New post on DRF contributor growth path #88
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This PR adds a new blog post introducing the DRF contributor path. The post explains how community participants can get started, contribute, grow into project and working group leadership, and eventually submit a nomination to the Steering Committee.
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I love the emphasis on starting small. It's really encouraging to see that initial contributions can be as simple as listening, reading, and commenting. This approach makes the contributor ladder far more accessible for newcomers. |
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| ## Additional Community Support | ||
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| If you’re curious about getting involved, you can book a [1:1 call with one of our current Steering Committee members](https://calendar.app.google/2XvRuX6EbJjih6HD7) to talk through opportunities. |
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This offer was for folks who were previously managing working groups, not the general internet and any open source contributors so shouldn't be part of a blog post.
| The mission of the DevRel Foundation (DRF) is to elevate the professional practice of developer relations and increase awareness of it as a driver of business value. Whether you’re just discovering DRF or already active in the community, | ||
| here’s a contributor path that can help you grow. This path aims to give people space to start small, build confidence, and eventually step into leadership if they choose. | ||
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| # The Contributor Ladder at DRF |
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I wonder if this info overall might better be incorporated into the join page instead of as a blog post.
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I'd say to have a blog post first and later decide whether and how to display this info in the join page (?)
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| For inspiration, check out the [CONTRIBUTING.md in the Tools Catalog](https://github.com/DevRel-Foundation/tools-catalog/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#types-of-contributions). | ||
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| ## Step 3: Becoming a Working Group Leader |
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I don't think we should use the label "Working Group Leader" here. Maybe just the phrase "Lead a Project". A working group is an administrative task that needs to exist to facilitate the work, but the work outputs is the important thing. The term "Project" here can be ambiguous, I generally mean it as the textbook dictionary definition -- drive a body of work forward to completion of a particular goal.
The thing of value is answering challenging questions and documenting those answers for those who come later. That's what the projects are about... we should be driving toward solutions, not only providing a water cooler for discussion.
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If we are making changes (e.g, project leader) or adding new terms (DRF project vs DRF working group vs DRF program), I think we should update the glossary too for consistency: https://github.com/DevRel-Foundation/governance/tree/main/glossary
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Making the changes you suggested to the current blog LGTM though!
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| ## Step 2: Becoming a Contributor | ||
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| Contributions can be big or small. You might fix a typo, share a link in a discussion, or help clarify the requirements for an open issue. Reviewing a pull request or writing a short document are also great ways to add value. |
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The sense I get is that more specific examples can be helpful. The mission and role of devrel can be very abstract, so likewise the ways to contribute to the foundation may be ambiguous.
These are specific examples of things that I think will be helpful to have as resources and we have as open tasks:
- Define the term "Community Manager"
- Gather details on at least three tools that can be used to draft and review blog posts
- Write a tutorial explaining how to gather time on page and sessions from GA4 to create a blog metrics report
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| Like many open source communities, DRF has a natural progression of involvement. | ||
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| **Lurkers → Participants → Contributors → Project and/or Working Group Leads → Steering Committee** |
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Our transition proposal has more specific guidance on this leadership journey including the linux foundation training courses. I think more substance could be added here (or on the join page).
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Usually, LF training courses are developed by instructors who are part of the community. Each LF project works a bit differently, but in projects like OpenChain or TODO, for instance, these instructors are typically particpants of a working group first (https://lists.openchainproject.org/g/education), whose role includes developing educational materials in collaboration with the LF Training team.
Other projects rely on their ambassadors to serve as instructors who develop these course materials, sometimes with funding involved, though I think that model might be harder for us to replicate.
PS: If we go with option 1, those folks interested in becoming instructors of a training course would technically be working group participants first. I could make this clearer in the blog post by highlighting it as an example use case.
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Sorry, I wasn't clear, I was referring to the steering committee google drive document "Working Groups Transition Proposal".
I listed existing LF courses as valuable:
- leading high performance working group meetings
- beginner's guide to open source software development
- ethics for open source development
- remote work at scale
- inclusive open source community orientation
This PR adds a new blog post introducing the DRF contributor path. The post explains how community participants can get started, contribute, grow into project and working group leadership, and eventually submit a nomination to the Steering Committee.