Hello folks. I am super pleased to say that starting from January 2013 I'm going to have the pleasure of serving for six months as CiviCRM's 'community manager'.
So what is a community manager?
To my mind (though actually, I am using a significant part of Jono Bacon's mind as well here) the following things are key to this role:
- making sure it is as easy as possible for people to 1) contribute to CiviCRM 2) collaborate with others on CiviCRM and 3) share success stories and learnings from CiviCRM
- creating a buzz around CiviCRM that increases the number of people contributing at all levels
- helping organisations build sustainable business models around CiviCRM that benefit both their own organisation and CiviCRM in general
Have you ever heard the phrase "that would make a great community contribution!"? Well whether you have or not, it is probably worth reminding all those people out there that do have great ideas (and there are a lot of them) that the community manager is here to help you make those ideas happen. So if you do have a great idea right now, the best thing you can do is let people know about it, and go ahead and start implementing it.
The community manager role has been made possible by funding from Zing who have been supporting CiviCRM development for the past 12 months. Zing deserve a v. big round of applause for having the foresight to recognise the importance of this role and stepping up to fund it, so many thanks to them.
The community manager role is part time and starts officially on January 1st. In the run up to then, I am really keen to hear your ideas about what you think I should be doing with my time, and how I can best help you build the CiviCRM community.
Comments
Hi,
Would be great to try to foster that community to help fund some of the the work we all benefit from but is hard to do separately (eg. a membership to fund the MiH on performance)
In general, I think it's time to try that membership/association we have been talking about for a while ;)
X+
I'm thrilled that Michael is taking on this role "officially" - knowing that he's been doing quite a lot to help build the community more informally over the past few years. The three bullet points above are a good encapsulation from my point of view. I know Michael will be reaching out to all of us for both feedback and help going forward. Looking forward to the journey!
congrats mr. mcandrew :)
it is awesome and definitely the right time for a community manager for CiviCRM. Michael is definitely a great person to help lead and define this role and what it means for the Civi community.
We have quite a good momentum going on with the project and would help for us to keep things going and move forward at an even faster rate. lots of great ideas and energy coming from the community right now :)
lobo
Thanks for all of your work so far over the years helping the CiviCRM community, Michael, which I notice especially through the books and events you've been involved with.
I'm really impressed with Zing stepping up to fund this position - many thanks to them, and to you and Lobo for working with them to make it happen.
I look forward to working with everyone in the CiviCRM ecosystem to bring alive the Bacon's ideas from The Art of Community.
Yep, Michael's the man for the Job!
Echo Lobo's thoughts and bringing the community out of the woodwork is going to be a big part of the future!
If you need anything just shout!