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| <h2 id='preamble'><img src="../images/redarrow.gif" />Guide to successful community building (DRAFT)</h2> |
| <div class="section-content"> |
| <h3 id='status'>Status - DRAFT</h3> |
| <div class="section-content"> |
| <p>This document is under development.</p> |
| <p> |
| Help to improve the system by posting a patch for |
| this document to the incubator section of JIRA or a |
| comment to the <a href="lists.html">general</a> list at |
| incubator. |
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| </div> |
| <h3 id='TOC'>Contents</h3> |
| <div class="section-content"> |
| <ul> |
| <li><a href='#preamble'> |
| Guide to successful community building (DRAFT) |
| </a> |
| <ul> |
| <li><a href='#status'> |
| Status - DRAFT |
| </a> |
| </li> |
| <li><a href='#TOC'> |
| Contents |
| </a> |
| </li> |
| <li><a href='#abstract'> |
| Abstract |
| </a> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| <li><a href='#introduction'> |
| What is an open and diverse community? |
| </a> |
| <ul> |
| <li><a href='#people'> |
| People |
| </a> |
| </li> |
| <li><a href='#communication'> |
| Communication |
| </a> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| <li><a href='#notes-community'> |
| Community Building |
| </a> |
| <ul> |
| <li><a href='#notes-profile'> |
| Raising The Profile |
| </a> |
| </li> |
| <li><a href='#notes-recruitment'> |
| Building a community by stepping back a little |
| </a> |
| </li> |
| <li><a href='#notes-committers'> |
| Helping Developers Become Committers |
| </a> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </div> |
| <h3 id='abstract'>Abstract</h3> |
| <div class="section-content"> |
| <p> |
| |
| The intent of this document is to help podlings the |
| importance of building an open and diverse community for |
| their project. It gives guidelines on how to accept new |
| committers and PPMC members, and how to enable more |
| community involvement, taking off the burden of answering |
| every question yourself. |
| |
| </p> |
| </div> |
| </div> |
| <h2 id='introduction'><img src="../images/redarrow.gif" />What is an open and diverse community?</h2> |
| <div class="section-content"> |
| <p> |
| |
| A major criterion for graduation is to have developed an open |
| and diverse <a href="http://www.apache.org/foundation/glossary.html#Meritocracy">meritocratic</a> |
| community. Time has demonstrated that these kinds of |
| communities are more robust and productive than more closed |
| ones. |
| |
| </p> |
| <h3 id='people'>People</h3> |
| <div class="section-content"> |
| <p> |
| |
| As a project grows, it needs to renew itself by accepting new |
| committers. A project needs to learn how it can recruit new |
| developers and committers into the community. Accepting new |
| committers usually increases the diversity of the project. So, |
| this process is very beneficial. <a href="#notes-community">Community building</a> requires energy |
| which could have been spent on code development but this cost |
| is an important investment for the future of the project. |
| |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| |
| The openness of the community is not only measured by the |
| number of contributors. Open and respectful discussions on the |
| mailing lists are vital. Ways to resolve technical conflict |
| without destroying personal relationships must be learned. |
| |
| </p> |
| </div> |
| <h3 id='communication'>Communication</h3> |
| <div class="section-content"> |
| <p> |
| |
| Mailing lists are the life blood of Apache communities. They |
| are the primary mode of discourse and constitute a public and |
| historic record of the project. Other forms of communication |
| (P2P, F2F, personal emails and so on) are secondary. There are |
| well founded fears about use of these media for project |
| communication. Though many projects successfully blend other |
| forms of communications, care needs to be taken since |
| out-of-band communications have led to difficulties in the |
| past. The reason is that communications on other than the |
| public mail aliases exclude parts of the community. Even |
| publicly advertised IRC chats can be exclusionary due to time |
| zone constraints or conflicting time commitments by community |
| members who might want to participate. |
| |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| |
| Apache project mailing lists are public, well indexed and well |
| archived. This allows anyone to monitor (both in real time and |
| by browsing the archives) what's happening. Opinions expressed |
| are public and poor behavior risks a poster's reputation. |
| |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| |
| Private communications tend to be more candid but also more |
| likely to be ill-judged. Back channel communication tend to be |
| divisive, excluding some members of the group. This tends to |
| have a corrosive effect on the collective spirit of the |
| community. Mistrust builds when opinions backed by blocks of |
| developers arise fully formed on list. |
| |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| |
| Communication through other channels also reduces the chance |
| of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serendipity">serendipity</a>. |
| As with most social networks, most subscribers to a mailing |
| list never post and most posts come from a tiny minority of |
| subscribers. Some passive subscribers are just interested in |
| where the project is going but others understand related |
| fields and have a limited intersection of interest. This |
| second group will often post when this topic arises on list. |
| Using public mailing lists to develop designs allows the |
| chance encounter of ideas which often results in innovation. |
| |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| |
| If alternative forums are used by a project, it is important |
| to try to minimize the chances of problems arising. All |
| matters of substance need to be moved back to the mailing |
| lists. Public records should be kept and posted back to the |
| list. Regular reminders should be posted to remind people that |
| other secondary forms of communication exist. |
| |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| |
| There are a limited number of topics such as security issues |
| and discussions about people which are best handled in |
| private. As much business of the project as possible should |
| take place on public lists but the private list is available |
| for those matters of a sensitive nature. Good netiquette |
| requires that permission from the poster should be sought |
| before making public, posts made to a private list. Try to |
| avoid cross-posting between public and private forums. Take |
| care not to post a reply to a private post to a public forum |
| without permission. |
| |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| |
| Learning to use mailing lists effectively is very important. |
| If this can be achieved, then you have shown to be a lively, |
| active and successful community. The future looks bright. |
| |
| </p> |
| </div> |
| </div> |
| <h2 id='notes-community'><img src="../images/redarrow.gif" />Community Building</h2> |
| <div class="section-content"> |
| <p> |
| |
| Before a podling graduates, it must create a diverse and |
| self-sustaining community. Community building is tough: it |
| takes time, effort and more than a little magic. There is no |
| secret recipe, just hard work. In order to overcome this |
| obstacle, committers may need to devote more time to community |
| building and less to development. |
| |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| |
| The <a href="mailto:community@apache.org">community mailing |
| list</a> is open to all Apache committers. This is the right |
| list for questions about community and on community building. |
| Subscriptions should be from an Apache email address. |
| |
| </p> |
| <h3 id='notes-profile'>Raising The Profile</h3> |
| <div class="section-content"> |
| <p> |
| |
| Sometimes, a podling is just not well-enough known. There |
| are simply not enough users to allow new developers to be |
| recruited. Overcoming this means finding ways to raise the |
| profile of the podling. Some ideas: |
| |
| </p> |
| <ul> |
| <li>Improve the website</li> |
| <li>Improve the information provided within each release and release more often</li> |
| <li> |
| Committers who blog should join |
| <a href="http://www.apache.org/dev/committers.html#planetapache">PlanetApache</a> |
| </li> |
| <li>Use grassroots media</li> |
| <li>Encourage downstream distributions to include a packaged version</li> |
| <li>Submit talks to conferences</li> |
| <li><a href="http://www.feathercast.org">Feathercast</a></li> |
| <li>Write articles</li> |
| </ul> |
| </div> |
| <h3 id='notes-recruitment'>Building a community by stepping back a little</h3> |
| <div class="section-content"> |
| <p> |
| |
| If the podling has lots of users but very few new |
| developers then this means that more work is required to |
| encourage users to become developers. A common cause of |
| this is that committers are too quick to create code to |
| solve user problems. It's good to respond quickly to |
| requests by users. However, once a project gains momentum, |
| it may be more productive for the long term health of a |
| project to encourage users to become more involved at the |
| expense of user satisfaction. |
| |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| |
| Try to encourage expert users to answer questions. This |
| may mean intentionally allowing a time gap before |
| answering user questions. Encourage users to post by |
| taking the time to deal politely and positively with |
| misunderstandings and by replying to threads which have |
| been answered well by a user to confirm that they are |
| right. Avoid engaging in flame wars on user lists. Ignore |
| trolls. |
| |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| |
| Try to encourage users to become developers. When they |
| give a good answer that isn't covered in the |
| documentation, ask them to submit a patch. When users |
| suggest a good design or extension, ask for volunteers to |
| help implement rather than just coding it up. |
| |
| </p> |
| </div> |
| <h3 id='notes-committers'>Helping Developers Become Committers</h3> |
| <div class="section-content"> |
| <p> |
| |
| If a podling has no trouble attracting developers but |
| trouble retaining them long enough for them to become |
| committers then this highlights an issue with the |
| recruitment process. To become an Apache committer, a |
| developer needs to hang around long enough to accumulate a |
| track record of contributions. This often requires |
| encouragement and help from existing committers. |
| |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| |
| Promptly reviewing patches is important. The way that |
| patches are applied is also important. Provide credit in |
| the commit message and when closing the JIRA. It's also |
| good to encourage developers by suggesting new related |
| work they may like to volunteer for. |
| |
| </p> |
| </div> |
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