By robertdouglass on
I'm writing a book about Drupal and the final section of the final chapter pauses to reflect on the great community that makes Drupal so special. Help me write this part of the book by sharing your perspective. Here are some of the points that I've come up with:
Building a successful online community is a challenge. How will you know when you've succeeded?
Regular statistics from your server logs aren't going to tell you a thing. There are plenty of sites on
the internet that get thousands of visits a day but couldn't be considered communites. Likewise, you
can't measure your community based on how many posts or comments there are on a site. I've visited
many sites and left comments, never to return and read another article or see if someone has replied
to my comment. And there we have the first clues as to what makes a successful online community;
can I participate? Do I want to come back? Am I interested in seeing how others in the community
react to what I've said or done?
The vibrant and growing Drupal community is one that spills over the confines of drupal.org. There
is no doubt that drupal.org plays a central and crucial role in forming and defining the Drupal community,
but there is so much more; anybody who writes about Drupal becomes part of the community via
aggreagator sites like Technorati.com; drupal.org subscribes to all feeds on technorati that mention
Drupal, and the result is that the community, centered around drupal.org, reaches out to the sites
on the web writing about their Drupal experience (or perhaps contemplating getting involved with Drupal)
and engages them. It is common for people to find personal blogs that mention Drupal via drupal.org,
leave comments on the blog engaging the blog owner, perhaps answering questions, providing guidance,
sharing resources etc., and the blog owner then moves closer to the drupal community. Joins it.
Becomes indoctrinated. The functional elements? A central place (drupal.org), a cause (great software),
a community awareness (aggregated feeds based on keywords crucial to the cause), and motivated
individuals who believe in the cause.
What do online communities have to do with the real world? Lots. The Drupal community is all
about real events and meetings. Whether at conferences, user groups or ad hoc meetings, members
of the Drupal community often take the opportunity to get together. What's more, they generally
talk lots about Drupal and share their experiences online with the the rest of the community (using
Drupal). This would suggest that online communities benefit when the tools are available for organizing
real-world events. This includes calendars for dates and times, private messages for working out details,
and a way for everyone to be involved by adding to a website and sharing their ideas. This can be seen
in other online communities as well; http://www.craigslist.org/ is very much about making real world
contacts happen; php.net promotes its php user groups which get together in real places and interact
with the physical world together.
Communities reward postive members and discourage abusers. This seems to happen naturally
due to human nature, but successful online communities give the humans tools to express their
nature. Slashdot.org gives their members the ability to suggest stories. The reward is having your
name somewhere on the front page of Slashdot for a day, which means lots of people are going to see
you. Slashdotters can also comment on things, and others can rate their comments, so positive
contributions end up getting rewarded and negative contributions end up getting chased away (they fall
below a threshold and nobody reads them any more). The reward of having other community members
appreciate your posts and respond to your comments seems to be great enough to be able to motivate
people to keep coming back and become more and more involved in the community.
A community preserves an identity. Drupal rewards its developers by tracking how many CVS
commits they've made, or by letting people announce what roles they've played in developing or supporting
Drupal. You can also monitor a particular member and closely follow what they've posted. A long-term
sense of identity on a site is critical for the individuals to stay motivated to come back and participate.
Drupal, which has focused on community building since its inception, gives you the tools to shape
your community the way you want it. While one can think about Drupal in terms of its usefulness as a
content management system, or its practicality as a publishing platform, or its suitability as a web
application framework, the most accurate reflection would be, how does Drupal support my online community?
That's just a rough draft - there is lots more to say and refine, and that's why I'm asking for your help!
cheers,
Robert
Comments
For the curious
http://tinyurl.com/d2vok
- Robert Douglass
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Rate the value of this post: http://rate.affero.net/robertDouglass/
I recommend CivicSpace: www.civicspacelabs.org
My sites: www.hornroller.com, www.robshouse.net
See also
http://www.buytaert.net/albums/portland-2005/10/ (sample chapter)
To me ...
(I'm writing this without reading your excerpt first - to keep my mind more "open")
.. the best part about the Drupal community is the momentum the community enjoys together. This manifests (in my opinion) in fast developement, flexible solutions and an emotional thrill. It's similar to the feeling when I reported to Donald J. Becker about an error running several NIC-cards on EISA-bus on Linux, and after less than 20 mins he had a new patch for me to try out.
That was a *few* years ago, and I had been using Linux since around 0.97-pre , knew sunsite.unc.edu and ftp.funet.fi like the back of my hand.
So for me, Drupal incorporates the "authentic Internet essence" about collaboration, accomplishment and inclusion.
This will be similar for others on similar projects, but Drupal is a star case of how this is successfully accomplished via the Internet.
Everyone *knows* it's a good project, even the "suits" know it.
tell more
I want to know more about the emotional thrill... when did you first experience that thrill with Drupal? At what point did you start identifying yourself with "the community"? I like the "authentic internet essence" - did you invent that?
- Robert Douglass
-----
Rate the value of this post: http://rate.affero.net/robertDouglass/
I recommend CivicSpace: www.civicspacelabs.org
My sites: www.hornroller.com, www.robshouse.net
Well, it's easy to sense the
Well, it's easy to sense the enthusiasm of both new users and developers, and that's part of what will be a driving force onwards in my opinion. New users will come trickling down (like small drops), and they'll make small creeks ...
Hehe; well, the allegory works.
The "emotional thrill" and sensing enthusiasm on part of others don't come as part of reading the source, that's for sure. It comes from the "innocence" of the project, the realization that it's built on goodwill from people who all have found something genuine - based on a good idea. That's something you realize when reading up on Drupal's history and the forums.
There's something about Drupal which catch your attention. Perhaps not at first sight, but when looking around at CMSes, blog-tools and so on. Drupal is 'different' somehow.
It helps that the source is kept clean and accessible, when first getting under the hood and dirtying your fingers. That also means the technical threshold for participating is pretty low.
Nowadays, a lot of projects get started like shoestring-businesses and people have read stories of Google, Flickr sold to Yahoo for $35mn and so on. There are of course economic effects to using Drupal as well, and people get money (maybe ad revenue) or fame from it - i.e start making a living.
Still, a good idea, which works for many and has the accessability of OpenSource has the seed of success. If I knew how to properly analyze and detect it, I would be working for a VC, venture firm.
So, what I meant about the "essence" of Internet was that it embodies the main traits of cooperation - known as CSCW (Computer Supported Cooperative Work) to some - whereby you are independent of location, timezone etc. The computer and the network solves that for your communication needs.
Further, the accomplishment is part of what one feel "can be done and is going to be done", on behalf of the project and by the participants. The inclusion is just when reading about, patching, testing, evolving and using Drupal. Communication is open and flows unhindered. You can talk to anybody in the project and they'd probably listen.
That makes Drupal a genuine Internet project, embodying the "authentic Internet essence". The Internet is basically about free-flowing communication, across borders/timezones/systems, and people flow towards intruguing and beneficial activities.
Then when they get too excited they evaporate into a gaseous state, no longer small drops part of a powerful flow. :-)
Sorry, couldn't resist the puns!
Economics
It will be interesting to see how Drupal evolves.
Some might not like that others make money on using Drupal, or get jealous or start getting all political about various issues.
Sadly, that is part of human nature too. Although you might overcome any technical obstacle in our paths, when it comes to human relations we are still on the level of small bickering chimps.
:-)
Like you stated - online communities will reward positive contributions and deal with abusers in their way. Having personal clout by playing an integral part of the developement is important to members. It also has a lot of perks.
If one draws the parallel to large and dynamic online communities like Internet Relay Chat, one can find similar traits between IRC and any other online communities. You will have "channel ops", "IRC ops", flamewars, spammers, jokers and any flavour you could possibly name.
Thereby the Drupal community shows the best-of-breed practices currently present in online communities, but not without the negative ones. Like I said, technical progress will be infinite - progress in human relations is still expected to be at the same cro magnon stadium.
Drupal communities are a reflection of their members, and no matter of well written code can fix that.
The Domino Effect
Firstly, congratulations Robert on a fine article; complete or not. As a writer myself I applaud you for your courage, for taking that last step forward and publicly sharing your ideals and visions with the Drupal community. I also applaud you personally for understanding the very nuclei that is writing and politely asking for input; good or bad.
Sometimes writing doesn’t come easy, even to the most prolific writer. Oftentimes it is our passion for life, for friends, for love, for that elusive something that governs our writing style (voice to the writing world) and ultimately, distinctly, and even universally, sets us apart from our neighbors. You asked for contribution and feedback; I have offered my views. In my mind, at least, you are a person who writes exactly how you live; to the fullest, with passion and integrity the key elements in your life. Whilst I have not had the pleasure of meeting you in person, or even communicating with you on a regular basis, I have taken the time (lots of it, I assure you) to read and surf Drupal’s community forums this past week.
Not surprising, then, given your profound knowledge of Drupal that I would find your name (and countless others) consistently popping up amid the congestion, offering concise answers, succinct advice, and even a warm welcome or two.
In your article you ask: What makes an online community? Or more appropriately, What sets one community apart from another?
Well, it is my belief that Community is more than mere human interaction. It is more than Gold Star awards and a room full of applause. Let us not forget that even the worst kind of human life can easily interact with like-minded individuals. Therefore Community isn’t awards, accolades or even the next Pulitzer Book Prize nor is it a superb piece of software that does exactly what it promises.
Community is an emotional reaction, an experience, because we are an emotional species. Consideration, Sharing, Friendship, Tolerance and Respect for individual choice, life, intelligence, beliefs and morals is what Community is all about. It’s the willingness to impart information – communication – and emotion without reward, without bias or inflection.
Community can never be weighed or measured; it just is. Right or wrong. Small or large. Good or bad. And amid all the emotional variances that perpetually govern our world, and our lives, someone must lead by example. Someone must set the benchmark for all to follow because without guidelines, or human life experiences, anarchy must surely follow.
So, to answer your question Community is Spirit. Passion. Tolerance. And, Respect.
And I see it every time I read your forums. I see it every time I see another post, another reply, another article that imparts knowledge, communication, and respect for multi-tied learning. Logic dictates that when someone offers these emotional benchmarks freely, repeatedly, and without reciprocal expectation, we as human beings tend to react. We rally. We support. And we defend. And that is Community. And it’s priceless.
Kate
That's STAT! NOT Start
There should be some more inspirational thoughts ...
.. spread around the forum by now. Let's hope it gets as good as a book as it possibly can, so that even more come to enjoy a friendly and truly open Drupal community.
;-)
I'll sleep on the thought,
I'll sleep on the thought, del.icio.us the link and share my point when clear thoughts walk by.
Congrats on the book...
Marcel
Trade lead resource
Letters for SOHO development
nice start
We say developers a lot here. In the beginning that's really all there were for the most part. Perhaps contributors is a better word. By and large, the contributors are developers but we have been growing (certainly I and others have been trying to grow) people who contribute documentation, help in the support forums, those who organize events at conferences, UI people, (someday themer's).
-sp
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Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide -|- Black Mountain
-Steven Peck
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Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide