The Future of Online Communities: A Panel and a Poll

This coming weekend, I will be moderating a panel during Community Next, a very interesting day long event focused on the evolution of online communities.  The topic of the panel is on exploring some of the smartest do-it-yourself tools out there for "creating, analyzing, and marketing your own online community" and I will be joined by Hiten Shah of Crazyegg, Matt Roche of Offermatica, Mike Jones of Userplane, and Joe Hurd of VideoEgg .  The focus of our session will be to identify what makes an online community successful and what tools are out there for helping launch, manage or optimize your own community.  We will also be turning our lens to the future of online DIY community tools.  In addition to this great panel and topic, there are several other speakers (especially Guy Kawasaki, Josh Spear and Premal Shah) that I am very much looking forward to meeting. 

Unfortunately, the latest word is that the event is sold out - so if you're not already registered, you'll have to track the event vicariously through blogs and ensuing discussion on online communities.  I will do my best to share some thoughts and reactions of my own either through the day or shortly thereafter.  The event has a great collection of innovators that are defining the future of online communities - but I am also interested to hear other thoughts on the future of online communities.  Do you have a strong view on what the top trends in online communities to watch this year will be?  Take the poll below to choose what you think it might be, or choose "other" and share your own thought in a comment to this post ...