I think any community region first need to have a community present and willing to put in time to build it and make it interesting. So far, what I have seen is one or two people propose a community region, then "hope they will come" kind of attitude. In this early stage of OLG, I don't see how any community based project can function. First it takes a firm commitment to start and complete any kind of project. What makes a person persevere is incentive. Having a free region is certainly a nice incentive, but in order to keep the free region, some progress must be apparent, otherwise it's just another empty region.

Second, it take more than just an outline of the project to get people interested in joining a community project. There need to be at minimum a roadmap, or a list of solid proposal that will keep members busy for some time. Someone need to be appointed to make things happen.

I could have proposed a Zen buddhism community, but past experience in SL showed me that even when the goal is based on compassion and giving, nothing gets done unless someone stands up and starts building. Of course, once something is started, conflicting views arises and when handled incorrectly, everything stops. That is the reason I'm doing my project alone, I have a definite goal in mind and I can't spare the time convincing others to follow the same goal ;-)

The best way I've seen to make this work is to have a region subdivided into specific projects under a common theme. Each project is given a parcel. Those involved in each project have to submit a timeline and detailed description of what they will build. A committee approves each project. I've seen it work, somewhat, in SL on Bodhi island. They are now in an attempt to revive the project after it was left idle for months.

anyway, that was my feedback on this subject. Hope this help.

I agree with both the above posts. People act with probably the best of intentions initially, however these projects need to be coordinated and have sufficient dedicated people to ensure that progress is made. To try to dedicate areas to community roles, especially for individual countries or languages at this stage is somewhat premature.

One thing that this particular group of regions created was a degree of bad feeling and heated debate; something which I grew tired of in SL and hoped not to find here. As Foundation Members we should all be prepared to step back and count to 10 before kicking and screaming. If the Founders argue and create bad feeling, then there isnt a lot of hope for community based projects succeeding.

Right now we should be building individual regions and recruiting new members. If you look at the current community regions......virtually no work has been done other than a few odd items placed....best intentions I am sure ..... but hardly a reason to leave them empty and unsold. OLG needs income as well as vision.