Right Where
You Belong
The PHP Community
Thursday, October 22, 2009

Making
Community
Thursday, October 22, 2009

What Makes Them
Involvement
* Don’t stagnate
* Passion!
Ask not what it can do for you
* Bring what you have
* Look for places to improve
You Belong
* Comfort
Thursday, October 22, 2009

Leadership
Open lines of Communication
Open personalities
Know the territory
You’re nice...
* ...you’re wrong, but you’re nice
Thursday, October 22, 2009

What Breaks Them
“Crossed wires”
* Misconceptions
* Gossip
* Careless comments
Thursday, October 22, 2009

What Breaks Them
Interest Level
* Always comes and goes
* “Withering vines”
* No champion
Thursday, October 22, 2009

What Breaks Them
Ego
* Don’t listen to the “little guy”
* Perspective != truth
* If you’re lucky, the community flows
around “that guy”...
Thursday, October 22, 2009

Growth
Lower the Barriers
* Constant Improvement
* PHP’s easy, people aren’t
* Tour guides?
Thursday, October 22, 2009

Growth
Guides on The Path
* Doing it alone is the hard way
* On the shoulders of tech giants
* Quiet and Loud
Thursday, October 22, 2009

Growth
Vision for the Future
* Open processes
* “To be the best”
* Don’t forget the new people!
* Planning sucks, but do it (trust me)
Thursday, October 22, 2009

Making Your
Mark
Thursday, October 22, 2009

Set your inner
author free...
Thursday, October 22, 2009

Write!
Documentation
Project manuals
* Often overlooked
* Living document
The Others
* User guides
* API docs
Thursday, October 22, 2009

Write!
Documentation
Code Comments
* Bring clarity to code
* Generated documentation
* A difference between
good and great
More Tech!
* READMEs, etc...
Thursday, October 22, 2009

Write!
Documentation
About the Project
* Structure, UML, Schema
* Project Wiki
* Unit tests?
Thursday, October 22, 2009

Write!
Blogging
You pick the topics
* Technical? Community?
* Respond to the community
* Promote a project
Thursday, October 22, 2009

Write!
Blogging
Who needs to prepare?
* Research for some
* Off the cuff for others
* My recommendation? Both.
Thursday, October 22, 2009

Write!
Blogging
A Few Suggestions
* Code - Download or plain-text!
* Link to the post (yes, people forget)
* Don’t make things up
Thursday, October 22, 2009

Write!
Tutorials
Pick a topic, any topic
* You’re just learning too? Cool!
* Pass it down
* Don’t be intimidated
* Writing as learning (an amazing thing)
Thursday, October 22, 2009

Write!
Tutorials
Growing young minds
* Channel your inner Beginner
* Know the audience
* Define the audience
Thursday, October 22, 2009

Write!
Tutorials
A few helpful hints
* Don’t forget the code!
* If you (just) post it, they won’t come
* Include the version number
Thursday, October 22, 2009

Write!
Books/Articles
Publishers like
* Apress
* Packt
* McGraw-Hill
Magazines like
* php|architect
* PHP Magazine
Thursday, October 22, 2009

Meet the People
Thursday, October 22, 2009

Meet & Greet
User Groups
Find a local group!
* Meetup.com
* Calendar @ php.net
* You don’t have to always go
* Context is everything
Thursday, October 22, 2009

Meet & Greet
User Groups
Meeting of the minds
* New ideas
* Like-minded
* Online collaboration vs Face-to-Face
Thursday, October 22, 2009

Meet & Greet
User Groups
Don’t just attend, socialize!
* Shake hands
* Get cards
* Ask about their pet project
Thursday, October 22, 2009

Meet & Greet
Mentoring
Sharing is good (and important)
* Find a budding developer
* Set aside some time
* Listen then talk
You could learn too!
Thursday, October 22, 2009

Meet & Greet
Speaking to the masses
Mailing Lists
* Flaming doesn’t help anyone
Twitter
* Great for public opinion & questions
IRC
* Personal interaction
* Great to keep in touch
Thursday, October 22, 2009

Meet & Greet
Speaking to the masses
Presentations
* at local user group
* at work
* at conferences
Be Official
* Get on the committee
* Chair an uncon
* Work behind the scenes
Thursday, October 22, 2009

...and of course,
The Code
Thursday, October 22, 2009

Contribute the Code
Just for PHP
Write Tests
* phpt
* gcov.php.net
* TestFest
Extensions
* Contribute or create
Hackin’ the Core
Thursday, October 22, 2009

Contribute the Code
Extending
PECL
* that’s peck-ul to you
(no, not pickle)
* C extensions (phpize/build/include)
* almost 230 official packages
PEAR
* over 530 official packages
* well-structured, proven resources
* elected leadership
Thursday, October 22, 2009

Contribute the Code
Outside the Box
Other Open Source Projects
* Phergie
* MediaWiki
* Doctrine
* Frameworks (Zend, Solar, CakePHP, Symfony)
Thursday, October 22, 2009

So you’re a business?
You can help too!
Employee Participation
* PHP’s development
* Contributing bugs
* The Cost of Training
* Encourage community
Thursday, October 22, 2009

So you’re a business?
You can help too!
Open Source projects
* Good code, good product
* Share an internal tool!
Thursday, October 22, 2009

Making a
Difference
Thursday, October 22, 2009

What You Can Do
A place for everyone...
No code? No Problem
* Write, interact, learn
Share your skills
* Hack away & make things better
“PHP PR”
* Further the cause
Thursday, October 22, 2009

What You Can Do
...and everyone in a place
Finding your fit
* Weigh the options
* Follow your passion
* It’s all about PHP
* It’s not all about PHP
Thursday, October 22, 2009

What You Can Do
Books Forums User Groups
Articles Conferences
Blogs Written Spoken Outreach
Comments Which One-on-One
are you?
Code
Propose Create
Correct Contribute
Thursday, October 22, 2009

What You Can Do
Mix it up!
Twitter Outreach Frameworks
Create
Propose
Books Socialize
Conferences Forums
Articles
User Groups
Comments
Tutorial Bugs
Contribute IRC
Mailing list Articles One-on-One
Blogs
Mentoring Projects
Correct
The Core Tutorial
Thursday, October 22, 2009

So what is community?
The word is often used to refer to a
group that is organized around common
values and social cohesion. [...] If
community exists, both freedom and
security may exist as well. The
community then takes on a life of its
own, as people become free enough to
share and secure enough to get along.
Wikipedia.org - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community
Thursday, October 22, 2009

Does PHP fit?
The word [community] is often used to
refer to a group that is organized around
common values and social cohesion. [...]
If community exists, both freedom and
security may exist as well. The
community then takes on a life of its
own, as people become free enough to
share and secure enough to get along.
Thursday, October 22, 2009

Chris Cornutt
ccornutt@phpdeveloper.org
@enygma
http://joind.in/927
@phpdeveloper @joindin
A special “Thank You” to all of the wonderful
photographers in the PHP community for all of the great
pictures they take!
Thursday, October 22, 2009