Your dead on the mark.

There’s also a few other stars that get aligned before things really take off, and a few unexpected hurdles that larger companies have to cross before they can make it as big, but yes, fostering that seed community takes a lot of hard, dedicated, devotion that is very rare.

Matt McAlister – What makes a good leader of a participatory community I suspect that all of them share a handful of key qualities that make them unusual leaders including things like… * Total dedication, focus and passion for the…

I think leaders have to be really responsive to feedback from the community. When Facebook eliminated listing friends by schools, people were really upset… and that feature was back in a day or two. A couple months ago, at my school anyways, students concerned lately about who can see their profiles (employers, police), and Facebook added a whole suite of privacy functions. In general, they’re always trying to add more features, while keeping it really easy to use (and spend hours on).

Whether for altruistic reasons or not, they’ve shown that they listen to concerns and try to solve them, usually within a day or two. And that builds a lot of trust.