apache con 2013 building authentic communities
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Growing AuthenticCommunities
Luke KaniesFounder and CEO, Puppet LabsFounder, Puppet@[email protected]
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Question Authority
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Some OSS experience, but not muchHad a lot of horrible warnings, not many good examplesTrial and Error, stuck with what worked and tried to quickly ditch what didn’tHanlon’s Razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by incompetenceAlways willing to admit I’m wrong, to change my mind
Growing,not Building
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Wanted to call this ‘building’Just because you build it, doesn’t mean they’ll comeYou build the framework, other people grow the community
A bit about Puppet
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2005
• 1 user on dev list (me)• No user list• Registered #puppet, no users
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Bad product,hungry Luke
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Started product and company at the same time (rare)Had experience with other products, weren’t focused on user successAlways showed this slide at talks, and was clear about commercial goalsSysadmins are used to spending money on software, so this wasn’t scary
2009
• Roughly 500 people on user list• Averaging more than 100 in IRC• 3 employees• 1 event
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50,000% growth in 4 years :)Took Venture capital
2013
• 5100+ users on user list• 940+ on dev list• Averaging 900+ in IRC• Grew from 260 to 820 Forge modules in 1 year• 30+ events• 120 employees• Full time community manager (Dawn Foster)
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How?
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Major changes without major outcry
Encourage engagement, don’t control it
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Empty lists need no moderationNatural first reactions cover “when traffic is too large”You should be so luckyLike investing in a scalable back end on a site with no users
Answer every question
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In early days, answer everything, day or night, right awayBe present enough that it seems like a crowded room
...even when youdon’t know
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Sometimes you don’t knowSometimes you know and don’t like the answerAnswer anywayIt’s early days - the truth is more important than anythingAll you have is credibility, and that’s easy to lose
...but not alwaysright away
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Hand over authority quicklyGive others time to helpOnly got passed as top contributor last year
Transparency is hard
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Early days: Your project sucksMature: Your project is slow and can’t respond quicklyAdmit it, embrace itThere’s probably something you like that you can draw attention to
FullTransparency
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Why, What, and HowEveryone knew I was trying to make moneyEveryone knew what we were doing and whySo almost no one was cynicalI run Puppet Labs this way - everyone knows how much we have in the bank account
EspeciallyDifficult
for Companies
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You’re already suspectEspecially if you aren’t the main devsYou have to work extra hardBut companies are naturally secretiveSuck it, this is open source
Transparency !=Openness
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PrettyAwesome
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One period of working alternating hours with an AussieHe’d file tickets while I slept, I’d fix them while he slept
Be nice
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Intolerant of intoleranceNo religion
Embracenewbies
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You can’t grow without new people
Word of Mouth
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30-50% of conf attendees are new and were referred by friendsJust about no advertisingOnline engagementLots of hustling on the ground
Hustle atconferences
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Walk the floorExpos are useless for community until you’re big, even then just a meeting placeGive talks (like this one!), hold BOFsSpend all day talking to peopleI never ever attended talks - I didn’t sell, I hustled, I practiced, I pitched
VisitThem
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Attend their conferencesFind a community member and ask them to organize a drink-up on every tripSleep when you’re home5 countries in 6 months
Be Available
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Default acceptEveryone who wants it has my mobile phone numberEveryone knows my email addressThe sound of someone mentioning my name in IRC still haunts meI still do long Q&As and will answer basically anything
LessonsLearned
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Prioritiesand
Community
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Sometimes focused on our own priorities, forget othersEmployees don’t automatically get community membershipIndividual focus matters
Engage,don’t announce
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Even announcing in advance, rather than “yesterday” is betterAlways askBig changes need lots of warningYou need to actually listen and engage
Examples
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James Turnbull
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Wanted to write a bookEnded up doing almost all community work for 2 yearsRewrote all of our docs
Venture Capital
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Didn’t seek initial round, but was happy to announce to communityLots of questionsBut I’d always been clear I was here to grow a companyAnd everyone knew I’d been hustling for years and needed some helpI wasn’t selling out, I was hiring programmers to help, and that’s what I did
GPL2 -‐> Apache 2
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Changed in 2011, 2 years after VC, took a long time for CLAs2 people complained (out of 3k or so on the list)Was clear about why: Trading off integrations over potential license revenueMySQL -> Sun -> Oracle kinda poisoned the wellAbsolutely not religious for us, and the community responded in kind
Questions?
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