[ug-discuss] OpenSolaris User Group Growth

[Jim Grisanzio]

Michal Pryc wrote:
> Jim Grisanzio wrote:
> 
>>> hey ...
>>>
>>> I wanted to start a discussion about things Sun could do to help grow 
>>> the UG Community. There are about 50 OpenSolaris User Groups right now,
>>> http://opensolaris.org/os/community/os_user_groups/osug-leaders/ so 
>>> congratulations for a job well done over these first two years! Now 
>>> how do we get to 75? 100? 150? There is a growing interest at Sun to 
>>> help out, which is excellent.
> 
> First of all, I am very happy that there is a lot going on in this area :-)
> We are people from all around the World with different cultures, 
> languages, duties, sleeping times ;) so I would try to get answer what 
> would attract me to become a new member of the OpenSolaris UG or to 
> start new one and share my thoughts.
> 
>    1. Give better communication, more freedom in creating ug web pages 
> on OpenSolaris.org
>       I think that as a UG member I would like to have:
>          - IRC channel
>          - Mailing list
>          - wiki page? with the list of people (of course if they want) 
> that are in this group.
>       Clear and easy access to those informations will guarantee, that I 
> can join the IRC channel and see as a topic where and when the UG 
> meeting will be.


Well, we have the ability for individual groups to create pages now. 
It's a bit awkward with everyone shoved into the UG Community space, but 
hopefully we'll be able to migrate the UGs to be their own project 
spaces. That will give each group a lot more flexibility. Mailing lists 
we have, of course, and people are creating IRC channels that we are 
linking to. No wiki as of yet, but I think that's being specified as per 
the pre-election of community priorities.



>    2. Now some use - cases :)
>       2a)
>          "I am a person that already know what is OpenSolaris, what are 
> User Groups, I really want to join one"
>             I) I am going to the www dot opensolaris dot com page
>             II) hmm... what now?
>       How the user can know that "user groups - campus ambassad" is 
> under "All projects" and "User groups" are under "communities" (the 
> second is more logic), but I know that this is going to be changed.


Yep, it's a  bit of a mess. But that's because we've grown so fast! :) 
No, really, I agree. It's difficult to get around for new people and we 
have to improve that. We have to build in new functionality to make it 
easier as we grow and reach out to new people. To be honest, though, we 
really didn't expect to grow this fast. I'm not kidding. So, I quite 
literally view some of the organizational issues with the site as a 
clear mark  of success.

Now, having one community -- the proposed Advocacy Community -- for 
general uses to go that consolidates a few communities will be helpful. 
And I hope to make that clear on the front page as well, so new people 
will know where to go and then they can drill down from there. That will 
help organize this part of the community, anyway, and it's pretty easy 
for us to do that in the short term.




>    3b)
>       "I am a person that already know what is OpenSolaris, but have no 
> idea, that User Groups exists and that I can have a lot of fun joining one"
>          It would be nice to co-operate with OpenSolaris starter kit and 
> put a little note to the envelope explaining what user groups are, what 
> can the person that is obtaining OpenSolaris benefit from 
> joining/creating one, so a little information in every OpenSolaris 
> starter kit :-) We need to remember that there is so many thing to do in 
> our lives and there is so much information around that we really need to 
> have some reason to join a user group, without clear information not all 
> the people that might be interested would join.

Cool.


>    3c)
>       "I am a person that have no idea what is OpenSolaris, but I am a 
> developer/user, which doesn't know that my life can be easier :-)"
>          I think that those two (3b and 3c) are the people that we 
> should target and in this area there are a lot of possibilities, here 
> are my thoughts:
>             - First of all there should be visible information on the 
> OpenSolaris page about User Groups

Agree.

>             - We as a members of UG should talk with our friends about 
> them and get them involved
>             - Make meetings attractive, not only talks/presentations - 
> people (I) need sometimes talk with others, not only by e-mails.

Also, post info about meetings to the site.

>             - There are a lot of Internet/paper computer magazines, why 
> as an OpenSolaris UG members we shouldn't try to write some articles? 
> There are a lot of interesting topics, and remember that not all the 
> people reads blogs or know what is OpenSolaris, so between two technical 
> articles one something like "Live in User Group" would be a nice break.
>             - Remember that not only developers/sys admins can join 
> user-group
>             - People from UG should (if they want, but maybe it's just a 
> matter of telling why) use disclamers in some of  the e-mails that are 
> send, this also spread information...
>             - Attract more womans to the user groups. Isn't it nicer in 
> the pub (irish style) talking in a group of people, where there are not 
> only guys?
>             - Work closer with other user groups. If someone is already 
> member of one, it doesn't mean that can not be a member of another. 
> There is nothing wrong with sending information for example to the java 
> UG and proposing one presentation "Why OpenSolaris is great platform for 
> developing Java applications", this would attract people from other 
> groups. I know that those are actions that should be done by already 
> existing members, but do they know about those ideas? this is next poing...
>             - ...next point :-) Give ideas and input to already existing 
> members, once they will know how to involve people, they might use some 
> of the ideas, so informing all the UG members about those ideas. We 
> should collect them and keep as a gold, ideas are very valuable! (even 
> those bad once, since we will not make the mistakes twice)
>             - Some contents for the people that are in user group? For 
> example "the best user group logo" or something similar, so people from 
> each user group can work together and know each other better.
>             - enthusiasm and humor


All excellent ideas.



>    4. Students, students, students...
>        Those bunch of smart people from different years are living 
> together, partying and sometimes wasting time. Of course they can do a 
> lot of great job in the area of the User Groups, we should just count 
> people and see how many of them are willing to become a part of great 
> community, but they just don't know about those.
> I know that there are a lot of sun programs to help in this area, and 
> it's great. There is no better way to get the students attention, as 
> teachers, which are very close to them, so also we should attract them 
> to become community members, especially those that are providing 
> "Operating Systems" or java related courses. Once they will like Solaris 
> features they will attract students (I hope so). Also campus ambassadors 
> are making excellent job in this area, but does all Campus Ambassadors 
> created user groups? If no, than we should also co-operate with this 
> project.  But there are many universities that people never heard about 
> OpenSolaris or any other free software communities. What with those people?
> I remember, that on my universities I've got student's brochures, 
> newspapers, radio stations and even TV. Why not use those to promote 
> User Groups, one article/interview from someone (student/teacher) who is 
> doing interesting project and is member of UG, presentation or even 
> relation from Campus Ambassador would attract more people.
> Also there are many student conferences, where people from OpenSolaris 
> UG can simply talk about communities, not only those big conferences, 
> where there are a lot of people that already know/heard about  UG, we 
> need to remember that some of the people doesn't heard about OpenSolaris.
> 
>    5. Some of the nice ideas comes in the most  unexpected time, so if I 
> will get one, for sure I will write in this point :) :) :)


Cool ... thanks...

Jim
-- 
Jim Grisanzio, Sr. Program Manager, OpenSolaris Engineering
http://blogs.sun.com/jimgris