Click on picture to go to the cool ad on the Harley Davidson site.

In open source we talk about “community.” Recently, I saw this cool Harley Davidson ad from earlier this year (click on the picture to the left), and it made me realize Harley Davidson had a community, even before open source projects had community. We know the brand has a stalwart following, I was surprised to find when I Googled for the ad on the web site, that Harley Davidson had created an online community, H.O.G. Harley Owners Group ®).

H.O.G is a members- and friends-only community, and since I do not own a Harley and my Harley friends aren’t on email right now, I can only guess at the content of the online community.

Putting aside hair styles, tattoos, leather, piercings and exhaust, I say the Harley Owners Groups, online and informal, share a number of attributes with communities for open source projects. Continue reading →