Turning the “Field of Dreams” whispered message inside out, 21-year-old Londoner Tiffany Philippou literally witnessed “They will come and build it” over a recent weekend.

Only weeks after the Secret London group was launched on Facebook, it had more than 195,000 users and a problem: it was so successful that information—secrets of the city shared by members—was getting buried in discussion boards and wall posts. In “How we built secret London in a weekend” on TechCrunch, Philippou tells how supporters responded to an appeal to build a website. “We had more than 100 responses from across the London tech community, and over 40 people committed their weekend to make it happen,” she writes.

And not only did they create a website in 48 hours, they did it for less than £3,000 ($4,600). The designers, developers, project managers and editors volunteered their weekend, according to Philippou, because they liked “the feeling of being a part of something amazing. …  Secret London has shown the power of the community.” That’s something businesses may want to remember when they ponder social media’s power to motivate customers.

John Sniffen, March 8, 2010

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