Community Leadership Summit Trip Report

Jono Bacon, the community manager for the global Ubuntu community, organized the first Community Leadership Summit for community managers to come together and share ideas. I loved the fact it was run as an unconference or open space. I get so much more high quality information from open spaces than I do from traditional style conferences. The saying that the room knows more than the speaker is very true. Just attended an unconference for proof.

It’s been a long time since I’ve attended a conference where all we talked about was community. It was a totally re-energizing experience (as if i needed more energy). Pictures at bottom of blog post.

I hope folks from #cls will swing by the Microsoft booth at OSCON on Weds and Thurs to say hi as i wear my CodePlex banner as a cape. I’m jealous of the Brazilian flag guy. (you had to be there for it.)

Quotes

• “Understanding community is about understanding the human condition.”
• "Everybody deserves to have a great community."
• "Don’t cut people off before they have a chance to grow.” 
• "It takes a village to build a program."
• "It’s amazing what people will do to get a badge on a forum site. If it worked in kindergarten, it will work forever."
• "Marketing should not be allowed to use the word ‘community.’ They should especially be banned from using the phrase ‘join our community."
• "In today’s online world we speak glob-ish as our default language"
• "People like people who help them."

Other Takeaways

• We need to design a reputation system that goes beyond just what the person does online. We need a way to track offline events, like running user groups, public speaking events, etc.
• Similar to design personas, we need personas for members who participates in our online communities so we know how best to engage and empower them.
• You have to assign tasks to community members to make them feel inclusive. Otherwise saying "look at the list" will cause them to leave.
• People don’t want to take surveys when they are upset with your product. It’s like pouting. You got to make the feedback channel personal.
• Empower people by asking them “what do you like doing? what do you do best?” The example used here was in a user group meeting, an attendee who wasn’t technical turned out to be a professional meeting organizer. They were significantly more productive in that meeting because of her help.

Misc

• Very cool tool for people to take notes at same time: https://etherpad.com/cls-tools
• Interested read about breaking down the Dunbar number (150 is the most you can organize): https://www.lifewithalacrity.com/2005/02/dunbar_triage_t.html

Pictures

The Microsoft (Microspotting.com) “I am the empire” t-shirt and the Free Software Foundation’s GPLv2 t-shirt.

Picture of the CodePlex agile talk suggestion

Thanks again Jono and everyone who helped put together this summit. It was awesome!

Comments

• Anonymous
  July 20, 2009
  Really glad you had a good time, Sara, and it was great to meet you! :-)  Jono

• Anonymous
  July 20, 2009
  Fantastic to meet and talk with you! Yeah, some evil stormtrooper you are. ; )

• Anonymous
  July 20, 2009
  i've already had the Darth Vader theme song hummed to me today by FSF GPLv2 t-shirt guy =D

• Anonymous
  July 20, 2009
  Thanks for sharing this recap with the rest of us - how to build community is such an enigma, I am always intrigued to read successful examples of it

• Anonymous
  July 25, 2009
  Sara is was great meeting you. Hope our paths cross again. I think though there is a whole group of people practicing Guitar Hero in anticipation for oscon 2010.  :-)

• Anonymous
  July 28, 2009
  HI Sara, it was great meeting you and learning a little about Codeplex.