week 12

[thessaly]

WEEK 12 - Active community building

Depending on who your users are and the domain your project is applied to, your community building strategy may vary. In the last weeks you worked a lot on defining your project and opening it up for possible contributors. During this week you will do the practical work of reaching out to these potential users and contributors, and establish your online and offline presence.

Goal of the week: Dedicate time to shape your project online presence and strategy for community building.

Goal as a contributor: Try to find minimum contribution you can make to another mentee’s project based on your skills.

Assignments
Which are the channels most used for communicating projects similar to yours? Is it making videos with use cases, preparing online training for users, participating in forums, sending newsletters, engaging via social media or YouTube?

• Define in a paragraph your strategy and start building your online channel.
• Contribute in at least one 'good first issue' of another project
• Share these assignments and ideas with us, we will be available everyday this week (4-8 May), 5pm UTC, in this link.

[amchagas]

Some comments/rephrasing?

WEEK 12 - Active community building

Depending on the nature of your project, community building strategy may vary. A project related to 3D printing for example, will find a lot of discussions and potential users/contributors on thingiverse.com. So having a profile there with your project explained is important.

During this week you will do the practical work of reaching out to potential contributors, and to do that you'll need to create/consolidate an online/offline presence, which starts by identifying the right platform to make your project known.

Goal of the week: Dedicate time to shape your project online presence and strategy for community building.

Assignments

• Search for available platforms, both online and offline that are related to your project.
• Once platforms are identified, look in them to see if there are other similar projects to yours.
• Create a page/profile for your project on this platform.

If there are projects similar to yours: write them, with comments, suggestions, but also letting them know that you are working on something similar. Is there space for collaboration?

If there aren't: Is there a main page on this platform that you could have your project highlighted? Are there users who have worked in the past on similar things? Can you reach out to them and mention your project?

Make sure your page/profile in this platform links to your github repository, and more importantly to the issues you've created that would be interesting for first time contributors!

We will be available this week... etc

[amchagas]

sorry, I have to go now, thta is why I didn't properly finish the write up...
but I would also add the part of goals as a contributor below, as an add on for people... I would phrase it as a way to get our own internal projects "off the ground" in terms of outsiders seeing them as active and with contribrutors on them...

[jurra]

WEEK 12 - Active community building

Depending on who your users are and the domain your project is applied to, your community building strategy may vary. In the last weeks you worked a lot on defining your project and opening it up for possible contributors. During this week you will do the practical work of reaching out to these potential users and contributors, and establish your online and offline presence.

Alternatively we can say:
Community building is a difficult process, it involves improving your online presence, the content you have created, and actual person to person interactions. By this week you have enough work and documentation to expose your work outside of your close circles. You know now better your users and contributors and you have provided enough channels for them to engage in your project. It is time to spread the word and actively share your projects to individuals, groups, communities and organizations that can contribute in some way to your project.

We encourage you this week to practice person to person interactions, and focus on exchanging with people actively....(Something like this??)

Goal of the week: Dedicate time to shape your project online presence and strategy for community building.

My remark here: Dont ask them to strategyze again, it is something we have been doing a lot already. Example of active goal: Dedicate time to actively expose your work to individuals and groups that could contribute to your project.

Goal as a contributor: Try to find minimum contribution you can make to another mentee’s project based on your skills.

Avoid this role as a contributor, is too much to play two roles in one week. It complicates things.

Assignments
Which are the channels most used for communicating projects similar to yours? Is it making videos with use cases, preparing online training for users, participating in forums, sending newsletters, engaging via social media or YouTube?

• Define in a paragraph your strategy and start building your online channel.
• Contribute in at least one 'good first issue' of another project
• Share these assignments and ideas with us, we will be available everyday this week (4-8 May), 5pm UTC, in this link.

Optional assignments and suggestions:

• You can expose your work in many ways as discussed last week.
• Share your documented project/initiative in communities and groups that can be interested in your project.
• Identify people that can be interested in your project directly and introduce them to your projects.
• Schedule events like a streamline where you interview users of your project.....

This is are my reflections for now, I am not entirely satisfied but I feel it has more specified instructions and focus.

[thessaly]

Community building is a time-consuming process that demands building and keeping your online presence updated, generating content and fostering good interpersonal interactions. Depending on the nature of your project, your community building strategy may vary. E.g., a project related to 3D printing will find a lot of discussions and potential users/contributors on thingiverse.com. So having a profile there is almost a must.

By this week you have enough work and documentation to expose your work outside of your close circles. It is time to spread the word and actively share your projects to individuals, groups, communities and organizations that can contribute in some way to your project growth.

Goal of the week:
Expose actively your work to individuals and groups that could contribute to your project

Assignments

• Search for available platforms, groups or communities that are related to your project.
• Identify people that can be interested in your project directly and introduce them to your projects.
• Create a page/profile for your project on this platform

Need help or want to discuss your online presence further? Join us everyday this week (4-8 May), 5pm UTC, in this link.