Cities, companies, neighborhoods - they’re all made of people. Yet some of them have tight, supportive communities, while others feel fragmented. It makes us wonder: What makes a strong community, and how can we encourage more connection and exchange?

We’re excited about communities for two reasons:

First, communities are one of the greatest sources of happiness and health, providing people with a sense of shared connection and identity and an accessible way to build meaningful relationships. 

Second, communities fuel creativity and innovation. As Austin Kleon writes, great individuals are never the source of their own work - they’re always inspired by their personal web of connections. When Maggie was working at IDEO, she loved receiving “Hivemind” emails: messages sent out to the global studios asking for a collective brainstorm or feedback on an idea or question. It was amazing what came together—you could create full-on guides to a topic in just a few hours. The nature of generously sharing ideas and thoughts is what helped create such a creative atmosphere.

When people come together for a shared purpose, they can achieve extraordinary things. In countries like Morocco and Turkey, people collectively take care of the street cats. In cities like Barcelona, kids and elders come together to build human towers. We’re interested in learning how these communities come together, and why they thrive.