Manage Session Tackling New Challenges in a Virtual Focused Community

The pandemic has had many communities scrambling to find ways to capture, grow, and continue to strengthen the bonds of their community members. Virtual events, zoom burn out, and increased familial responsibilities are things that are impacting not only contributors but software communities as a whole. They do pose an opportunity - They can be made more accessible, there are less financial pressures for attendees, and they open up possibilities for others that might not be able to previously contribute to open source. In this talk, we’ll go over some of the successes and failures that we have encountered over the past year, share our experiences, and explore strategies to mitigate “virtual” fatigue. Attendees will learn the following things:
- How to approach virtual events and activities, both as an organizer and an attendee
- Set and manage expectations with themselves and others
- Technical do’s and don’ts with virtual events

Transcript

1. An exploration in virtual community
   management
   Tackling new challenges
   in a virtual focused
   community
   

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2. Bob Killen / @mrbobbytables
   Program Manager @ Google OSPO
   Steering Committee / SIG ContribEx
   Alison Dowdney / @alisondowdney
   Developer Advocate @ Weaveworks
   SIG ContribEx
   

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3. Why
   Virtual Conferences
   Meetings
   Meetings
   Virtual Conferences
   Meetings Stuck at home
   

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5. The noternetes storybook
   

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6. Noternetes
   

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7. Fionna Frank
   

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8. Today there is a meeting for the
   noternetes project
   Let’s join the call!
   “Good Evening Everyone”
   “It’s just us again”
   *sigh*
   

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9. The participants list empty, confirming
   the lack of attendees.
   Fiona and Frank, the only people to be
   seen.
   How do we solve this problem,
   What tools do we have
   How else do we communicate
   We can use slack!
   
   

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10. Slack Meetings
    ● Provide multi-day period to respond
    ● Threads per agenda item keep
    conversations focused
    ● Summarize and send to the mailing list
    ● Send separate notices to the mailing list
    for decisions and provide lazy consensus
    period
    

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11. “What a great idea!”
    “Lets try it and see how things go”
    The next meeting is a slack meeting,
    will it be a success?
    Our maintainers create the meeting
    threads.
    Over the next few hours,
    contributors worldwide chime in,
    at different times when it suits them.
    A day and a half later, the meeting
    ends.
    The next part of Fiona and Franks work
    begins.
    They comb through the meeting
    threads, summarizing points made.
    In an email to the mailing list, this
    information is relayed.
    

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12. Now a week after the slack meeting,
    Our contributors will gather again.
    Slack? call? where will we find them?
    As the meeting types alternate,
    And last week we used slack,
    this weeks should be a call.
    lets join in on that!
    At first glance, you can see a big
    change.
    the number of participants, is greater
    than two!
    Our Chairs are filled with excitement,
    about the discussions that will now
    ensue
    

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13. “Messages can have threads!”
    The slack meetings had alot of
    engagement
    From contributors far and wide
    A big improvement from the live
    meetings
    with only a small number of people in
    sight.
    

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14. What are the contributors thoughts
    about using slack for meetings?
    Do they think it’s a good idea?
    Let’s look at the responses, that should
    make things clear.
    
    

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15. “I don’t have to stay up past
    midnight anymore 😭” “I’m busy getting my kids ready
    for school regularly, the slack
    meetings have been GREAT.”
    “Thank you for this! I
    haven’t been able to attend
    due to a work conflict :(“ “The regular list updates really
    help me keep up to date on
    what’s happening”
    

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16. With meetings improved,
    and zoom fatigue at bay.
    The noternetes project
    continues yet another day. ~ fin ~
    

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17. Chat based meetings can improve
    contributor accessibility
    

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18. Chat
    Mailing Lists, GitHub Issues etc
    meetings
    Communication Styles
    Accessibility
    Project Size
    More Accessible
    Less Accessible
    Large
    Small
    

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19. OSS Meeting Tips
    ● Find your cadence between meeting too much and too little
    ● Be creative with the communication mediums you have
    

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20. NA
    EU
    OSS Meeting Tips
    ● Be weary of creating separate meetings for other regions without
    adequate cross-meeting members
    ● Schedule ad-hoc focused meetings for important topics
    

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21. OSS Meeting Tips
    ● Keep meetings (in any form) for discussions NOT decisions; decisions
    goto the mailing list where people can respond async
    ● ALWAYS follow-up with an email to your mailing list
    

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22. Welcom Bac
    t
    th
    Noternete Show!
    

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23. Episod 2:
    Virtua Event
    

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24. Hey, can you send off this
    weeks meeting threads
    Sure thing!
    All Done!
    

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26. lets see how the meeting threads are going
    

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27. so the contributors want to have a
    virtual summit like at not-con
    There’s a lot of chatter about this idea
    It would be awesome if we could
    have a virtual contributor summit,
    like we do at not-con
    

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28. I miss everybody
    No more screens
    Absolutely no
    recorded talks Informal, no
    commitment
    Only if it's 90%+
    social
    

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29. Sounds great, toss that
    in the thread
    What do you think of this idea
    We do a celebration instead of
    a summit
    We celebrate our contributors,
    rather than do a virtual
    conference thing
    No talks, just fun
    

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30. ● Prioritize the hallway track
    ● Relaxed, casual tone with minimal commitment to
    participate
    ● Friends and family encouraged to participate
    ● Less tech/work focused sessions and workshops
    Celebrations, Over Summits
    
    

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31. 
    👍 👍
    
    
    Instead of summiting, we should get together and
    celebrate our wonderful contributors!
    

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32. sure thing 👍
    Look at the time, it’s time to close the threads
    can you gather all the notes, and fire them off to the
    mailing list plz
    

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33. 🏞 🌆
    🌃
    

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34. What game shall we play today
    

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35. I have an idea about what to do
    for the contributor celebration!
    

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36. We could have a game night in a
    not-ernetes discord That would be
    perfect!
    

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37. This sounds awesome but, how do we involve people who don’t play games
    we could stream our games?
    but still, it might not be that fun for them to watch…
    Well if streaming games, is like tv to gamers,
    what would be like tv to contributors
    What’s something everyone can relate
    to, something everyone does.
    

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38. EAT! THEY EAT!
    

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39. Next week rolls around and Fiona and Frank are sharing their idea on the weekly contributor call
    last week in the slack meeting we mentioned a
    contributor celebration
    we will use discord as a
    space for folks to hang out
    and have fun activities
    such as a bake off
    That’s a great idea! I’d love to help out!
    could we have a gameshow as
    well!
    

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40. ❓
    ❓ ❓ ❓ ❓ ❓
    Whats Discord?
    

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41. ● Discord is designed with communities and people in mind
    ○ Commitment to support the hosting of safe, positive and
    inclusive spaces
    ○ Strong built-in moderation capabilities
    ○ Accessible (excellent support for screen readers)
    ○ Voice and Video are first class citizens
    ● Growing use among Open Source Projects
    ● Extensive ecosystem and tooling support
    What’s Discord?
    

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42. Discord sounds like a great place to host this event!
    
    👍 👍
    
    
    

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44. Today’s the day we’ve been waiting for folks!
    Let’s launch this!
    
    🎉 💯
    ✨
    

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45. Plz Help
    Let me see what I can do
    

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46. 💗
    Awww
    So smol
    

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47. Have many different ways for people
    to participate
    

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48. Have many different ways for people to participate
    ● multiple mediums of communication = more way people can engage
    ● Text
    ● Voice
    ● Streams
    ● Different spaces for topics
    🍔 Food
    🦮 Furry Friends
    🎵 Music
    📺 TV Shows and Movies
    

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49. Alright in 30m our first Planned event
    begin! Trivia Time! Are we ready folks!
    
    👍 👍
    
    
    

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51. People watching it from sofa
    People watching it from pc
    People watching it from phone
    

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52. I’m on the show too!
    I can share my appreciation
    with others
    

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53. ❤
    
    
    ✨
    End of celebration
    If you could fill out the survey that would be
    awesome!
    thank you for attending
    

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54. ~ The End ~
    

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55. What’s Discord?
    They didn’t talk much about the celebration, or the raffle
    It seems kind of brief
    What did the contributors do after the celebration was done?
    What did the writers miss?
    

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56. Content
    ● Events and content selection should support a
    wide audience with multiple pathways of
    engagement
    ● Let people participate in the way that’s easiest
    for them
    ● Less recordings; more live events
    ● Support and facilitate other activities
    (board/video games) to let contributors find
    their own fun
    

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57. Awards and Raffles
    Even though it was a virtual event, we gave people physical items
    

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58. Attendee Comments
    “Overall, I thought it was an excellent event and am thankful for everyone who were involved in
    making this successful!”
    “There has been a lot of fun, a lot of jokes, a lot of things to learn. The time we're going through is
    hard and it's refreshing to be able to relax for a little bit.”
    “This was awesome! Thanks, friends!”
    “Seriously, thank you from every member of the __ household”
    “You all deserve a standing ovation for putting this together :)”
    

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59. Outcomes
    ● 85% of survey respondents want to do another virtual social event
    ● Virtual events are more broadly accessible
    ● “Off topic” content can serve as natural ice-breakers
    ● Virtual events CAN bring the community closer together
    

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60. Recap
    ● Chat based meetings can improve contributor
    accessibility
    ● Be creative with the communication mediums
    you have
    ● Give people multiple pathways to engage
    ● Do NOT neglect the social side of your
    community
    

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61. Thank You
    Alison Dowdney / @alisondowdney
    Developer Advocate @ Weaveworks
    SIG ContribEx
    Bob Killen / @mrbobbytables
    Program Manager @ Google OSPO
    Steering Committee / SIG ContribEx
    

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