The history of E-Learning Heroes - What makes a great online learning community?

Hi, 

I'm currently doing a uni assignment (working towards grad cert in E-Learning) about building effective online communities, and E-Learning heroes is my chosen community!

I wanted to know more about when and how it got started, who were the people that were there at the start and how you encouraged such a great collaborative learning environment to flourish into the #1 community for E-Learning pros?

What have others found to be the 'secret sauce' to building other online communities? Interested to know your views!

Heather :)