[2024-06-28] AMER Building DevRel Foundation Community Call

[anajsana]

Agenda

• Welcome & code of conduct

• Why are we here?

• Open Discussions

  • Communities & feedback: Which communities and regions do we need to include and get feedback from / invite into the community and touchpoints to start this conversation (e.g DevRelCon NA, OSSummit Europe, OSSummit Japan, KubeCon India, etc)
  • Community issues: Key points around the challenges in the industry (specifically around learning, lack of material, lack of career growth, etc.)
  • Manifesto: Next steps for crowd-sourcing target areas for an initial manifesto that articulates the value proposition of the foundation (e.g https://github.com/opentofu/manifesto)
  • Communication channels: Methods for communication with the community

• Is anything missing?

  • Please add your discussion topics as a new comment below!

Essential Information

• 🕛 Friday 28, 18:00 - 19:00 pm CEST
• 📝 g.doc agenda

Frequency	Duration	Zoom link	Join Discord
Weekly	1 hour	Here	Join

[anajsana]

Summary Notes

Discussion Points

Recurring Challenges in DevRel and the importance of foundation

• Encountering the same challenges repeatedly
• Aim to define best practices to enhance the impact of DevRel professionals
• A foundation to act as a neutral space for advice, mentorship, and guides would have been valuable when starting in DevRel and growing the career

Community Representation Issues/Blockers:

• Significant DevRel representation in Africa needs inclusion
• Need for introductions to key contacts
• Suggestion to connect with existing communities and share information publicly (e.g. DevRel Collective)
• Clarification that the intent was never to exclude anyone but to start somewhere; encouraged collaboration on Discord
• Mention of key individuals in Brazil
• Proposal to create an open document to collect ideas and pin it on the Discord channel (action item)

Community Issues:

• Much of DevRel work is defined by others, which shouldn't be the case
• Confusion about the role of DevRel; some organizations mistakenly equate it with marketing
• Struggle to define DevRel roles; while tasks may differ, the goals seem similar
• Suggestion to create an open manifesto developed by the community to clarify the purpose and struggles of DevRel, backed by data.

Manifesto:

• Need for a strong manifesto that acts as a living document—specific yet flexible.
• Agreement that it should be community-driven and adaptable.

Communication Channels and Calls:

• Agreement that alternating calls in different timezones would be beneficial.

Other topics:

• Mention that LF projects typically attract significant attention, so we need to ensure that the DevRel foundation is communicated effectively with the existing DevRel ecosystem before official launch

Action Items for next call:

Priority: Enhance Community Representation

• Create an open document to collect ideas about community representation and pin it on the Discord channel.
• Asking people to reach out to these folks, invite them into Discord for feedback, and alternate calls in different timezones to get these people the chance to get involved and be represented.

Once we get a more diverse mass of folks, develop the community-driven open manifesto to clarify the purpose and struggles of DevRel.