How to Create Ravenously Passionate Contributors

How to Create Ravenously Passionate

ContributorsAngela “@webchick” Byron

Ohio LinuxFest 2012

Sunday, September 30, 2012

About me

@webchick


So I’m webchick. I do Drupal. All the time.Building on the OLF concept of growth, this talk is about my journey in becoming Drupal-obsessed, with the hope is that some general lessons can be extracted that help other communities to create passionate users of their own.


So, how many here use Drupal?For those who don’t, a quick intro. Drupal is an extensible web framework, a powerful application for non-developers, and an awesome community. Once you get over the “learning cliff” you can do almost anything. This is why people who learn Drupal well swear by it.

⚙Sunday, September 30, 2012


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⚙*↖+Sunday, September 30, 2012


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⚙*↖☻+ +



⚙*↖☻+ + =



⚙*↖☻♥+ + =




Here are some of the sites that use it, including non-profits, high-tech companies, government, media, and event websites. You may recognize some of these. ;)


Here’s what I do. My role in the Drupal project is multi-faceted.I’m a core committer, a cat herder, a board member of the Drupal Association, I work at Acquia in the Office of the CTO (Dries the project lead is my boss), and I wrote a book about Drupal, I was in a magazine once.I mention this not to “toot my own horn” (indeed, the rest of this presentation will be mostly pointing out and making fun of my mistakes), but to contextualize what I mean by a “ravenously passionate contributor” — someone who pours their heart and soul into your project to make it awesome, and loves every second of it.


So how did this come to be?Here’s a short trip down memory lane to cover some important turning points in my journey, and I hope to impart some tips I’ve learned which can be then applied to help churn out passionate contributors in your own communities.

~1983


So first stop on memory lane, early 1980s.In this picture, I am about 3 or 4 years old.That’s my dad playing guitar.This is also coincidentally the last time I was seen wearing a dress. ;)


Around this time, a VIC-20 came into our familyThis was a big-ass keyboard that plugged into a television and you could plug cartridges into it.One of these was BASIC, which I taught myself to program from reading the back of 321 Contact magazine.30000 lines of code, and you’d get a little box that moved from one side of the screen to anotherAnyone remember these days?


Around this time, a VIC-20 came into our familyThis was a big-ass keyboard that plugged into a television and you could plug cartridges into it.One of these was BASIC, which I taught myself to program from reading the back of 321 Contact magazine.30000 lines of code, and you’d get a little box that moved from one side of the screen to anotherAnyone remember these days?


This also coincidentally kicked off an unhealthy addiction to video games, which kept me nicely interested in technology throughout my teenage and adult years. ;)

Lesson learned:Get ‘em while they’re young.

Nurture kids’ interest in technology early (especially the girls).


Moral of the story: get ‘em while they’re young.I mention girls here specifically, because they’ll spend most of their lives being inundated with messaging that says that technology is for boys. What do I mean by that?


Growing up, girls largely have non-technical role models, such as princesses whose only useful skill is falling asleep for a long time and being woken up by a handsome prince...We’re taught that our main mission in life is to become caregivers, home makers, or perhaps bothComputers are hard! Every time you see a woman next to a computer, she usually looks like this. “If only a MAN would come save me from this CONFOUNDING thing!”And of course when women and technology *do* mix, they normally look like this.










Then, assuming a woman somehow makes it through all that and becomes active in technology, she also gets to deal with things like...“OMG A GIRL” where undue attention is drawn to us because of our genderOr this fun phenomenon where despite both men and women observing the same behaviour, reaching radically different conclusions about how it affects women. There is a general lack of sensitivity to things that alienate women from technology communities, and this becomes more obvious when you look at the generally abysmal statistics of women open source contribution over all (1.5%).





Fun, techy things to do with kids:http://mindstorms.lego.com/http://csunplugged.org/http://blog.makezine.com/kids/

Getting girls/women involved:http://www.ncwit.org/http://adainitiative.org/http://www.linuxchix.org/


Here are some resources to help with both of these problems.TODO: OTHERS?

http://blog.makezine.com/kids/

http://blog.makezine.com/kids/

http://www.ncwit.org

http://www.ncwit.org

http://adainitiative.org

http://adainitiative.org

http://www.linuxchix.org

http://www.linuxchix.org

~1994


Now let’s get back in the time machine, and roll into the mid-90s.Here I am about 16.Note the long hair, the Metallica T-shirt, and especially the bad-ass fingerless leather gloves. :P

~1994


Now let’s get back in the time machine, and roll into the mid-90s.Here I am about 16.Note the long hair, the Metallica T-shirt, and especially the bad-ass fingerless leather gloves. :P


It was at this point we got our first “real” computer. A Packard Bell P133, and a groovy 14.4K modem.This is when I discovered... THE INTERNET!


The Internet was this totally amazing new thing, and completely blew my mind.I started sucking up everything there was to know about how it worked: I learned how to build computers and networks from scratch, I taught myself programming, web development, and more.And thus, very shortly came across...


I first installed Linux around 1995.The first distro I was able to successfully install was Debian RexThis was back when Debian fit on 7 floppy disks (now I don’t even think it fits on a 7 TB hard drive :P)


I started poring through newsgroups and reading all about these guys: Linus Torvalds, Richard Stallman, Eric S. Raymond, Kevin Mitnick.I really looked up to them as important thought leaders, and had them on a major pedestalAnd so of course, the first thing I *thought* I knew about open source was...

Fight the Einstein perception.

You must be this smart to contribute to open

sourceSunday, September 30, 2012

How many people conjure up images of Einstein when they think of people who contribute to open source? A lot of people do, and I certainly did.It turns out btw that this is not remotely the case. I can tell you this because although there are incredibly smart people in the Drupal community, I review all of their code and let me tell you; it definitely ain’t perfect the first time, or even the 12th time. ;)

Fight the Einstein perception.

You must be this smart to contribute to open

sourceSunday, September 30, 2012

How many people conjure up images of Einstein when they think of people who contribute to open source? A lot of people do, and I certainly did.It turns out btw that this is not remotely the case. I can tell you this because although there are incredibly smart people in the Drupal community, I review all of their code and let me tell you; it definitely ain’t perfect the first time, or even the 12th time. ;)

How improvementsare made


But yet, this is totally how I thought open source contribution worked.Some smart person gets a big idea in their head and then spits out some amazing code in short order and everyone accepts it as gold.BZZZT. WRONG.


Gina the Genius




Gina the Genius




Gina the Genius




Gina the Genius




Gina the Genius




Gina the Genius




Gina the Genius




Gina the Genius




Wow!

Gina the Genius




Amazing!

Wow!

Gina the Genius




Amazing!

Wow!

Your best work yet!!

Gina the Genius




Amazing!

Wow!

Your best work yet!!

Gina the Genius





THIS is how contribution *actually* happens.First, Edwina the end user hits a bug. She reports a bug report. If she does nothing else than file a bug report that makes sense, this is an *incredibly valuable* contribution.Next, Paula the programmer hits the same bug, and attempts to fix it.This is reviewed by Tatiana the tester, who finds problems and kicks it back with feedback.Paula tries again, and this time Wendy reviews it. Know what she says? That’s right, “It’s broken on IE6”... and the only reason she runs XP is because she’s a book author so she says “Also, mind your spelling” because she knows grammar rules really well.Paula gives it one more time, Tatiana approves, now it’s escalated to someone like me to incorporate upstream.In this scenario, all of these individuals contributed the little bit of knowledge they know, and together made a great improvement. That’s how open source works.


Edwina theEnd User




Edwina theEnd User




Edwina theEnd User




Edwina theEnd User




Edwina theEnd User




Issue queue

Edwina theEnd User




Issue queue

Edwina theEnd User




Issue queueBug report

Edwina theEnd User





Edwina theEnd User

Paula theProgrammer





Edwina theEnd User

Paula theProgrammer





Edwina theEnd User

Paula theProgrammer





Edwina theEnd User

Paula theProgrammer





Edwina theEnd User

Paula theProgrammer





Edwina theEnd User

Paula theProgrammer

Hey, look! A bug

report!





Edwina theEnd User

Paula theProgrammer

Hey, look! A bug

report!

I’ll try and fix it.





Edwina theEnd User

Paula theProgrammer

Hey, look! A bug

report!






Needs ReviewEdwina theEnd User

Paula theProgrammer

Hey, look! A bug

report!







Paula theProgrammer

Hey, look! A bug

report!


Tatiana the TesterSunday, September 30, 2012





Paula theProgrammer

Hey, look! A bug

report!







Paula theProgrammer

Hey, look! A bug

report!







Paula theProgrammer

WTF?

Hey, look! A bug

report!







Paula theProgrammer

WTF?I’ll postfeedback.

Hey, look! A bug

report!







Paula theProgrammer


Hey, look! A bug

report!






Needs Review

Needs WorkEdwina theEnd User

Paula theProgrammer


Hey, look! A bug

report!






Needs Review


Paula theProgrammer


Hey, look! A bug

report!


Thanks! Take 2!





Needs Review


Paula theProgrammer


Hey, look! A bug

report!


Thanks! Take 2!





Needs Review


Paula theProgrammer


Hey, look! A bug

report!


Thanks! Take 2!

Needs Review





Needs Review


Paula theProgrammer


Hey, look! A bug

report!


Thanks! Take 2!

Needs Review

Wendy the poor soulstuck on Windows XPTatiana the Tester





Needs Review


Paula theProgrammer


Breaks in IE 6.

Hey, look! A bug

report!


Thanks! Take 2!

Needs Review






Needs Review


Paula theProgrammer


Breaks in IE 6.

Hey, look! A bug

report!


Thanks! Take 2!

Needs Review Also, mind your

spelling.






Needs Review


Paula theProgrammer


Breaks in IE 6.

Hey, look! A bug

report!


Thanks! Take 2!


spelling.






Needs Review


Paula theProgrammer


Breaks in IE 6.

Hey, look! A bug

report!


Thanks! Take 2!


spelling.

Wendy the poor soulstuck on Windows XP

Needs Work





Needs Review


Paula theProgrammer


Breaks in IE 6.

Hey, look! A bug

report!


Thanks! Take 2!


spelling.


Needs Work

Ok! Try this!





Needs Review


Paula theProgrammer


Breaks in IE 6.

Hey, look! A bug

report!


Thanks! Take 2!


spelling.


Needs Work

Ok! Try this!





Needs Review


Paula theProgrammer


Breaks in IE 6.

Hey, look! A bug

report!


Thanks! Take 2!


spelling.


Needs Work

Ok! Try this!

Needs Review





Needs Review


Paula theProgrammer


Breaks in IE 6.

Hey, look! A bug

report!


Thanks! Take 2!


spelling.


Needs Work

Ok! Try this!

Needs Review

Wow!Much better!





Needs Review


Paula theProgrammer


Breaks in IE 6.

Hey, look! A bug

report!


Thanks! Take 2!


spelling.


Needs Work

Ok! Try this!

Needs Review

Wow!Much better!





Needs Review

Needs Work

Reviewed & Tested

Edwina theEnd User

Paula theProgrammer


Breaks in IE 6.

Hey, look! A bug

report!


Thanks! Take 2!


spelling.


Needs Work

Ok! Try this!

Needs Review

Wow!Much better!



Lesson learned:Einstein must be destroyed.

The “Einstein Complex” is the single biggest barrier to overcome for passionate

contributors.


This is the single biggest issue, in my mind. People who have the Einstein Complex *already* love your project and what you’re doing, so are perfect candidates for ravenously passionate contributors. But they think themselves perpetually unworthy and so they’re blocked before they even start.

“Novice” issues

Clean up documentation Fix typos Format to coding standards Make same change in X places ...


One way in Drupal we’ve tried to combat this is with the “novice” issue queue.We have a rule that if a bug will take you 5 minutes or less to fix, DON’T.Instead add an issue to the queue and tag it as “Novice”It might take someone else 5 days to fix it, but they’ll learn a ton in the process.

2005


Here I am in my 20s. No more fingerless gloves, but now sporting some Tank Girl bangs.By this time I had met a girl, brought a UHaul on our second date, moved to Canada, and was just finishing up college.It’s worth pointing out that I was a completely different person back then. Very shy, socially awkward, not a lot of friends, the thought of getting up in front of a room like this would make me want to puke.I really have Drupal to thank for that transformation.


It started here. The year I was graduating, one of my instructors told me about the Google Summer of Code program, which pays students over the summer to work on an open source project, with a mentor provided by one of the participating organizations.I want to emphasize that this was in 2005. ONE DECADE after I had learned what open source was and installed Linux successfully for the first time.But this was my big chance to come out of “lurk” mode and into contributor mode.Because GSoC had poked a *tiny* hole in my “you must be THIS smart to contribute” model.They knew were students after all, so we couldn’t know everything yet.


So, I applied for this project called “Drupal” which I had heard about through the Spread Firefox project, a grassroots marketing site for Mozilla Firefox where people could upload videos, posters, etc. (I’m one of those people who clicks “View source” on every website she visits and takes note of underlying technology on cool websites.)Miraculously, I got accepted. This seems to have worked out pretty okay so far. :)

Lesson learned:Mentoring++

Create a well-lit entrance path to your project for non-experts.


How many people here have as much money as Google? ... right. So running your own Summer of Code style program is probably not realistic.But here are some tips on how Drupal has tried to tackle mentorship.

Mentoring: One-on-One

http://drupalofficehours.orgSunday, September 30, 2012

This site is where people leading various initiatives curate a list of tasks for contributors to work on.We have twice-weekly times for contributors to sign into IRC and get their hands personally held by *real* core developers on whatever questions they have: getting an environment set up, “what should I work on?” etc.

http://drupaldojo.com


Mentoring: Crowdsourcing

http://drupalladder.orgSunday, September 30, 2012

Another approach that’s materialized from the community is the “Drupal Ladder” project.This defines the skillsets that are needed to become a contributor from easy to hard, and each “rung” of the ladder links off to curriculum and exercises to help complete this task. (e.g. installation + basic usage of Git, how to roll and apply patches, etc.)The great thing about building something like this is it can then be “crowd-sourced”; this team is undertaking an initiative to hold Drupal Ladder sprints at over a dozen locations in the next 6 months.



Mentoring: Peer tutoring

http://drupaldojo.comSunday, September 30, 2012

Another mentoring program that was extremely popular is Drupal Dojo.This was a peer-tutoring scenario, where a bunch of people who wanted to learn more about Drupal would get together, and people would take turns creating videos around something they knew.Both advanced topics like migration, but also simpler things like how to make a blog.



My first five minutes in #drupal went

something like this...


So I got accepted to Google Summer of Code. Hooray!I followed instructions in the welcome email and joined IRC.Here’s what happened next.




Now, had I not been “contractually obligated” to some extent to stay active in the Drupal community those couple of months during GSoC, there’s a good chance this would have been the *last* five minutes I spent in the Drupal community, as well.I’ve made it part of my mission since then to ensure this doesn’t ever happen to anyone else again. It’s an initiative we call...

Lesson learned:Full-frontal nicety.

*Assume* that newbs are going to grow to be tremendous assets to your project, given proper guidance and support.Just say “no” to “RTFM”


Beware the “ripple effect” of asshole behaviour


When you’re a jackass to someone publicly, you don’t just drive them away.You also drive away *anyone else* who observed that behaviour, newbies and contributors alike.And if it’s on a mailing list/issue queue, these ripple effects last FOR THE REST OF TIME. (Thanks Google!)

Establish a Code of Conduct


Even if your code of conduct is simply “Don’t be a dick,” write it down.This helps explain the norms to people so they understand if there is deviation from it, rather than assuming being abused is the norm.I like Ubuntu’s (and we largely stole it) because it focuses on positive behaviours they *want* to see, rather than a litany of what *not* to do. Negative language just invites people to find holes (“You didn’t say we couldn’t *kickbox” newbs!”)When someone’s violating it, call them out on it so observers understand the difference between a one-off uncool behaviour versus a systemic community problem.


Anyway, I eventually recovered from this and started to poke around some of Drupal’s edges.

Perfection

http://www.flickr.com/photos/50235987@N00/294551784/


And naturally, I approached this from the angle of perfectionism, constantly refactoring things until I thought they were “done” (which of course they never were)After all, EVERYONE was going to see my code, so it had to be error-free! How embarrassing would it be to introduce something stupid and obvious!Also, they thought I was smart, so I couldn’t possibly ask QUESTIONS because that would reveal me for the fraud that I was. (imposter syndrome)Much better to smash my face against the table for 3 days on something that could be solved in 3 minutes by asking a question, because THAT would be SMART. Oh. Wait... :P



Perfection



And naturally, I approached this from the angle of perfectionism, constantly refactoring things until I thought they were “done” (which of course they never were)After all, EVERYONE was going to see my code, so it had to be error-free! How embarrassing would it be to introduce something stupid and obvious!Also, they thought I was smart, so I couldn’t possibly ask QUESTIONS because that would reveal me for the fraud that I was. (imposter syndrome)Much better to smash my face against the table for 3 days on something that could be solved in 3 minutes by asking a question, because THAT would be SMART. Oh. Wait... :P



Perfectionist Pat Sloppy Sam


In addition to perfectionism not being very practical, it can *actively hurt you* in the context of an open source project.One would think it logical to approach problems like Perfectionist Pat. He starts with tests, then writes code (and probably refactors this a few times), makes sure docs + coding standards are perfect, and *then* posts to the issue queue.Sloppy Sam takes an iterative approach, which involves interacting with the community much more. She starts by asking on IRC about a problem, and ends up being given some existing code to start from. She then adds code on top, posts to issue queue. It gets kicked back a few times for tests, docs, and coding standards.At the end, Perfectionist Pat has 1 positive community interaction, but Sloppy Sam has *4*. And her profile within the community increases dramatically as a result, even if she is not as skilled of a developer (yet).The community gets to know who she is, has transparency on what she’s working on, trusts her more. It takes longer to build this trust with Pat due to fewer interactions, and Pat also heavily risks being out of sync with (and frustrated by) the community’s direction.





Tests




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Coding Standards

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Issue queueSunday, September 30, 2012



Code

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Issue queueSunday, September 30, 2012



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IRC




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Code

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IRC Pre-written code




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Code

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Code

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Lesson learned:Fail early, often, and in public.


And encourage an environment where it’s okay to do so.


Ok, now that I had learn to be okay with failing, I finally started to kick some ass!


So I worked on my little Google Summer of Code module...

...

First core patch!!Sunday, September 30, 2012

I also started contributing to core...And btw, you can imagine my excitement by DRIES BUYTAERT commenting on MY PATCH. :D This pretty much made my entire life.


I started documenting things I didn’t understand.They weren’t always right, but more advanced people would help me clean it up; doc edits are way easier than doc creation.


I also created the crappiest graphics you can imagine with my rudimentary design skillz.Scary fact: at this time in Drupal’s history, I was one of the top designers. :P~~~

Lesson learned:Encourage diversity in

contributionsIt ain’t just about the code.


Many people come into a project from many different avenues.Some start with code, but many come through “gateway drugs” like documentation or user support.Each and every contribution avenue should be valued.

What is a contributor?


It’s important here to define the word “contributor” because a lot of people think this means “developer”In reality, a contributor is someone who has three qualities:- They see something that’s dumb.- They have a desire to see it fixed.- And they can do something about it.Those are the people who power open source.Many people believe “do something about it” also means code, but in fact..


that’s dumb.




that’s dumb. i want to see it fixed.





i can do something about it.





i can do something about it.

These people power open source.



What is a contribution?Donations

Advocacy

Documentation

Marketing

User support

QA testing

Translations

Graphic design

Event coordination

Bug reports and feature requests

Issue queue “farming”

Usability testing


Here are a bunch of possible ways to contribute to a project.(read them)(click) Oh, yeah. And code too. :PAs you can see, code just makes up one subset of the total number of ways to make change in open source.

What is a contribution?Donations

Advocacy

Documentation

Marketing

User support

QA testing

Translations

Graphic design

Event coordination

Bug reports and feature requests

Issue queue “farming”

Usability testing

...oh yeah, and coding too. ;)


Here are a bunch of possible ways to contribute to a project.(read them)(click) Oh, yeah. And code too. :PAs you can see, code just makes up one subset of the total number of ways to make change in open source.

2006


In 2006, there was the first DrupalCon in North America in Vancouver, BCWhich, not entirely coincidentally, is where I now reside.


And my mind... exploded. This event was truly a life-changing experience for me.For one, because it was the first time I had ever spoken the word “Drupal” aloud and not gotten a reaction like “Uh. Bless you?”


But mainly, I got to meet people I’d previously only known online...Big heroes and role models of mine, who turned out to actually be really awesome, fun, down to earth people who cared deeply about inclusivity and knowledge-sharing.


I also got to participate hands-on in the core contributing process.Here’s us at about 2am in a small conference room furiously hacking through getting Drupal 4.7 out the door, Moshe assigning blocking issues to everyone there, according to their skillset.

Lesson learned:Meat-space is “sticky”Never under-estimate the value of “real life” interactions to breaking down barriers, encouraging participation, and making life-long friends.


Local user groups


In Drupal we have over 200 local user groups around the worldPlus a central website where you can find and subscribe to them allAnywhere you have a contributor with an internet cafe nearby, call it a user group, see who shows up.

Regional “Camps” and “Cons”


We also do larger events, called “Camps” and “Cons”Want to get some ‘star’ power there.Don’t forget to invite speakers from other projects that overlap with yours to expand your community’s horizons.

Sprints


Nothing like geeks and laptops to help people feel included and school them *very* quickly in community processes.We also run special sprints for new contributors, help them set up development environments, etc.


A few months later, Drupal 4.7.0 was released.*click* Hooray!


A few months later, Drupal 4.7.0 was released.*click* Hooray!


The very next day, Dries posted this to the forum.It was a call for a “personal battleplan” for Drupal 5.NOT wishlists, NOT feature requests, but things that individuals wanted to tackle.So you’d see posts like this... and this.... and people forming around ideas into teams.






And naturally, being an under-achiever and all, this was mine. :PI think I maybe accomplished two things on this list at that time, but a bunch more from others’. :)Interestingly, almost all of them are done now (except for Forum improvements, which continue to elude me *shakes fist*)

Lesson learned:Cultivate Do-Ocracy

Empower contributors to act on their ideas, without asking for permission... and they just might amaze you.


2007

• Core developer

• Module developer

• Theme developer

• Drupal Association founding member

• Webmasters team member

• Documentation team member

• Security team member

• New contributor outreach (GHOP & GSoC mentor)

• Training worldwide

• ...


2007 was spent mostly with me piling on more roles, now that I squarely had the “itch.”I was making up for a decade of lost time, after all.

2008


2008, however, was another pivotal moment.I received an award at OSCON for best contributorAnd a couple of months later, I was appointed the release manager of Drupal 7, tasked with coordinating development efforts of over 1,000 core contributors.

2008



2008



Lesson learned:Recognize contributorsMost of us don’t need a pat on the back, but it surely doesn’t hurt.

If someone exhibits leadership qualities, give them a spot.


Community Spotlight

Give limelight to less-recognized (for now ;)) names; show others they’re “real” people, too.


Make sure a diverse range of contributors and contributions are represented; a lot of times new contributors see elements of themselves in these types of posts and it can motivate them to cross the Einstein threshold.

Metrics


There are also different kind of metrics you can employ, using gamification to prompt the kind of behaviour you’re hoping to see.This example shows the output of a profile field that allows contributors to itemize those who’ve helped mentor them in the community.This is a great “feel good” metric, and cultivates a community of collaboration.

Metrics


Here we have a tag cloud of core contributors, weighted by the number of mentions in the commit log.This metric is both less useful (a typo fix + a new API both count as 1 commit) and promotes more of a competitive community model. Beware of leader boards.

2009 - present


My time now is mainly spent on growing Drupal.This takes a lot of different forms.For instance, right now my time is focused a lot on Spark, an initiative to fix Drupal’s default authoring experience by introducing features to core such as WYSIWYG, inline editing, responsive layouts, and mobile-friendly navigation.

Lesson learned:Scale yourself

Nurture others along your path. $bus_factor--;

Don’t forget to take care of yourself, too.


The way to do this is to make yourself irrelevant over time.Use the other lessons to help clone yourself when you see elements in upcoming community members.

So, what did we learn?


So, to wrap up...

So, what did we learn?Corrupt young minds (especially girls)

Destroy Einstein

Mentoring++

Full-frontal nicety

Fail early, often, and in public

Encourage diversity, in both contributors and contributions

Meat-space is sticky

Cultivate Do-Ocracy

Recognize contributors

Scale yourself


Here are the lessons we talked about. I hope that they can be helpful to you in cultivating your own communities.

Questions?


Any questions?

Leadership & Management

How to Create Ravenously Passionate Contributors