Prompt: Community. Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010? What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011?

In terms of online communities, strictly I didn't really get into any new ones last year. I've been a regular member of my main two writing communities - PanErotica and Panhistoria - for many years, although I'm less active overall than I used to be. I did start some solo creative writing efforts at Livejournal and Dreamwidth, but although I met several interesting and inspiring people through that, I wouldn't say I discovered 'community' at either of those places. Yes, communities do exist at those sites, but for myself, I simply shared an environment with thousands of other individuals without interaction, and probably without much common interest.

The only real life community I've really become a part of this year is one of my two workplaces. I've worked at home or with only other one person for a few years, but back in the Spring I took an extra part-time job that put me back working in a team. A small team, but a team none the less. People I had something in common with - even if it was only our work, but in some cases shared interests and outlooks too. This turned out to be an eye-opener! I'm a shy and reserved person in real life but quickly found I liked the contact and interaction with my work mates. I'll never be a sociable animal, but I hope to find a similar sense of connectedness in whatever job I find myself doing next year too.

I wrote a blog post last year about the loss of community spirit in modern Western society. Community, in the local sense, is becoming rarer than hens' teeth, especially in larger cities where one can live in lonely isolation amongst millions of individuals, with no friends or relatives in the neighbourhood. Internet communities are much maligned by some social commentators who blame them for contributing to desocialisation, but one could just as easily make a case that the lack of community spirit in our real lives contributes to us heading in droves to the big, bad cyberworld in search of social interaction, however shallow. Uh, okay, I'm starting to ramble round in circles now, it must be bedtime...