Leslie Johnston code4lib 2013 Keynote

Who Do You Want to be Today? Thoughts on Community Leslie Johnston code4lib 2013

Before I begin: a cautionary tale about doing things when you first think of doing them.

I have been thinking a lot lately about communities and community building.Why?Because I recently shifted my job, which required a partial contextual shift as to my place in a number of communities.

But then, it’s not unusual for me to be thinking about where I fit in.

Geek/Nerd/Wonk?

Curator/Archivist?

Woman?

Leader?

I have many identities and participate in quite a few communities.And that’s as it should be.

But where does community fit into what we (we? which we?)do?

Everywhere.

Let’s talk about software development.

Building software requires a community of people who care, whether they are stakeholders, developers, or users.

Releasing softwarerequires a similarcommunity of people whocare.

Sustaining software requires acommunity of people who_really_ care ... enough tocontribute time to identifyingrequirements, writing code,testing, documenting, andevangelizing.

And USING the software.I cannot even begin tostress how important thisis.

So…how do you build acommunity?And sustain it?

Communication.

Inclusiveness.

Consideration.

On that note, everyone should read this blog post on conference tweeting:http://ryan.cordells.us/blog/2013/01/26/mea‐culpa‐on‐conference‐tweeting‐politeness‐and‐community‐building/

And even morecommunication.

And a sense ofownership.I’ve seen projects failbecause they’re sharedwith the world but no onereally takes ownership.

Well, not always fail.But certainly not THRIVE.

And that’s what we’relooking for in ourcommunities and in ourprojects.That they thrive.

So what defines asuccessful community orproduct?

Participation.

Enthusiasm.

A sense of pride.I’m part of that.I made that happen.That succeeded in partbecause of me.

Adoption.

And now we will discuss. Leslie Johnston Library of Congress lesliej@loc.gov

http://cynng.wordpress.com	63
http://lanyrd.com	15
https://twitter.com	2
http://eventifier.co	1

Leslie Johnston code4lib 2013 Keynote

by lljohnston on Feb 13, 2013

Accessibility

Categories

Upload Details

Usage Rights

4 Embeds 81

Statistics