Community is the emergence of cohesive groups from random individuals. Communities will have at least one trait in common. It may be geographic location. It may be a language. It may be an interest in a certain breed of dog or type of music. Whatever it is, good or evil, it will exist. The common interest is like the speck of dust in the air around which a raindrop coalesces or the bit of sand in an oyster's shell.
Community happens. The primary ways of creating a community are identifying a common interest and establishing a way for those adherents to communicate.
Culture is the egregore or meme that emerges from that coalition of individuals. It is the way the individuals relate to one another, other communities and the rest of the world, none of which need to be consistent or reconcilable. Extreme xenophobes can be insanely vicious to outsiders yet kind to one another. In a more mundane example, anyone who's ever been involved in animal rescue knows that each group has certain members who should never be allowed out in public. They're the ones who're incredibly compassionate to animals (the focus of the community) but oblivious to the feelings of their co-rescuers.
Communities can be created. Cultures can be built from ground up as the community is created or influenced in an existing community. How you do both of those depends on what you want to accomplish.
Tomorrow, I'll talk briefly about forming communities.
And by the way -- if you haven't seen this, go watch this short video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL9Wu2kWwSY
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