care and feeding of volunteers
DESCRIPTION
Volunteers make open source projects go. This talk discusses how to attract volunteers, what to do once you have, and how to keep them happy once you've got them.TRANSCRIPT
The Care and Feeding of Volunteers
OR
How Can Volunteers???
About Me
Kat Toomajian (MissKat, zarhooie)Dreamwidth Studios, LLCCommunity & Volunteer SupportExperience15+ years Non-Profit5+ years Non-Profit Management4+ years OSS
Why This Talk
General Perceptions about OSS Little diversity Hostile community Need to already have experience Interview process
Why This Talk
Breaking it down Half the people on the planet aren't male
10-30% of tech professionals are female Only 1.5-5% of OSS developers are female
Everyone's a newcomer Experience is a catch-22 Your vol interviews you, not the other way around
Your Project is Not A Special Snowflake
Your Project is Not A Special Snowflake
Lots of projects out there Your potential volunteers have choices Make yourself competitive in the market
Potential volunteers look for Culture Environment Other people ???? (can be literally anything else)
STEP ZERO:How Do I People???
Be nice. Keep your IRC channel PG-13 Community standards, enforced adequately, will
self-enforce Peer pressure works both ways
Combative vs Collaborative development It's ok to argue about stuff It's not ok to argue in a way that ends with people
leaving the project
Four Letter Words
Woman is not a four letter word. Neither is diversity.
Don't make assumptions or jokes based around racism, ableism, sexism, or any other -isms
These jokes aren't funny, and will drive volunteers away from your project.
If you hurt someone's feelings... Apologize. Don't tell them to get thicker skin.
WELCOME
Be Welcoming
Lower the entry barrier Have a welcome wagon
Links to: Jargon page Culture wiki Development wiki
Lower entry barrier = more developers = less work for you in the long run
Step One:Follow the
Yellow Brick Code
STEP ONE: Follow the Yellow Brick Code
Wanted: awesome people! Not everyone has experience, but...
Lots of people want experience Let them get that experience by coding for you!
A → B → C Give people a job to do. Make mentors available.
STEP TWO:What Can You Doo-OO-oo... with a
Newbie Dev? Training and mentoring your developers Clear path from user to leader to management
User to developer to leadership Developer development is a lifestyle choice
Takes effort, but it's totally worth it DW brought 14 devs and staff to YAPC for
development. The return will justify the means.
Invest in Your Community
Common Fears of OSS Projects They don't know enough to be useful I'm too busy to handle their question If they have a question, they'll ask I had to do it the hard way/that's not how I learned
Invest in Your Community
Rebuttals Knowledge is an acquired thing, not innate Mentoring is the most important thing you can do. Technology advances. So should teaching
techniques Don't ridicule those who ask for help
What is a Newbie Dev?
Specific term for someone new to a project or development in general
You don't have to go through the mentoring if you don't want to
Many of our devs started out knowing nothing about coding at all, let alone how to code
So What CAN They Do?
Let them work on tiny bugs Makes you look good You don't have to untrain bad habits! Can point to it and say I DID THAT
Motivational tool Retention tool
STEP THREE:?????????
Every project and developer has special requirements THIS IS OK.
Look to your project's culture to find out what these needs are Adjust accordingly.
Be Encouraging!
Give credit where credit's due News posts “merit badges” Bribes can be a good motivational tool
Write references Impostor Syndrome 101
Impostor Syndrome
There's a Place for (almost) Everyone Don't allow people who are violating
community standards to keep doing that. Non-Development Positions
Cheerleaders Documentation
End-User Project Culture
End-User Support End-User Support is a gateway drug to development
STEP FOUR:Profit!
Mentoring = Long-Term Project Survival More invested = will bring their friends
Next to having dev custom built, it's the best All your tiny stuff gets fixed No bad habits to train out They will learn what you want them to learn
how you want them to learn it.
LET'S RECAP!
Be Nice. Learn how to people. Lower your entry barriers. Mentor your developers. Project-specific goals Ensure the long-term survival of your project
How Can I Do This In My Project? You can do them all, but start with one.
Pick one. Probably be nice/welcoming
Master it. Move on to the next one.
Learning how to newcomers takes time. Be patient. Ask for help. perldoc friendlymentor (not really, I made this up)
Birthday Hat Hedgehog sez:THANKS FOR LISTENING!