The word "Comty™" is metalayer’s way of recognizing that we live in multiple small communities, rather than in one huge amorphous aggregation of people.

A real and dynamic community always has a "context". Within this context, people do things together. They ask questions, make comments, share insights, and so forth. In essence they are "co-creative" together in a collaborative spirit. And it has enough trust and openness, that as a "community" the participants are able to discuss and reflect together, celebrate accomplishments and get work done. In short, they (really we) are able to read the news, write the news and MAKE the news happen!

This happens best when people value one another and are able to use the unique talents of one another. Of course some try to show off what they know, are dominating or devious. But they soon get discovered. As we well know, most teams (and emerging communities) go through the forming, storming, normalizing and performing phases. Too often people get stuck on the first or second states and never get any creative work done. The normalizing phase is absolutely essential for a community.

Real communities can be enduring, such as those of our various schoolmates, or within the context of a residential or work community. Other communities are short-lived, momentary happenings. There are always the boring communities, and they never get visited, and there are communities full of excitement and discovery.

Whenever we join a community, we want to know what is happening. Where is the action? What has happened since I was last in the community? metalayer has solved this need much better than most online communities through its ability to present you with your own personal "Times" page. Immediately you see what has happened since last being online, and within context. And you can quickly join the action!

metalayer is very aware of the social and human dynamics of communities and has therefore created a supporting technology to allow the flux and flow of conversations in community to come alive. Conversations are not just rational; they are enriched by feelings, emotions and reveal our deeper values. These all belong to "contextual co-creativities communities"or "comties".

We live in multiple communities, so metalayer makes it possible to create more than one sub-community, or sub-comty. This allows smaller groups to work on their own projects together, sharing the results with the larger community.

Also, people are not always interested in actively participating; therefore there are six levels of participation. An "Administrator" is responsible for the overall context and spirit of the Comty, not just the technical aspects. Most participants will have the "Provider" status, because they will be adding to and providing content. They are co-responsible with the administrator for content and direction of the Comty, as the whole spirit of metalayer is a self-organizing and self-directing collaborative community. The next four categories are for those who will be less involved. A "Commenter" can add comments, but not initiate discussions. An "Observer" sees all the content, but can write to the admin using messagebox. A "Viewer" sees the content, but without timestamps and author’s name. So for a "Viewer", a Comty looks like a web page with static content. A "Visitor" finally does not see any content. Instead he or she sees just the option of asking to be admitted to the Comty or for more information from the administrator.

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