Since 1884, the American Historical Association, and by extension our annual meeting, has served as the center for history professionals to connect, network, and discuss any and all issues relating to the practice and study of history. But as the web has grown more central to our daily lives, so has it shaped the way historians communicate, allowing new opportunities for the history community to join together and share our work.

It is in this spirit that we are proud to launch AHA Communities, a new platform for online communication and collaboration. Our goal is that AHA Communities will serve as a new space for the history community to connect, share ideas, discuss professional and theoretical issues, and take advantage of the digital tools AHA Communities has to offer. Participants in AHA Communities can:

• Create open, closed, or invite-only communities around their own interests
• Build a professional profile
• Create a blog
• Connect with other users and send private messages
• Comment on discussion threads or start new ones
• Share documents and files
• Control access and privacy levels on all the above

Although only AHA members can take advantage of full access to AHA Communities tools, we are offering nonmembers an opportunity to read and comment on any public community thread.

We have already created a number of AHA Communities of interest to users, including the Member Forum, Annual Meeting (to share session and conference information or connect with fellow panelists), History in the News, Perspectives on History (a place to discuss articles in the newsmagazine), and Teaching and Learning History.

The best part? Most of the work is already done for you! Simply visit AHA Communities at communities.historians.org, and click “Log in to Participate.” You can login with your AHA username and password. If you do not have a login id, you can create a new account. Once you are logged in, we encourage you to set up a profile, join a community, and explore contacts in the AHA Communities directory.

Together, we hope AHA Communities will serve as an exciting new platform for the historical discipline, where historians will feel free to instantly share research, solicit peer review, connect and network with colleagues, and discuss issues in and around the discipline in an exclusive social network.

This post first appeared on AHA Today.