Keynote at DevOps Days India 2013

My keynote on building and growing technical communities.

Transcript

1. COMMUNITY: THE FAQ
2. ME @ponnappa github.com/kaiwren C42 Engineering & TrustedRishta.com
3. ME Founding moderator: BRUG ! Founding organizer: RubyConf India ! Founding member: Devcamp India ! Member: Barcamp Bangalore, BangPypers, etc. ! ! !
4. WHY TALK COMMUNITY?
5. WHY TALK COMMUNITY? Good tech communities create immense value.
6. Community is a decisive factor in the success of a technology. ! (or philosophy)
7. An excellent example is the global Ruby community.
8. This doesn’t happen “automatically.” This conference is an example.
9. Creating a valuable community takes commitment.
10. Creating a valuable community takes resources.
11. Most importantly, it takes time. Years.
12. UNDERSTANDING Understanding how valuable tech communities were built help us replicate those successes.
13. CAVEAT: IMHO
14. CREATING VALUE
15. CREATING VALUE Why, how and for whom?
16. WHY
17. WHY Entertainment. Money. Effort. Time.
18. Somewhere, a hacker creates something valuable.
19. Somewhere, another hacker has the same problem. Even if it’s boredom.
20. Somewhere, a customer is willing to pay for something valuable.
21. This, and everyone in-between, is the community.
22. COMMUNITY == ECOSYSTEM
23. ECOSYSTEM MEMBERS Hackers.
24. ECOSYSTEM MEMBERS Businesses.
25. ECOSYSTEM MEMBERS Customers.
26. HOW: MOVING VALUE
27. Hackers Customers Businesses Fun, Learning, Contracts, Employment. Hackers
28. Businesses Hackers Customers Businesses Recruiting, Tools, Products, Partnerships, Revenue.
29. Customers Hackers Businesses Contractors, Tools, Products.
30. EXCHANGING VALUE A valuable community facilitates bartering value.
31. FACILITATING BARTERING
32. BARTERING Bartering depends on trust. Trust depends on reputation.
33. REPUTATION A valuable community facilitates tracking reputation of its members.
34. DIGITAL REPUTATION
35. PERSONAL REPUTATION What opinion do we have of each-other?
36. These two contribute to the reputation of the community as a whole, attempting to answer the question: ! What is this community good at?
37. FOR EXAMPLE Math Web apps Scientific computing
38. BUILDING COMMUNITY
39. GETTING STARTED
40. STEP #1 Solve a stakeholder’s problem.
41. For a new community, it’s easy: Focus on education.
42. STEP #2 Dedicate time. Be systematic.
43. Regular meetups. Active lists. ! Keeping to a regular schedule is critical.
44. STEP #3 Identify and promote contributors.
45. Remember, it’s about reputation and value. Hackers that educate. OSS contributors. Businesses that contribute money or meet up space. Customers that swear by your technology.
46. TAKING OFF
47. STEP #4 Identify the value chain. Who are the stakeholders? How do they benefit?
48. STEP #5 Marketing. Stakeholders don’t always realise how much they can benefit from actively participating. ! Help them understand. Bring them into the fold.
49. STEP #6 Facilitate bartering value. Help members of the ecosystem work together. Reputation and transitive trust is critical.
50. STEP #7 Encourage face-to-face interaction. The internet is nice, but meeting people is great for trust.
51. BE WILLING TO PASS ON THE BATON STEP #8
52. A NOTE ON PATIENCE
53. Communities are never perfect.
54. Ecosystems naturally seek…
56. Systems in equilibrium change slowly.
57. Therefore, communities change slowly.
58. Most successful communities take years to build.
59. A NOTE ON CULTURE
60. The most visible examples are the ones that are followed.
61. Rude people beget rude communities.
62. Elitists beget elitist communities.
63. Nice people beget nice communities.
64. Personal favourite: MINSWAN Matz is nice, so we are nice.
65. Nice people make the best value transfer facilitators, IMO.
66. The larger the community, the more entrenched the culture.
67. There is no superuser. xkcd.com/149 Be flexible. Avoid ego-trips.
68. Set the right example, early.
69. A NOTE ON MARKETING
70. “Build it and they will come” is a fallacy.
71. Constantly strive to understand stakeholder problems. Maybe they don’t have learning resources. Maybe they can’t hire. Maybe they can’t find customers.
72. Express how these problems can be solved. Clearly. Concisely. Rails’ scaffolding demo from 2005.
73. IN CONCLUSION
74. Communities exist for and because of stakeholders.
75. Businesses and customers are a part of the community too.
76. Communities facilitate the barter of value among stakeholders.
77. Effective facilitation depends on creating trust.
78. Trust depends on reputation.
79. Building a reputation takes time. ! (and marketing)
80. QUESTIONS @ponnappa github.com/kaiwren