Ten thoughts on community
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FOSS Backstage 20204 / 9
4
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TwitterOffice suiteOpen setSoftwareOpen sourceProduct (business)Random numberWebsiteChannel capacityIdentity managementSemiconductor memorySampling (statistics)Group theoryTerm (mathematics)StatuteRule of inferenceWhiteboardFormal grammarDirection (geometry)Self-organizationChannel capacityOpen sourceSemiconductor memoryFinitismusCodeSoftwareDirection (geometry)Projective planeLatent heatRandomizationChaos (cosmogony)Term (mathematics)QuicksortGroup theoryMereologyWebsiteData structureProduct (business)Open setSelf-organizationIdentity managementDivisorWhiteboardRule of inferenceRow (database)Flow separationGroup actionSoftware frameworkRegulator geneContext awarenessPerspective (visual)Multiplication signAreaProcess (computing)BitTask (computing)Office suiteInternet forumEvent horizonShared memoryProper mapHill differential equationComputer animationLecture/Conference
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StatuteRule of inferenceWhiteboardFormal grammarSelf-organizationDirection (geometry)TwitterMachine visionPerspective (visual)View (database)Task (computing)Commitment schemeFrustrationBuildingSampling (statistics)Variety (linguistics)PlanningBitView (database)Shared memoryCommitment schemeChemical equationTask (computing)Self-organizationGame theoryAxiom of choiceFree groupPoint (geometry)Dependent and independent variablesPerspective (visual)Multiplication signExpressionVariety (linguistics)Process (computing)CASE <Informatik>AreaMereologySoftware developerAdditionMaxima and minimaString (computer science)WhiteboardMixed realitySlide ruleRow (database)InformationQuicksortLocal ringSound effectGodMessage passingEmailProjective planeTelecommunicationChannel capacityGroup theoryPlanningQueue (abstract data type)Module (mathematics)Different (Kate Ryan album)Normal (geometry)MassOffice suiteKey (cryptography)Machine visionEstimatorComputer animationLecture/Conference
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FrustrationBuildingSampling (statistics)PlanningVariety (linguistics)TwitterGroup actionInformation securityService (economics)Control flowTask (computing)Term (mathematics)Strategy gameFocus (optics)Connectivity (graph theory)MassAreaBitDisk read-and-write headPoint (geometry)Dependent and independent variablesFlagScaling (geometry)Vulnerability (computing)Sign (mathematics)Group theorySound effectFrustrationSelf-organizationMIDITask (computing)Office suiteInternet service providerService (economics)Term (mathematics)Field (computer science)Multiplication signStrategy gameExpert systemPosition operatorSlide ruleMessage passingMereologyProjective planeSystem administratorMachine visionElement (mathematics)WhiteboardEmailElectronic mailing listCovering spaceNP-hardLocal ringSoftware developerMathematicsCore dumpRegulator geneFood energySet (mathematics)Process (computing)CurveError messageLattice (order)Inheritance (object-oriented programming)Free groupComputer animationLecture/Conference
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Integrated development environmentTask (computing)TwitterWechselseitige InformationFormal languagePoint (geometry)Open sourceLocal ringComplete metric spaceProcess (computing)Perspective (visual)Video gameComplex (psychology)Associative propertyProjective planeCASE <Informatik>CurveGoodness of fitGame theoryUniform resource locatorLevel (video gaming)Multiplication signView (database)Point (geometry)Range (statistics)Field (computer science)Sampling (statistics)Student's t-testFree groupDifferent (Kate Ryan album)WhiteboardSelf-organizationOpen sourceTask (computing)Dependent and independent variablesSoftwareIntegrated development environmentChannel capacityQuicksort1 (number)Element (mathematics)Office suiteBeat (acoustics)MathematicsSet (mathematics)Lattice (order)Local ringWordContent (media)Formal languageProper mapStaff (military)WebsitePosition operatorAddress spaceMoment (mathematics)Streaming mediaMereologyAreaLecture/ConferenceComputer animation
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Point (geometry)Formal languageOpen sourceLocal ringTwitterFraction (mathematics)Office suiteDaylight saving timeTime zoneScheduling (computing)Regular graphAnalog-to-digital converterRepresentation (politics)FrequencyEmailVideoconferencingInformationVotingHypermediaTelecommunicationComputer-generated imageryContent (media)Inclusion mapCycle (graph theory)Video gameEmailMultiplication signLattice (order)Associative propertyDivisorRow (database)Boss Corporation2 (number)Line (geometry)Context awarenessVariety (linguistics)Formal languageDaylight saving timeProper mapTime zoneExterior algebraData conversionBackdoor (computing)Flow separationInformationVotingScheduling (computing)HypermediaSelf-organizationTelecommunicationView (database)Point (geometry)TouchscreenOnline chatSpeech synthesisGroup theoryThermal conductivitySet (mathematics)BitProjective plane1 (number)Coordinate systemDesign by contractGateway (telecommunications)CodeHecke operatorStaff (military)Chemical equationVapor barrierFood energyElectronic mailing listSlide ruleSocial classProcess (computing)Level (video gaming)Revision controlOrder (biology)Musical ensembleQuicksortRule of inferenceWhiteboardCoroutineComputer animationLecture/Conference
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Right angleTerm (mathematics)SpacetimeBitSoftware developerMultiplication signMachine visionDifferent (Kate Ryan album)Group theorySoftwareOpen sourceIdentity managementProjective planeTwitterFormal languageDisk read-and-write headPOKEThermal conductivityCodeHecke operatorMoment (mathematics)QuicksortDirection (geometry)Core dumpGenderProcess (computing)Element (mathematics)Electronic mailing listFiber bundleWhiteboardGroup actionExpert systemProgrammable read-only memorySemiconductor memoryLocal ringControl flowPerfect groupSystem callSampling (statistics)Meeting/InterviewLecture/Conference
Transcript: English(auto-generated)
00:03
Okay, so let me start straight away, so Yeah, thanks for having me here. I'm glad to be able to speak here today and be in Berlin and I'd like to connect more or less seamlessly to the talk we heard before and would like to give you some insight on
00:21
lessons learned a pitfalls traps to avoid things how from my perspective an open source community can work out and Of course you always need to read that in a specific context. This is ten items that I identified. They are not conclusively Depending on which kind of project what your background is what your
00:45
What your? Projects goals is these things Could be different, but this is what we learned we that is the deliverables project that I'm part of and I hope that provides some benefit for the work you do some some more inside some things
01:02
so I'm in the whole feed for like 16 years and As you know with the LibreOffice area a lot of things have changed have developed and are constantly developing and So there's a there's a couple of things so my my official role is that I'm executive director of the document foundation that is the entity behind LibreOffice and
01:25
I was there from the beginning so I was one of the founders and was also back in the days with the open office or project and seen everything developing over the course of time and and how the whole area changed and I tried to share a couple of bits and pieces from from that time
01:44
so one of the When when we have job interviews at the document foundation one of the more interesting questions for the candidates is like What is a community and we get a ton of actually pretty good answers one candidate one started to Paint that on a paper. So
02:03
everybody has a slightly different understanding of what it is and one that I like a lot and that is Taken from the German Wikipedia article that talks about a group of people which we had heard before it It's made out of actual people. We are we are not in the face yet that we have AI running the show
02:23
Shared identity I think is key and joint interests and It already starts with the question a group of people. What is their background? So you can be there in a pure private capacity private contributors in the LibreOffice project
02:42
We have a lot of these You can be there Solidly with your corporate hat or and this is what we see more and more that of course more and more people have jobs That are related to open source to free software and they contribute more and more so it's it's not mutually exclusive That that kind of thing that you either are a corporate contributor or in a private capacity in the end
03:06
a company doesn't act people act and so in the end it doesn't matter so much who is What is your background you're part of that community and What we've learned is that is quite critical to
03:22
to have those common memory things you can talk about like a bit with old school friends you have memories you can share and At least for us in the LibreOffice project That is one of the key things that when you meet people you haven't seen for a long time That there are things you you remember things common feelings common events that you attended something that unites you that
03:43
builds that kind of group feeling that is important What I don't like so much is that I think these days the term community is actually quite abused So you have any random food producer running a website with a forum or a chat?
04:01
And it's immediately a community might be in a technical sense, but this is not what I am addressing to me It's a bit more So I think kind of the marketing that is done these days you have all sorts of communities around washing powder and and whatnot That's not the term that I would use here, but I mean fair enough. It's it's simply what we see and
04:28
No, I think the if you look there did the it's not depth enough usually so the the usual websites that have those Those random groups. It's around One specific product. It's usually just in one direction you barely can influence. What is happening?
04:44
You're just the consumer end and in a in a true open source currency you can influence you can take a role So if I'm on that website of the washing powder I usually can't influence the marketing if I'm in an open source project I have in an ideal world at least much higher chances to do that So yes, you got around a specific thing, but you're on the on the receiving end you cannot be a creator
05:10
It's it's a broad definition indeed and there are many more And I think you always exclude something or someone so I haven't yet found a proper definition That's why I said during the interview so you get a lot of great ideas
05:22
And I'd like to combine all of these in one big sentence, but if anybody has a better better definition I'd like to hear that it's not so trivial actually I agree You could base that onto or match that with the definition But that the sense behind that the you can be enabled you you can take part which we will see is
05:44
Missing from that so it is some sort of community, but not what I have in mind for that at least When you think about how is it organized? It's it's some sort of creative chaos so many many years ago I think could could be 15 years back in the open house or project
06:02
We tried indeed to paint a picture of a community and in the end we ended up with an ant hill you have all those Ants running in different directions, and it looks super chaotic in the end something comes out of that, but Per se there is not so much structure And this is what many projects these days organize that you have some more structure some more leadership some more goals
06:26
that you share some more identity and We had two people it gets even more exciting which of course with my background is a part of what I want to tell You is when you have an organization involved be it a commercial entity be it like what the document foundation is a non-profit
06:43
Because all of a sudden apart from all the human factors that you have a lot of organizational things come on top you have to deal with Donations with funds and not having money is a problem But having money can also be a problem you need to deal with that you need to organize that you need to spend it and coordinate that
07:01
You will in an organization have certain roles that could be a board that could be advisory board it could be a treasurer that could be spokesperson and As such that is then subject to certain rules to election So there's a framework around that that people have to stick to and that can make things even more complicated
07:27
The the separation or distinction between the roles here is Not conclusive so for me Former roles are those that you need to have that fill a former role like in a non-profit you have a board you need
07:40
To have that then you often have more dynamic roles that could be people taking a certain role That is not formalized like being a marketing spokesperson, but that differs You also have projects and organizations that have a dedicated role for that But there are more formalized draws that have other rules other regulations other
08:02
Structures and there are more Flexible roles that can be rather easily awarded or are rather easily awarded than than others and What still holds true at least from the projects I know that We are always short on volunteers, so if you're not running away fast enough
08:23
It's it's rather easy to get a certain role to get a certain task assigned at least you might not be immediately in a board But getting a certain task getting certain duties and some sort of role is rather happens rather quickly I think But Then with taking some some more roles some more leadership in a project you
08:47
Also, take over certain responsibilities, and there are certain things to avoid and this is what I'm trying In the next slides to break down on ten items that I identified that we learned that I personally learned over the last
09:00
Couple of years things that we ran into things that we had to deal with Things that for us work out your experience might be a different one fair enough But this is some of the things that I could extract from so what has happened. We are At a certain point. Why is that and and what could we have avoided what? Would we have wished to have learned upfront?
09:24
So the first thing especially if you are in an organization with a with a large group with a larger board it's Usually not clear with whom you are running so it's not that you likely run for a board role and have like three people That you run with but it's an election so you might indeed end up with someone you don't like you can hardly work with
09:46
That's that's risk. It's it's not different than in the company You might go to a department, and there are people you get along with and people you don't get along with So what we have learned is that? Cooperation is essential and that needs to take place in a in a certain way
10:02
I mean it all sounds trivial, but for us. It's always good to remind ourselves again of those those golden rules You need to communicate open and honestly especially if you are in a volunteer capacity And you don't see each other in the same office each day you work remotely then that is actually rather important
10:22
Transparency especially for the document foundation is one of the key things that we set up So transparency for us is very very important, so the communication the cooperation should happen in that fashion Don't underestimate effectiveness if you are just discussing for the sake of discussing you will first achieve nothing and
10:41
Second it is damn exhausting And that's what happens frequently you just argue and discuss and it turns especially into email into a massive amount of Messages that serve essentially no purpose then just to you know speak your soul free But it's not it's not productive so especially if you spend spare time you want to create something you want to see something and not
11:02
Just end up in pointless discussions. It's not possible to avoid it completely We are all humans But I think it's rather important thing to keep in mind that if you work in an effective way it also in the End will give you more more pleasure more joy in what you do Then what I mentioned you can work
11:22
Or you can end up with people in a certain group with whom you might not get along immediately So you need to identify a few key things that you have in common because if you work together you need to share something Otherwise it's rather pointless Talking about goals or vision or plans is important
11:41
But the second step is often missing you have to all those great goals But who's gonna pursue them who is in charge who wears the hat that does not necessarily mean Doing everything yourself, but Checking driving it reporting it feeling mandated to to push a topic forward And that is key because the first step is easy we want to achieve the following things
12:03
But who's gonna wear the hat on this and the second step is especially in the beginning of a project often missing and can lead to some rather unpleasant experiences a Key thing is also different points of view it's normal And it's actually good to have different points of view sometimes
12:20
It's a bit like salt in the soup without it's not tasty if it's too much It's horrible so you need to find a proper balance to to get along to align the views or to end up with something you can all share and More than once especially if you work with people from other countries from other cultures
12:40
You will get a new perspective at some point And you will try to question yourself try to understand others and that in the end can lead to a much bigger choice Than you had on your screen before because you you see something else you get some more input and In the beginning for us that was rather exhausting because we were already quite busy with what we were doing
13:01
But then we learn to value and appreciate that more and more so I think it's really key And of course you end up with with certain compromises you need to find certain things you all share you want to work on and Also goals they are not always exclusive you might have different goals sometimes
13:21
there are simply exclusive, but sometimes they are not and Acknowledging that and trying to sound out what is possible and what could actually work together quite well is also one of the rather challenging tasks I'd say and The picture I have if you play the game of rope pulling so you have actually people enjoying the same thing there
13:42
Even on two different sides in the game, but some resistance is important in the end It's important you have a great time together and even if you disagree on a couple of things. That's fine But you should be able to play at least the same sports. That's that's important the second point
14:01
I name it commitment because First you if you are mandated with a more formal or with more responsibility You get there because of your previous commitment, but then it also means you have more commitment in the future. That's Pointed I find what important so of course sometimes. There's just a
14:23
where I can see it and you take it fair enough, but you Likely will not get a certain responsibility or appreciation of what you do if you haven't been seen before if you were not present Acting as a specific way recognized by people appreciated by people
14:42
So usually it's an expression of trust whether explicit or implicit, but that's something you should make yourself clear sometimes fair enough, there's just a seed free and people look for someone to fill that but more and more and it's in the majority of of cases that
15:01
You have a certain reputation a positive one and this is what you should make yourself aware of However, what I think is rather important to understand if like if you can get elected into a board It is not only because you did a great job but now this is your medal that you can wear and that's it know actually comes with a ton of other and additional work and
15:23
What I want to emphasize this work can be completely unrelated from what you have done before So if you were in marketing if you were in development and all of a sudden you're on the board Maybe part of that role is oversight over these areas, but you will have a ton of other work it is completely unrelated and so it's not just the laurels you get and
15:43
You can wear proudly but there is more attached to it. There are strings attached And this is what I think when people run for such a role, especially in a large organization is really key to understand Looking at the time that is required it it's really hard to say it completely depends on the organization what we did
16:02
the document foundation is to Estimate over a year what is so to speak the minimum amount of time you have to invest for a role and we ended up With like 15 to 20 working days. That is quite a lot actually over the course of the year. So It shouldn't keep prevent you from running for a specific role, but you should make yourself clear
16:25
There's more work coming on top that requires a certain commitment So why is that because variety sounds rather positive What I want to highlight is What could be a part of the role this this is now a slide that is rather specific for for formal board
16:43
But now imagine you have a mix of developers of QA people of marketeers of localizers of infrastructure people and it's all great But what you see here is a ton of the tasks that they might end up with dealing on a daily business or at overseeing on a daily business so there is a lot of new information you might have to digest and we just seen that we just started with a new board at
17:07
The document foundation usually I do the onboarding explaining a bit. What's going on? What are the areas and that list and that amount of emails we sent for the onboarding? Basically grows every two years when we have to new set of board running and it's really it's not getting easier
17:22
I mean we have new regulations. We have new issues and What can be frustrating is that While all of that is required. It's barely visible in public It's nothing that is like makes you a rock star you walk on the red carpet and people applaud for that It's the the boring groundwork that needs to be done. That is not really glamorous and that
17:45
Can be in the beginning a bit frustrating when you have a lot of work and people don't See what is going on? But it heavily depends on the organization the size of organization obviously, but this is what we learn rather the hard way
18:01
So to deal with all of that it's I Think basic knowledge to be able to learn you you should be open You cannot have all of that completely on your table and be completely Sophisticated in all of the areas that's completely impossible I mean everybody has their especially areas of interest
18:21
But you need to get a bit of insight how these kind of things work. You need to be open There must be some tolerance to frustration. The onboarding is not so easy. It's a steep learning curve This is what you should keep in mind when when dealing with that And then if you are in a larger group, usually people have different skills
18:42
You should identify these and make use of that because if you end up doing everything yourself And you might have an accountant in your group or an IT guy Let them do the job that they are actually skilled with and I mean it sounds stupid but we identify that each time when we go to the The list of people taking care of certain areas if you ask them, so what's your your interest?
19:05
Why are you skilled people are usually shy so they can tell you in my day job I work at an office and I do accounting but if as a hobby day I don't know like to write texts They might be might be good for the marketing area and sounding that out that they are brave enough to bring it up and say hey
19:21
I have interest in that area. This is something I really feel comfortable with is Not as trivial as it may sound because people usually don't run up front and say I'm great here And I'm great yet. They are usually rather shy It's a bit of kind. I see a shaking head so a bit of kind of personality But at least it's the experience that we made it At least there is a certain amount of people rather reluctant to like waving the flag and hey here
19:45
I am and this is my skill so sound it out to distribute the tasks and responsibilities accordingly. I think that's rather important and again Responsibilities who is responsible for what this will likely help you a lot to to get all the the influx of tasks done properly
20:03
And then at some point This is what I call delegation Delegation it doesn't scale anymore. You need to have others in the boat to help you out and I know those kind of people who like to work long at night and do everything by yourself to be
20:20
Super competent, but actually if you delegate it's not a sign of weakness. It's a sign of strength you need to delegate It's impossible in a in a mid to large organization to handle everything yourself that just doesn't fly unless you completely stop sleeping But that has other unpleasant side effects So you can outsource to colleagues to other volunteers you might have employees
20:42
there are service providers and You can share the task and there the classical areas as soon as there is some money there are some resources what you want to outsource are likely these these four areas and IT is a bit Depends on the on the area you're active so if you have the skills in-house you might want to do it in-house
21:04
if you don't it's one of the things to to first outsource I guess but all the really and Sorry for everybody who is in that field, but I think the fields are simply boring Nobody really wants to do in their spare time accounting and and administrative stuff
21:20
So this is something you likely want to outsource in the beginning to really have your head free for other important bits and pieces That's exactly the message try to get as soon as you can rid of smaller Tasks of things that annoy you of micromanaging things that not only sucks
21:40
But also only sucks a lot of time if you are in a more leadership role If you are there to guide people if you want to run the show then your goal is really strategy long term goals Vision, where do we want to go? where do we want to be in two three years and not dealing with a day to day business that is that is not
22:00
working out and Responsibility is actually the next slide but you have a certain responsibility all of a sudden that you need to follow and That doesn't fly so well with all the small things that can easily take up your full working day so what you need to do with all the tasks is to Be in a position to
22:22
control what people working with you or for you are delivering, but you can't be expert in all of these and And we've seen a lot of times that Oversight is important, but you can't go deeper. It's simply impossible after a certain amount of size and
22:40
One of the things especially in those boring or unknown areas like administration, taxes and all the legal topics that can surround a project these days Just because it's not your prime topic and you're not skilled in it It does not mean it's not important and especially for those delivering on the tasks if the perception is always like it's not appreciated
23:02
It's not relevant that can be quite annoying So keep in mind that even topics you have absolutely no idea of might be of critical relevance for the organization That is simply simply key Responsibility is and with that we are already halfway through is the fifth item. I'd like to talk about
23:24
So if you are in an organization, of course, there's this maybe larger group There's a board or a supervisory board or any entity anybody you are part of and might be easy to hide and say yeah But we are like ten people here or we are five people or it's the big membership or whatever
23:41
In the end if if you have been mandated for a specific task, you simply have a personal responsibility Maybe not in a legal sense But at least morally ethically towards those who gave you trust So in the end you need to be On the safe side. You need to be fine with yourself at what you're doing and
24:04
With all the tasks and duties just to repeat what I said before try to keep an overview what's relevant You cannot be in all of the areas. It cannot cover marketing development QA localization It's impossible doesn't scale but keep an overview what is cooking there what might be pressing points
24:22
Meet deadlines, they are simply for for legal entities hard deadlines that you have to meet there is no way around there's no discussion Regulations they get more and more complicated. I mean, we just had this this GDPR topic behind us There is many many more things to come. I'm sure beyond the the taxes and the basic legal stuff
24:43
I'm rather sure we will see more things that will take our time and will take our energy and are not Directly related to the core thing that any project wants to do, but we have to deal with that it will not get easier that's I think that's for sure and we had the interesting experience last year thing of us with the
25:02
Changes in copyright and they are always errors that can be a massive problem for for any project Especially if it's distributed worldwide, so keep that in mind that is rather important And again, just because you don't know the topic does not mean it's not important It might be not important, but it's not given so that's something to be aware of
25:25
Then if we talk about project made up of people, of course, there's a massive social component That's that's gets like in any company and I think with free software projects worldwide lots of volunteers different people that actually is one of the more challenging ones and one of those who
25:44
Really can determine where things are going beyond the ground work. You need to provide Working together in a team and have a certain sort of responsibility is really really key So you might have and this is what also we discovered over the course of time you have your tasks and projects
26:05
but at some point in time you might be large enough that you have a paid team and then you run into the problem that Like in many organizations, you have a pro bono board doing that in their spare time Maybe not having their day business based on guiding people on handling employees on the other hand
26:23
you have a set of beat contractors beat employees people depending on the organization and That changes the game quite significantly because all of a sudden you might simply end up in being an employer it's no different from a small local association that maybe employs one or two people you take over the
26:41
Leadership there and then you are the employer if you like it or not You might be employed yourself in in your professional life But you also have that responsibility of the employer and that can change things quite a lot So I don't want to deliver a lecture on like how to handle staff There are tons of people who've written great books about that
27:03
but the basic two things I think are especially in a in a Community uses give them some safety and Provide them a proper work environment a positive one It can't be all unicorns every day But try to provide some positive work environment because that is key and that is really important for you
27:26
It might be that site Job or site activity you have in the evening, but for them it maybe is their complete income stream they're complete professional work life and that is simply a completely different perspective that you have to factor in and I think especially for a
27:43
Project you can actually make advantage of what you provide because people then indeed can work from home Which is a key benefit. It's not so common still especially in Germany Countries are different in that regard, but it's a key thing you can advertise with They can turn what they like to do into their day job into a living
28:03
Contributing to something good to something positive not only earning money But actually moving something achieving something is something you can sell so when you write your job offers Don't just have that the basic facts, but advertise why why they should go with you What is the good thing you provide to the world and I mean as
28:23
Open-source communities we do have things that we want to give to general public and therefore this is something you can really use to advertise and make use of and shout out to the world if you Contribute here if you join us actually you do something good and you can
28:42
Make the world a better place. It's such a stupid tackle, but you know what I mean You can actually contribute to to something good as said. It's really a steep learning curve Especially when you do it in a volunteer capacity Especially with volunteer teams like many projects work with volunteer teams and that adds another layer of complexity because not everybody is
29:03
immediately suited for remote Working from home not changing the location during the day might be a problem for some as we have learned so just listen It's basic knowledge talk with each other not about each other try to listen try to sound out especially if you don't see people in the office each day if they're working remotely if you only
29:25
infrequently see them like some members of my team I meet four times a year because they are living on the complete opposite side of the world and then you need to really sound Out what are they up to? How are they doing? How are they feeling and that is really really important That can earn you on the other hand a lot of
29:42
Motivation and loyalty and this is what we need if you invest in people if you build up a team And they run away after a year. You have a problem. You need to build it up again It costs your time it cost reputation. So it's I think a pretty good investment to Do that to spend time even if it's hard because it's not your daily job
30:02
It's not what you are trained to do. Try to gather some knowledge and how that works and simply be open I think that especially in a field that we are working in is one of the key competencies We should have being open listening being open-minded and as such do that also with your team
30:22
that brings me to the topic of diversity and This is the larger the project gets the more exciting that becomes so we have Looking at people who contribute to LibreOffice we have such a broad range of people broad range of countries backgrounds professions from
30:44
students to People being retired we had one of my samples we had a Doctor a leading doctor who was working in a field of graphics So completely unrelated to what he was doing in his day job, and it was always quite for him
31:01
It was a change. He had a talent in that area for him. It was a change to the day job and that's I mean, that's cool and It requires you to understand certain things So language, of course is one one element Which language do you speak or if you're a native English speaker at what speed do you speak?
31:23
It makes a difference. Can people follow meetings? Can you really bring across the content also in easy words if you're on the same level? That's fine But then you might have people who speak basic English and you speak fast and use super complicated words Especially in meetings on the phone that might make a big problem
31:42
Culture yeah, we have different cultural backgrounds. We might like certain things. We might dislike certain things and Religion per se I mentioned it is not a key element of the contributions, but it can like for For the food you have at conferences makes a difference or once we had our own conference people were asking
32:03
Is there a room where we can have prayers and we simply didn't have that on screen but for them it was really important So the more people you have the more diversity is in the more you need to to learn and understand and there are great Things you learn that will also advance you personally at the beginning it might be a lot of new unknown topics that you have to face and
32:24
Then of course with all the great Diversity, let's face it. You also have to deal with complicated persons. That's like in daily life like in a job So it's not just all the nice people got a here you also have to face with complicated with toxic people with people trying to do harm and
32:42
My take is at the moment is this even going up in the community? So I have a couple of communities I know of that Really face struggles at the moment might be coincidence. But in general there are discussions There are complicated people you might need to address it's part of the game and
33:01
I made a sample before of local associations the big difference for me is that Much of that might hold true also for a small local organization the big difference is that in an open source community you have people from around the world and That is rarely the case in a small local association
33:21
There might be some people from other countries, but it's not this massive influx that you deal with people from 30-40 countries So the the level is much higher and the challenges are much higher But then what you can get in return is much higher as well If you have all those people in work together with them that can change the game quite a lot to your advantage
33:42
and In the end the general advice you need to be open You need to challenge yourself you points if you might change or at least you will learn a new point of view from others and You need to factor it in and I personally was really positively surprised a couple of times It's not always easy like at the conference. So where's the room where we can pray and you're like
34:03
Okay Just don't have to on screen for the next conference You know You need to reach out and ask if there is such a demand you can fact it and you learn something that you will keep So it's it's a really helpful thing from my point of view Speaking about languages maybe a bit more to the ground work again on how to coordinate all that so we have
34:25
Projects we have people we have different feelings. We have diversity, but how does that more or less technical work technically work to? coordinate everything and languages is key We all assume English is a language spoken everywhere. I might object to that
34:42
There are countries where English is not so prominent where other languages are much more prominent. So the basic assumption Everybody speaks English might not work out. So be careful with that. I have no no proper solution because If you have a variety of countries and you need to interact with them Not all of us speak like five languages, but this general assumption everybody speaks English is wrong. It's simply wrong
35:06
I don't want to name countries specifically, but we have a couple of countries that simply Told us so we have one or two people as a gateway. Otherwise English here is simply not existent. So be careful with that
35:20
Also brings the question if you have contracts if you have anything writing with people or any Like which language would a code of conduct be in or which languages it's not so trivial need to factored it in For us English is fine far as it might not so factor in more into that and then of course the practical things Like time zones are great. If you coordinate with Australia or other countries you have a lot of fun
35:42
Daylight savings can be different. So this is just a practical thing when the heck is our meeting at which time so keep that keep it in mind and then again talking about times working with the team and Pro bono folks you have the problem a volunteer can mostly do work outside
36:01
Business hours in evenings during weekends if you have a paid team if you ask them to be present Like each weekend. It's not gonna fly. So you need to find somehow a balance how to match everything like that How can a team of pro bono and paid staff work together and find a meeting slot that is not Disturbing the daily routine too much. It's not so trivial actually
36:26
There is to me this ideal scheduling a couple of things Basic things but we learned it use polls alternate time slots Everybody at least has chance once to join a meeting and
36:40
Send calendar invites because then you have to proper time zone It's it's basic But we had issues several times that people did not know when a meeting starts even if it's written and you had the time zone Conversion sent them a calendar invite it helps actually So how to communicate? Email is great. I can read and reply whenever I have time on the phone and if we need to be present immediately
37:04
But then at some point after the 500 email it might be a problem to still follow the discussion might be easier to take things on the phone So identify what is better on a phone identify what is better in email or chat or whatever written? conversation and
37:20
For emails we learned if people have too many emails and who does not? Tacked emails like urgent vote discussion info so we can pre sort a bit that actually helps a lot and in general It's absolutely fine to prepare a vote in email and conduct via phone or the other way
37:41
discussion discuss a controversial topic on the phone and have to final vote why email so you're not bound to one media continuously over the lifecycle of a topic see what what's better and then You need depending on the organization You might have to meet a deadline agenda quorum factored it in for some it's relaxed
38:01
If you like an association in Germany you have strict rules how that has to happen so you need to agree internally when is our meeting deadline when do we send the agenda out otherwise what you decide might be simply void and everything was Wasted time Trust trust sounds easy, but it is not I'd say so
38:23
At least after a certain amount of time if you're in a row and you still don't have trust in others Or you still don't feel trusted You either run away, or you don't fill the role properly so trust is important written communication is risky because you don't see the other side everybody has a different style of writing and
38:45
Like once I had a colleague who was always to a long and nice email replying one sentence And it's like don't you like me? Well, do you disagree then he told me no no so I'm working at this company and whenever my boss is out of the Room I have like 10 seconds to reply to that email, and then it was clear
39:00
But before what an RS, but then it was completely different He really wanted to reply he even like risked a debate with his boss to reply to my email It was a completely different context But you need to know that a simple email a couple of lines of text are really risky to To be interpreted, and then we all have to confirmation bias we all assume that
39:21
The bad feelings we had before are now confirmed so Talk with people try to get into exchange trust people try to build trust That is that is key because after a certain amount of time it will a long time be in Silence and you will not discuss about that But there will be a point that everything will pop up and like the pain of the last five years will really break out
39:43
And that's what you really want to avoid it takes time energy, and it's just not leading anywhere and then That's what we learned being based in Germany and having people worldwide if you have a different legal setting that can lead to some funny and obscure things because if somebody from the US or
40:01
From the UK looks at Germany or the other way around there is a ton of questions And that also might lead to to trust issues so try to have a complicated It is try to translate try to explain what is going on what the rules are why there are rules So they have a fair chance of getting on board and understanding and the language is not a barrier to that
40:26
Last but maybe most important reward reward is important and The next and last slide is simply my very personal list I think everybody has their list of why they feel rewarded or what makes them feel rewarded
40:42
What they'd like to see the group of people? Who'd simply like to go to be corporation at the end of the month of a massive paycheck And then just spend time at weekends and vacations others have completely different desires And you should identify if you're active in a project What your personal reward is and also what you want others to see as a reward like
41:07
appreciation if you want to be appreciated appreciate others if You want to allot them if you want to help them achieve a new level at their day job do that so Try to find out why somebody is running
41:21
For a role try to find out. What makes people comfortable in contributing what their Desired reward is and try to give it to them everybody has their very own List of things what they they are really comfortable with what they really would like to see Try to find it out and also important answer this question for yourself in order to
41:43
To keep you happy and engaged in the long run So that's that was really the condensed version that all originated I think two years ago when we had a new board coming up and the question was can you summarize a bit of what we had as
42:00
experiences and it's Clearly very subjective. It's my own takes and feelings yours might be completely different But I'd like to simply give it to you as a some sort of inspiration It depends on the setting and the organization to size and the kind of people fair enough, but I hope it was a bit useful I'm happy for questions. Feel free to poke me and
42:23
Yeah, thanks for your patience and thanks for listening Thank you, thank you for that talk and does anyone have any questions
42:41
I'd like to go back to the very beginning when you had a definition of a community and I realized that you might not be as attached to it as you know, it's presented but The way, you know the way it's presented it might be more Descriptive than prescriptive, but I wonder if there is a way to hack it that would change things a little bit
43:04
Can Yes, thank you a group of people with a shared identity and joint interests I wonder if one way to present it is something like a shared shared values and common goals and here's why a
43:21
lot of what I do is trying to bring designers into this space and it's really difficult when An identity is defined in terms of common memories ventures and experiences because sometimes they're just not shared, right? sometimes it's very alienating when you're referring back to some conferences you've been to years ago, or there's a Very obscure Star Trek reference somewhere, you know
43:42
like there's just ways in which a shared identity could be very exclusive and So I wonder like if instead of saying shared identity Maybe there is a better way to present it as shared values like values we all hold And similar to interests when you call it an interest. It's often, you know, oh we
44:03
Interest is building local first software or something, you know some something, you know that people can have fun doing together But oftentimes that means that you are only going to reach developers in that sense If you make it a common goal say something like our goal is to you know Destroy tech monopolies or something like that
44:22
You might find that designers are also interested in participating and even lawyers and accountants, right? Like, you know, the people could be the group could be much more diverse than just developers And so yeah, I guess I don't know if this is more of a question or a comment But like is there a way to hack the definition to make it a little bit more inclusive to different groups of people. I
44:44
Absolutely like the idea. So it's really not easy When I was starting to talk of us as you see in the end ending up Wikipedia because I like that I was not able to come up with something really descriptive or really That that felt like yep. That's it myself. I like vision
45:00
You could use also passion It's maybe a bit too strong depends on the kind of people you address but I know some in our group who are really passionate who really like they they have that flame they really like to do that and So everything that is Emotional any any anything that is in an emotional sense Getting there is something I like there are other people who see it more technical and that that's fair enough
45:24
But it is this when I made a sample with the friends from school is this emotional binding? We have something you share whatever it's called. So vision sounds great to me. I like that approach here indeed indeed. Thanks
45:48
about leadership And especially when you have like a group of volunteers Maybe not like full-timers or paid people like leaders also have to do difficult things like in the company sometimes like letting people go
46:01
Like what's the equivalent where or did you ever run to into a situation where you actually had somebody in your community? Where you said well, we actually don't want to work with you anymore So luckily we never had to go that far We were always close to like really talking to people saying your behavior or how we approach the other person is not appropriate
46:24
so at least I'm not aware of a Major issue luckily, but my take unfortunately is it was just not discovered I can't imagine after that amount of time with that group of people nothing ever happened So that's why one end. I'm happy on that and I'm sure there was something
46:41
But at least we have complicated times We have to talk to people and it gets even more complicated if they are friends and and you know You have those those two hats on one end that like so what's happening here simply not gonna work out on the other End like I'm a friend of you. So what the heck is going on? And that is not so easy. What we usually do is
47:03
Trying to find out to sound out Who is probably best in a project a person who speaks the same language or who's you know? The same mindset whom would they trust that helps a lot. It's not always smooth and easy, of course But it's the way we we try to handle it
47:21
and We do have complicated people on various occasions, of course But we try for example when when when there are people known to run around and Annoy people to say very friendly to make clear. So if there is a problem
47:42
Here's a couple of trusted people you can conduct maybe not in a code of conduct sense But like if that person pops up, I know them quite well, please Pope. I'm happy to talk Don't don't try to get into that warm I'm happy to to call and and and and solve the problem or talk to them So this is some sort of I'd say internal knowledge that we have
48:02
Which of course is risky if some people leave then that knowledge is gone But that's how we at the moment try to address it But we're eager to improve on that as well So code of conduct is one of the topics that we have formed by their discussions to improve on that I think this is key The more communities grow the more they include
48:25
People who are simply different from the core group that the more important that is I think and But as you can imagine and maybe some of you went to that it's not an easy discussion at all. Not at all
48:42
Thank you for the talk. My question also goes into a similar direction. I think as your question When you define diversity you mentioned Like different people in different jobs different age different culture, but you didn't mention for example
49:01
Like gender for example, which no worries about that, but I was just curious because I read a Right on Twitter the other day that well the amount of for example women in tech is much lower than men But it's even much much much lower a lot fewer percentage The relationship is like more off in in open source where there are very few women so I was just curious do you have
49:28
It's a tough question, but do you have an explanation for that? And what do you think could? Could a community do to address this issue? Yeah, so indeed the that list is also was conclusive
49:40
It was indeed on purpose because with that you open a really massive Discussions that I really don't have proper answers for I share your findings um what we did is to Discuss that we had a workshop two conferences ago to how to improve it It's a very small first step obviously and it's not a trivial topic
50:05
It's a very heated emotional topic and that these are always Really really problematic to to to talk true. I have not a real explanation I perceive the same it mean if we look at our board if you look at a membership base
50:21
it's easy if you look at the gender the Percentages is clear. It's exactly what you say we see with the conferences We we try or first steps that I would say to to improve we could do clearly much better But then it really is a question how to to work on that so also the opinions
50:44
There are different, and I think it's so fragile if if You move in a in a at least publicly in a certain direction you might break things I'm I don't know it. I perceive everybody is really careful Fully aware of the problem clear we should solve that and luckily we do have a couple of really
51:03
Dedicated and then passionate people driving that and I hope to see much more outcome because we perceive the same and I sadly have no Perfect answer as to why we see that and and how to solve that I I hear many opinions, but I I Can't combine all of them to one. They are they are different that makes it a bit trivial if everybody is going the same direction
51:25
It's easy if you have Opposing opinions, then it's problematic, and I'm not the expert in that feeling that makes it really challenging. I have to say, but I'm willing to learn clearly
51:41
Any more questions? Okay, thank you