The Online Community efforts I have been advocating for the past 12 years center in the belief I have that any tool which encourages “seeking out” the bodies behind the conversations that attract us is a “Third Place” building kind of thing.  There may not be an pre-existing “Physical place” which hosted the budding group,  but that comes as the group meets and decides to keep doing this as a habit and as a means to personal renewal and enjoyment.  The efforts to “build on” Third Place associations by extending some of their elements into online incarnaions is testimony to the power of the association found there.  Online spaces can then provide a “PR Piece” to extend the invitation to “join this group” and participate,  assumably also to “come around” and “meet up” (“Meetups” are popular in Weblog circles…..evidence of the tendency of these new Cyberspace-hosted communities to lean toward growing that association into the physical).