My 10 steps to tech community contributions

Over a period of 2 years, Lars went from internal knowledge sharing to managing tech publications, being an open source software maintainer and becoming a Microsoft MVP. Get inspired by his journey and get his best tips.

Presented at:
- GDG Minsk Web, January 2021: https://youtu.be/B1iP-2_KkC4
- Systemate InspiredBy CodeTalk (private), November 2021

Transcript

1. My 10 steps to tech
   community contributions
   By Lars Gyrup Brink Nielsen
   

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2. 1. Internal
   knowledgesharing
   

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3. Written internal knowledge sharing
   • Shared libraries and tooling
   • Onboarding
   • System and project architecture
   • Recipes
   • Inspiration
   

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4. Person-to-person internal
   knowledgesharing
   • Hackathons
   • Internal tech talks and workshops
   • Mentoring
   • Pair programming
   • Code review
   

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5. 2. Speaking at meetups
   

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6. Tips for speaking at meetups
   • Practice, practice, practice.
   • Remove unnecessary content.
   • Speak the words out loud when rehearsing.
   • Engage with your audience.
   • Don’t feel bad. It feels a lot worse than it is 🙂
   

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7. 3. Writing tech articles
   

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8. Tips for writing tech articles
   • Write in a natural language voice.
   • Focus on one core topic per article.
   • Avoid abbreviations for a world-wide audience.
   • Find your niche.
   • Get a mentor.
   • Stop listing code as images in articles.
   

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9. My 3 main ingredients for tech
   writing
   • Explain the theory and concepts on an abstract level.
   • Use simple, but realistic code examples.
   • Visualize the concepts.
   

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10. 4. Contributing to open
    source software
    

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11. Tips for contributing to open source
    software
    • Documentation contributions is a great place to start.
    • Focus on a few projects.
    • Don’t waste your time on complicated development environments.
    

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12. 5. Speaking at
    conferences
    

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13. Speaking at conferences
    

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14. Speaking at conferences
    

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15. Tips for speaking at conferences
    • Time your rehearsals.
    • Export your slideshow as a PDF.
    • Store your presentation on a USB stick.
    • Visit the speakers room and speakers events.
    

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16. 6. Mentoring and editing
    tech writers
    

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17. Pro tips for writing tech articles
    • No fluff! Add value, not volume.
    • Get straight to the point.
    • Make longer articles easy to scan.
    • Consider splitting longreads into individual articles to make them easier to finish and
    reference.
    • Include your own perspective and experience to add unique value.
    • Finish strong.
    

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18. 7. Receiving the Microsoft
    MVP Award
    

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19. The Microsoft MVP Award
    process
    1. Make community contributions.
    2. Get nominated by a Microsoft MVP or Microsoft employee.
    3. Submit your community contributions.
    4. You are compared to MVPs and nominees from the same region
    and product category.
    5. Receive the Microsoft MVP Award.
    6. Your contributions are reset at July 1st.
    7. Go to 1, but skip 2.
    

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20. 8. Authoring a book
    

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21. Tips for authoring a book
    • It takes a lot of time.
    • Publishers can take care of review, design, distribution, marketing, and more.
    • Publishers want a detailed outline and an estimated schedule.
    • Don’t do it to get rich.
    • It takes a lot of time.
    

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22. 9. Maintaining open
    source software
    

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23. Tips for maintaning open source
    software
    • Find a project that you like or start your own.
    • Find a team that you like.
    • Write documentation.
    • Encourage and support contributions and feedback.
    • There’s a difference between open source software and openness in software.
    

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24. Openness in software
    projects
    https://www.linuxfoundation.org/en/resources/publica
    tions/determining-the-true-openness-of-open-source-
    projects/
    

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25. 10. Tech publishing
    

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26. Thank you! 👋
    🐦@LayZeeDK
    

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