Can one bring the open-source style of community inside a company? Yes! It can be done and it should be done. All enterprises aim to be agile. The chances to have a bunch of people passionate about a specific technology grows with the company size. Often, especially in enterprises, the tech engineers are siloed in their tribes/product centers and can't really collaborate. The "Spotify model" praised by the business is not helping here. This presentation will cover the bootstrapping of a Kubernetes community in a enterprise. It will showcase a step-by-step framework that can be adapted and replicated for building similar communities. The focus will be on the many benefits it brought to internal engineers, the business and on the impact it can have on the wider open source community.

1. Building tech communities inside
companies
Catalin Jora @ Cloud Native Rejekts | 15 May 2022 Valencia, Spain

2. Catalin Jora
- Independent Cloud Engineer @FikaWorks Collective
- Docker NL Community Leader
- FikaWorks Podcast Host
- Tech event volunteer/organizer (KubeCon, DockerCon, Serverless Days,
Software Circus)
- I’ve built kubernetes.io/docs/tutorials/kubernetes-basics - interactive
tutorial
@jocatalin | linkedin.com/in/jocatalin

3. @jocatalin
Typical Company

4. Common patterns/problems:
● Enterprises aim to be agile (but still
siloed at different levels)
● Tech engineers are not usually
connected with their peers from other
departments (think Kubernetes SIG)
● Duplicate work in Tech centers |
Product Units | Tribes
● Multiple teams are facing the same
challenges
● COVID situation (zero face-2-face
interaction)
@jocatalin

5. @jocatalin
Typical Company

6. @jocatalin
Why build a tech community?
● (Successfully) Introduce a technology
● Remove duplicate work (by collaboration)
● Shared knowledge across Tribes | Tech Centers | Product
Units
● Architect solution that will work for everybody
● Real collaboration
● Enhance the company tech brand
● Facilitate recruitment

7. @jocatalin
Building a community
Identify the early adopters:
● Via wiki / Intranet / chat platforms
● company internal and external events
● via-via

8. @jocatalin
Building a community:
Put them in touch (in person or virtually) via informal events
● informal lunches
● BoF (Birds of a Feather) sessions
● drinks (works for large office hubs)

9. @jocatalin
Building a community:
Facilitate a first official meeting | event:
● Start with one presentation
● Run a show and tell
● Invite an experienced external speaker

10. @jocatalin
Building a community:
Identify who can lead it
● Somebody will need to
drive it at the
beginning
● Get support (not
approval) from
business
Video link here.

11. @jocatalin
Building a community:
Schedule regular events
● Define the format of the events
● Grow it organically and with help of internal platforms

12. @jocatalin
Building a community:
Formalize the community
● wiki page
● Slack | Microsoft Teams
● company events
● blog

13. @jocatalin
Building a community:
Generate content
● Internal
○ Hands-on materials
○ Presentations
○ Wiki
● External (useful for recruitment)
○ Blogging
○ Presentations

14. @jocatalin
Building a community - Step by Step guide
● Identify the technologies you wanna build a community
around
● Identify the early adopters|advocates
● Put them in touch
● Facilitate a first meeting
● Identify who can lead the community
● Schedule regular events
● Define the format of the events
● Formalize the community (wiki page, slack, events)
● Generate content (internal, external)

15. @jocatalin
Side effects: peer-to-peer collaboration

16. @jocatalin
Side effects: Direct exchange of knowledge
Community
Siloed Companies

17. @jocatalin
If you wanna make it happen , own it!
Don’t wait for managers/business to facilitate it

18. twitter.com/JoCatalin
linkedin.com/in/JoCatalin
Thanks | Gracias
Questions?