Google Plus Community Feature

Google Plus recently just came out with a new feature.  "Communities"

You can see it in the above picture along the left hand side.  As you can tell from this Screenshot I am already in some new Communities that I was sent an invite to from a "moderator" and this moderator sends out the invites and potentially then folks join the community.  

Once I join, then I have the ability under "Actions" to share the community in my Google + feed or  I could invite people also.  Depending on how the moderator set it up, will depend on those who get in.  The moderator may have to approve first.  See this picture below:

You can also look through many communities that might be of interest to you and join them, it looks like from this small screenshot there are all kinds of areas and all kinds of fun to explore out there:

If you want to start your own community you have to go to the Communities button on the left hand side of your home Google + Page and click on it, then you will see a RED BUTTON that says CREATE A COMMUNITY.   See picture below:

You will then be prompted to choose between public and private as pictured below.

 If you click on Public you will get some options, what do you want to call it and do people need permission to join?  See picture below:

If you go the Private route it will look a little different and prompt you about whether or not you want to hide it from searches or if people can find it and ask to join, see below:

The picture below is after I chose Private and started a Catlett Family Community.  I could name it, add a tagline, add a description, add a category, and then save:

Once I had that initial set-up done and I said "Done Editing" then it prompted me to invite people, see picture below:

So now the SKY IS THE LIMIT with these Google + Communities in my opinion, as you could tell from the screenshots above I am already involved in some great local Nebraska Communities and the Google Certified Teacher Community.  I can see how setting up a Private Family one could be very fun too!  

I can see school districts running wild with this now that Google + is open in K-12 Domains for Google Apps for Education (GAFE).

You could have a district wide community, a high school building Community, a middle school building Community, etc.  Tons of potential in my opinion and once again Google continues to make such a collaborative, amazing product even better!  

Perhaps I will see you soon in a Google + Community!