Professor Oldenburg coined the term "third place" to describe the need for communities to maintain a public gathering spot outside of work and home. These locations were deemed essential for the social vitality of a community because they would engender democracy, comraderie, cross-pollination of ideas and so on. Historically town squares, taverns and churches served as reliable third places. Then we started to see a transition towards retail establishments attempting to play this role - malls of course but Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, has also been quite vocal about creating this environment in their coffee shops.
The Great Good Place matters to product design because of course these same needs are now expressed often through online communities. And since we don't shed our offline selves when we're in front of a computer, there are many lessons here directly related to social apps or any technology which seeks to create a sense of community and intimacy.
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