I agree with Jim. Most of us no longer live in communities which all live and work together and share the same experiences - our lives are more fragmented. Without those shared community experiences, folk music in the proper sense is unlikely to thrive. Add to it that most people today are now divorced from the idea of creating music for themselves, and the prospects of a true folk tradition continuing seem bleak. Modern communities don't need to entertain or express themselves in that way. Having said that, there are still local traditions which bring communities together - Padstow May Day and the Sheffield carols, for example - but these are relatively few and far between.

That's not to say that there aren't plenty of people making music. Some of it is folk, some of it sounds like folk, some of it sounds different but expresses similar sentiments. Folk song will not die, but it will remain in the hands of a relatively small group of enthusiasts. Perhaps this is a "community", but if so it is a one-dimensional one, united only by a shared interest in the music.