Growing community is about "getting the message out there". There has to be someone in the project who wants to do that. Some techniques are:
- press - community events - mentoring (that is mentoring of potential new committers) - fast turnaround on patch reviews - regular releases - decent website - tutorials - screencasts - public discussion (even with self while no community exists) Developing code for one's own use is all well can good but it does not build community and trying to build community doesn't, in the short term, write code. It's a catch-22. Personally I have no problem with a podling having low activity. A single developer doing their thing in the incubator is not going to hurt anyone. What I'm concerned about is a podling that is not doing any of the above community development activities or, even worse, is ignoring potential contributors. I don't think it is the responsibility of ComDev to do this, although one could argue ComDev should be documenting these techniques in ways useful to mentors. I don't think it is the job of mentors (or the IPMC) to do this either. It is entirely the PPMC responsibility. In my opinion. Ross > -----Original Message----- > From: Benson Margulies [mailto:bimargul...@gmail.com] > Sent: 27 November 2012 00:22 > To: general@incubator.apache.org > Subject: Re: How to grow podling communities > > Luciano, > > My five cents is this: growing communities is really, really, hard, and I > don't > know that anyone at Apache has a recipe. If anyone does, it might be the > comdev committee. I'm not sure that this PMC can take it on. We can barely > muster the minimal supervision that the board requires of us. If a PPMC > wants help, it might be good for it to make contact with comdev. > > I hate to be such a pessimist, but I think that the incubator has to continue > to > shrink until the number of podlings is in balance with the available > supervisory/mentor effort. At that point, maybe we can consider consider > more of an effort to support in addition to supervising. > > Just, however, my opinion. > > > On Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 3:58 PM, Luciano Resende <luckbr1...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > > From: *Benson Margulies* > > Date: Monday, November 26, 2012 > > Subject: [VOTE] Retire Chukwa from incubation > > To: "general@incubator.apache.org" <general@incubator.apache.org> > > > > > > For those voting -1, I'd like to see, on another thread, some > > discussion about just how we handle podlings where there are > > longstanding issues but no consensus on the PPMC. We've heading in the > > same direction on Photark, and some consensus about how or when to > > reach a respectful conclusion as a PMC that a project should be > > retired even if the PPMC is not of the same opinion would be useful. > > We cannot both say that we need projects to have active, supervising, > > mentors and shepherds and then not, in some fashion, act on what they > > tell us. > > > > ----- > > > > > > I believe that the discussion we should have is how can we help > > struggling podlings to grow their community in a sustentable way. > > Recently, I have seen an increase in trying to push small communities > > to retirement, but i'm yet to see active mentors engaging and helping > > and motivating the podlings PPMC to find ways to grow. > > > > Growing communities when a project is backed by corporations that > > sponsor engineers to devote their full time volunteering at the > > project is much easier compared to those other projects that are > > developed by a small group of people, that devote their own free time > > and are passionate by the Apache brand, and doing truly open source > following the Apache Way. > > > > With my Community development hat, I would really like to see a wide > > discussion on how the IPMC and COMDEV PMC could find ways to help > > these struggling podlings succeed, instead of just giving ultimates > > for seeking retirement. Things that come to mind are : make it easier > > for new contributors to find tasks that they could work on, more > > visibility for podlings in Apache sponsored conferences, etc > > > > Thoughts ? Other possible ideas ? > > > > Thanks > > -- > > Luciano Resende > > > > Sent from my iPhone > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > Luciano Resende > > http://people.apache.org/~lresende > > http://twitter.com/lresende1975 > > http://lresende.blogspot.com/ > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscr...@incubator.apache.org > For additional commands, e-mail: general-h...@incubator.apache.org --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscr...@incubator.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: general-h...@incubator.apache.org
