As the Backdrop CMS community seeks to set goals for the next year, we'd like to hear about what we can do to better support our existing volunteers and ideas for how to recruit new ones?
Thoughts?
Most helpful answers
As a potential volunteer ... I've been frustrated with another open-source project that I'd like to contribute to but have found it very difficult. I think recruiting volunteers starts with clear expectations and understanding of what different types of volunteers can do and what the community needs.
One starting place is simple technical resources: do you have a development server? a de-bug IDE? can you work in Php? If so, great then you can help with identifying and fixing code errors. And here's the critical part ... even if you don't have those skills/resources there needs to be a way to be involved & contribute. Can you user test? unit test? hang out in the forums and help answer basic questions?
My limited experience is that "developers=volunteers" while "admins & users=people who really should become a developer and be useful." And sure there's probably a greater need for those with developer skills, but as a former Organizational Development person I think the best way to get developers is to get buy-in from people regardless of their current skill. They'll come along if there is a learning curve, not a learning cliff on the other side of some technical chasm.
It's chickens vs eggs. Responses and feedback are engaging, but you need a sufficient number of people to supply them. I think ideas like the bot in the Gitter app that announces new posts are a good start.
Comments
It's chickens vs eggs. Responses and feedback are engaging, but you need a sufficient number of people to supply them. I think ideas like the bot in the Gitter app that announces new posts are a good start.
I have a pending admin approval post in the topic "Goals for Backdrop CMS in 2020" which seems relevant to this topic as well. But, I'd rather not double post, as if the concept is accepted by BD then there would be discussions in multiple places and people and thoughts would get missed.
I'll link to it whenever it gets approved.
Best,
Michael
As a potential volunteer ... I've been frustrated with another open-source project that I'd like to contribute to but have found it very difficult. I think recruiting volunteers starts with clear expectations and understanding of what different types of volunteers can do and what the community needs.
One starting place is simple technical resources: do you have a development server? a de-bug IDE? can you work in Php? If so, great then you can help with identifying and fixing code errors. And here's the critical part ... even if you don't have those skills/resources there needs to be a way to be involved & contribute. Can you user test? unit test? hang out in the forums and help answer basic questions?
My limited experience is that "developers=volunteers" while "admins & users=people who really should become a developer and be useful." And sure there's probably a greater need for those with developer skills, but as a former Organizational Development person I think the best way to get developers is to get buy-in from people regardless of their current skill. They'll come along if there is a learning curve, not a learning cliff on the other side of some technical chasm.
"admins & users=people who really should become a developer and be useful."
So true! That is one of the biggest turn offs for having people, who were willing to help, just walk away and never come back.
In the same vein changing from procedural to object orientation removes 50 - 80% of the coder base. Why? It’s the difference between what a coder is and a developer is:
Coders vs. Developers
A Coder:
is anyone who has the intelligence to sling together working code. Strictly speaking it's at least 20% of the entire population and probably closer to 40%. See any intelligence bell curve. Total worldwide coder base is 1 to 3 billion people. Yes Billion!
A Developer:
usually has formal training in computer science, usually employed in computer software, and usually works in a more recent software architecture. A rough guess at the total worldwide developer base is 20 to 30 million people.[1]
Object-oriented programming (OOP):
is a population sub-set of Developer. It also, because of its complexity and that the mental model of object-oriented programming is not intuitive, does not really allow coders, as defined above, to participate.
[1] https://www.daxx.com/article/software-developer-statistics-2017-programmers
# # #
So, if BD is moving to OOP, it should reverse course!
Best,
Michael
Inet-Design.com, owner
• Managed Drupal Hosting
• Free Emergency Backups
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So true! That is one of the biggest turn offs for having people, who were willing to help, just walk away and never come back.
In the same vein changing from procedural to object orientation removes 50 - 80% of the coder base. Why? It’s the difference between what a coder is and a developer is:
Coders vs. Developers
A Coder:
is anyone who has the intelligence to sling together working code. Strictly speaking it's at least 20% of the entire population and probably closer to 40%. See any intelligence bell curve. Total worldwide coder base is 1 to 3 billion people. Yes Billion!
A Developer:
usually has formal training in computer science, usually employed in computer software, and usually works in a more recent software architecture. A rough guess at the total worldwide developer base is 20 to 30 million people.[1]
Object-oriented programming (OOP):
is a population sub-set of Developer. It also, because of its complexity and that the mental model of object-oriented programming is not intuitive, does not really allow coders, as defined above, to participate.
[1] https://www.daxx.com/article/software-developer-statistics-2017-programmers
# # #
So, if BD is moving to OOP, it should reverse course!
Best,
Michael
Inet-Design.com, owner
• Managed Drupal Hosting
• Free Emergency Backups
• Free Website Plan Analysis