In his book The Great Good Place, Ray Oldenburg talks about the “Third Place” which forms a point of contact and relationship within a community. You can find more about Oldenburg and his thesis at the Project for Public Spaces, but the Blind Beggar has recently written a very good post on the subject. How does one get this kind of thing started? Well, that’s the big question. Several of the people in the little group I’m a part of has had a few conversations along these lines, and I’ve had a few myself with Jamie Arpin-Ricci, who is getting started on this himself… you can follow his progress and even pitch in a litte on the project.