Alessio Fattorini discusses the importance of community for developers during a conference in Rome, emphasizing that community fosters innovation and provides valuable feedback. He outlines key strategies for building a successful community, such as creating emotional safety, being inclusive, and training members to help each other. The talk highlights that code is not the primary challenge in a community; instead, prioritizing relationships and connections among people is essential.

1. Community in a nuthshell for developers
Alessio Fattorini
ROME 24-25 MARCH 2017
Alessio Fattorini

3. The Atanasoff-Berry Computer

4. John Vincent
Atanasoff

8. Shockley - Bardeen - Brattain

9. Thompson e Ritchie

11. “
To go fast, go alone
To go far, go
together
African Proverb

12. Hello!
Alessio Fattorini

13. Linux Sysadmin at Nethesis
NethServer Community Manager
Community Junkie
Prosecco evangelist
ale_fattorini
Alessio Fattorini

14. Go Far
Community is the key to go far

15. Why?

17. Why community is
good for your project?

18. ★ Feedback

19. ★ Feedback
★ Comparisons

20. ★ Feedback
★ Comparisons
★ Testing and Bugs

21. ★ Feedback
★ Comparisons
★ Testing and Bugs
★ Content

22. ★ Feedback
★ Comparisons
★ Testing and Bugs
★ Content
★ Spread the word

23. ★ Feedback
★ Comparisons
★ Testing and Bugs
★ Content
★ Spread the word
★ Support

24. ★ Feedback
★ Comparisons
★ Testing and Bugs
★ Content
★ Spread the word
★ Support
★ Development

25. ★ Feedback
★ Comparisons
★ Testing and Bugs
★ Content
★ Spread the word
★ Support
★ Development
★ Translations

26. ★ Feedback
★ Comparisons
★ Testing and Bugs
★ Content
★ Spread the word
★ Support
★ Development
★ Translations
★ Loyalty

27. Loyalty
★ It’s much harder to leave a group
of people you’re connected to than
a faceless product

28. Loyalty
★ It’s much harder to leave a group
of people you’re connected to than
a faceless product
★ In community you’re building
connections with people which is
way more powerful than features

29. Why community is
good for devs?

31. The best way to have a good
idea is to have a lot of ideas
Dr. Linus Pauling - American chemist

32. Build an ideas factory

33. Build an ideas factory
★ Different point of views

34. Build an ideas factory
★ Different point of views
★ No matter who you are, most of the
smartest people work for someone else
(Joy’s Law)

35. Build an ideas factory
★ Different point of views
★ No matter who you are, most of the
smartest people work for someone else
(Joy’s Law)
★ 90 % of all community feedback is crap
○ this means 10% is gold! (J. Atwood)

36. Build an ideas factory
★ Different point of view
★ No matter who you are, most of the
smartest people work for someone else
(Joy’s Law)
★ 90 % of all community feedback is crap
○ this means 10% is gold! (J. Atwood)
Community is the idea factory where
innovation comes from

37. Ivory Tower Development

38. Ivory Tower Development
★ It’s dangerous to create an evironment
where developers have no idea who the
users are

39. Ivory Tower Development
★ It’s dangerous to create an evironment
where developers have no idea who the
users are
★ Developers assume everyone else is a
developer

40. Ivory Tower Development
★ It’s dangerous to create an evironment
where developers have no idea who the
users are
★ Developers assume everyone else is a
developer
★ A community brings developers back to
the reality and helps to stay grounded.

41. From the outside

42. NethServer is an operating
system for Linux
enthusiasts, designed for
small offices and medium
enterprise

43. NethServer is an operating
system for Linux
enthusiasts, designed for
small offices and medium
enterprise

44. NethServer is an operating
system for Linux
enthusiasts, designed for
small offices and medium
enterprise

45. What’s your
audience?

46. How to build a
community?
In a nutshell

47. If you build it
they won’t come

48. But my project is a great
idea and my code is solid!

50. Why?

51. Keep your
values always in
check

52. You don’t launch a
community
Start small and grow organically

53. Create a founders group

54. Give a place to congregate

55. You may need to manufacture
the first interactions
Create activity

56. Be Welcoming

57. Be Welcoming
★ First experience is critical
★ Feel acknowledged
★ Know what to do first
★ First post prompt response

59. Be inclusive

60. Be inclusive
It doesn’t matter how fun and
amazing your project is. If people
don’t feel safe they won’t contribute

61. Be inclusive
★ Create a space of emotional safety
★ Be humble - don’t patronize
★ Leading by example setting the bar of
kindness (and guidelines!)

64. Be inclusive
★ Create a space of emotional safety
★ Be humble - don’t patronize
★ Lead by example setting the bar of
kindness (Guidelines!)
★ Don’t take yourself too serious

66. Thank you Toolset

71. Be supportive

72. Be supportive
★ Be responsive

73. Be supportive
★ Be responsive
★ Close the loop

75. Be supportive
★ Be responsive
★ Close the loop
★ Read the Fucking Manual is not an
answer

76. Train your community
★ They join community to get help not to
give it
★ Train your community to answer
★ Social Debt -> Offer opportunities to
members to give help in return

77. Train your community
★ They join community to get help not to
give it
★ Train your community to answer
★ Social Debt -> Offer opportunities to
members to give help in return
★ Call upon specific people to help other
specific people

78. Autonomy

79. Autonomy

80. Listen to your community

81. Listen to your community
★ Be open-minded

82. Listen to your community
★ Be open-minded
★ Be ready to discuss

84. Listen to your community
★ Be open-minded
★ Be ready to discuss
★ But don’t let them tell you what to do

85. Half baked ideas

86. Half baked ideas
★ Don’t approach with a blank state
○ Be aware of bikeshedding
★ Make your questions specific and provide
half the answer yourself

91. Be Transparent

92. Be transparent
★ Work out loud
★ Show what kind of contributions your
looking for and how much they matter
★ Document everything
○ Open roadmap and no changelog!

95. Be transparent
Some of these might seem obvious but
plese keep in mind:
THIS IS NOT ABOUT YOU!

97. Linus Torvalds
You need to have the people-people, the
communicators, the warm and friendly
people who really want to hug you and get
you into the community, but that’s not
everybody and that’s not me. I care just
about the technology.

98. Code is not the challenge of
a community, people are.
Let’s put them first

99. Thanks!
ale_fattorini
community.nethserver.org
ale_fattorini
nethesis.it