a local Geeks Anonymous meeting (people just wandering in and trying to make it thru their next geek craving). Code Camps are better, and a great way to indoctrinate new people into my 3rd place. But to meet up with old “friends” (friends that I really only know thru the web via IM, email and blogs), nothing beat the couple major Microsoft events each year.
For those of you that read my blog and want to meet the guy behind the blog, here are some pictures. If you want, you can add me to your IM. I don’t use my email address as my MSN id. It is don_xml and the rest is @hotmail.com.
