Right Where You Belong

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

Making
Community

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

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

What Breaks Them
“Crossed wires”
* Misconceptions
* Gossip
* Careless comments

What Breaks Them
Interest Level
* Always comes and goes
* “Withering vines”
* No champion

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

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

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

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

Making Your
Mark

Set your inner
author free...

Write!
Documentation
Project manuals
* Often overlooked
* Living document
The Others
* User guides
* API docs

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

Write!
Documentation
About the Project
* Structure, UML, Schema
* Project Wiki
* Unit tests?

Write!
Blogging
You pick the topics
* Technical? Community?
* Respond to the community
* Promote a project

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

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

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)

Write!
Tutorials
Growing young minds
* Channel your inner Beginner
* Know the audience
* Define the audience

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

Publishers like
* Apress
* Packt
* McGraw-Hill
Magazines like
* php|architect
* PHP Magazine
Write!
Books/Articles

Meet the People

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

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

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

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

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

...and of course,
The Code

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

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
Contribute the Code
Extending

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

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

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

Making a
Difference

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

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

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

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

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.
So what is community?
Wikipedia.org - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community

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.
Does PHP fit?

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!

Right Where You Belong

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