[ug-discuss] Re: [osol-mktg] Community Consolidation -- Marketing & UGs

[Alan DuBoff]

On Thursday 05 April 2007 04:42 pm, Jim Grisanzio wrote:
> Absolutely true. But there's a little 'but' in there, too. Each user
> group has their own list but I had wanted ug-discuss to be the meta list
> so that members of all user groups could potentially talk to each other
> easily to share ideas, stories, materials, etc as well.

But if we form small communities within, we end up being divided, to some 
extent. I believe if we do that we encourage segregation, my 2 yen.

> > This has worked very well in other settings, but it needs to be clear
> > that this is not a community that interests many other developers.
> > The Java User Groups (JUG) Community, in java.net, hosts today almost
> > 200 JUGs, with more then 300.000 developers as members, but only  around
> > 130 JUG leaders are discussing in the community itself.
>
> That's interesting. Ok, so we are not that out of the ordinary, then. If
> only the leaders communicate across lists on ug-discuss, I think that's
> fine, too.

I think these type of numbers are eluding, and I think the strength of a 
community is hard to put numbers to.

I think 130 JUG leaders participating is good. We don't have nearly that many, 
I don't hear from most of the user group community, I wish they would be more 
vocal.

> Since the UG Community structure is clearly broken (as a result of its
> success under a somewhat limited site structure not designed for how we
> have implemented the community), I think we ought to explore if the
> upcoming wiki space would be a better solution for making that one
> community more visible and easier for people to use. That will solve one
> problem right there.

That's a good idea, IMO.

-- 

Alan DuBoff - Solaris x86 Engineering - IHV/OEM Group
Advocate of insourcing at Sun - hire people that care about our company!