LQ Community Manager Interview Series

As you probably know, "community" is an extremely important concept here at LQ. Whether it be the LQ community, the Linux community or the greater Open Source community, we share many common goals and ideas. In reality, we're a large collective made up of smaller communities. In this vein, I thought it would be interesting to interview a variety of people who are responsible for looking after a specific community. While many of these people will have the title "Community Manager", it's possible that some will not. Each interview will consist of a few common questions and then some project specific questions. We already have a couple interview lined up, but I'm interested in who you'd like to see interviewed. I'd also like to know what questions you'd like to see asked, be it in the general group or the project specific group. We plan to continue this series by posting one interview every couple weeks.

--jeremy

hmm, this might be stretching the realm of "acceptable questioning", but i think i'd like to know what the indviduals thoughts are on why smaller open source projects (meaning, individual programs) are largely limited to open source operating systems. Meaning, for the most part, you dont see as many open source projects in windows, or as successful ones. Perhaps it's just a perception, created by years of indoctrination by windows, and corporate in general, that "you get what you pay for (and if you're not paying anything, you're not getting much)"

Hopefully these thoughts came out coherent enough to be understood.

Interesting idea Jeremy.It will be nice to see those interviews here at LQ.
For start,if it's possible I would like to see what somebody from Webmin and/or Linux Test projects have to say about the future of their projects.

I'm happy to announce that the first interview has been posted. The interview is with Jono Bacon - the Ubuntu Community manager and a person who is literally writing the book on the science of community. He says community so much in some of his talks that people have been known to start a flashing "community count". I'd like to thank Jono for taking the time to answer our questions.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...anager-712635/

--jeremy

I would like to see an interview with someone who is actively maintaining some of the Cygwin packages.

I would love to know if my theory is correct. I believe the reason that Cygwin (RedHat) is putting all of the effort into making their Linux-like environment for Windows work well is so that it can act as a bridge to wean users off of Windows.

That's how it helped me. Some years ago I wanted to use Linux, but I was uncomfortable with it, so I installed and started using Cygwin Bash and friends. My confidence improved to the point that I was able to make the jump to Linux. (Note that I'm a command-line guy and this was before desktop environments were what they are today anyway.)

Oh yeah, cool, I know Jono Bacon personally from FISL (Forum Internacional do Sofware Livre - AKA: International Free Software Forum). Smart and cool guy, he also has a death metal band (had?)

Well, it seems he got a new metal band now, which still kick ass!

Alright, I'll be looking forward to get the book, too!

Next up in the series is going to be Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier, openSUSE Community Manager at Novell. If you have any questions you'd like to see answered, post them here ASAP.

--jeremy

As a recent user of Ubuntu/Linux I have come to enjoy using it immensely. So easy to configure, run all appropriate software as well. My only wishes are 2.
1. Acknowledge the 'Windows' key on the keypressup, not the keypressdown. If that was available I could really configure my menus and commands perfectly.
2. Allow for opening windows to be centered, left, etc. The only option available to me is to run Compiz. Not all that bad, but I'm a resource freak. I like to run as lean as possible.

Just a thought.
herbie

I've always wanted to participate in an open source project. But like most of us it's terribly time consuming. I'd hate to start and not see it through (at least do it for a year or two). I'd be interested in hearing how your interviewees do it. Example, how much time during the week do they work on the open source project? Do they have project management experience (day job)? Do they set deadlines? Do they use project management software (besides using a version control system) to manage the work? Do the interviewees have families that contend with their time?

Thanks,
Den.

Originally Posted by ddden I've always wanted to participate in an open source project. But like most of us it's terribly time consuming. I'd hate to start and not see it through (at least do it for a year or two).

With all due respect but you're only setting hedges for yourself: since you will never be able to comply with those (who here knows exactly what she/he will be doing in two years?) you can safely conclude you can never contribute and be done with it. My advice would be to just go do it. Contributing, even once, is better than to never have contributed at all.

Originally Posted by ddden I'd be interested in hearing how your interviewees do it. Example, how much time during the week do they work on the open source project?

Not that building and growing a comunity isn't a five year plan (at least) itself but AFAIK "Community Managers" manage communities, not projects?

Originally Posted by unSpawn With all due respect but you're only setting hedges for yourself:

unSpawn,

You're giving ddden an unnecessarily hard time. His primary point wasn't why he's not contributing yet. The main point was that he is answering jeremy's query about what questions you'd like to see asked.

And I second ddden's request. I also would like to know how developers mix and manage time consuming contributions with the basic need to earn a living. It's a interesting question.

BTW, the people jeremy is looking for are responsible for looking after a specific community. I would bet that almost all of them are or have been major development contributors.

Jeremy, could you create a section in the community newsletter (like a sticky) for the time this series lasts? Would be nice and possibly have a better outreach.

The intro was included in the most recent Community Bulletin, and each future article will also be mentioned.

--jeremy

The next interview, with openSUSE Community Manager Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier, has been posted:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...anager-722936/

--jeremy

Next up is Greg DeKoenigsberg, the Senior Community Architect at Red Hat.

--jeremy