I've been inspired and impressed by a couple of my local Seattle friends who have, over the last year, become some of my favorite online community-focused bloggers.
I first met Ryan Turner working on a big project with a large aero-space company formerly based in the Seattle area . At the time, Ryan impressed me with his mad workplace ethnographic skillz. Since then, he's gone on to work at the web design consultancy Zaaz and refocused his efforts on helping Zaaz clients wrap their minds around online communities and Web 2.0. Lucky for us, he talks about these experience on his blog - Web Social Architecture - The Mad Science of Online Communities. (at least that's the title this week. Ryan knows what I mean.)
A post of Ryan's that caught my eye lately was: The Basics of Web 2.0 Personalization. These are the cliff's notes (and cool visuals) of a talk he did recently as Zaaz.
Sean O'Driscoll is another favorite that I've come to know recently through project work. Sean's one of the few people at Microsoft that actually has "community" in his title. He's the General Manager of Support Communities and MVP. Along with his real-world experience and love for BBQing, Sean's passion for community show's through on his new-ish blog: Community Group Therapy.
Like me, Sean is always looking for easier ways to describe the trends and technologies that are shaping Web 2.0. I particularly like the racing-inspired term "tag drafting" to describe using your friends as filters for information coming from sites like Del.icio.us.
I'm looking forward to hearing more from both Ryan and Sean - keep it up, please.