Building Successful Local Communities: Insights and Best PracticesIvo Radulovski (segments)Austrian and Bulgarian Communities

João Ventura (jcnventura)Portuguese Community

Christefano (christefano)LA Drupal

Jeffrey A. “jam” McGuire (horncologne)Germany / Italy

What does a strategic plan look like for a local community?

• The People

• Objectives

• Organization / Legal Entity

• Roles & Responsibilities

The People

• Individuals

• Service Providers

• Clients

Objectives

• Have fun• Meet people that share your Drupal passion

• Share knowledge (Drupal, but not only)• Network• Cooperate• Have fun (again)

Organization / Legal Entity

• Why is it important?• Handling Money • Signing Contracts• Local Branding & Marketing• Dealing with Contacts• Define a Team• Having Partnerships & Memberships

Roles & Responsibilities

• Marketing• Event Organization & Logistics• Sponsorship Management• Website Development• Graphic Design• Translation Team• Social Coordination• Drupal Public Training Coordinator• Communication

Marketing

• Universities• Press Releases• Media Partners

Drupal in Bulgaria in 6 months from zero to…• Drupal Meetup• 7 Sessions at the Sofia University• 3 Expos with Drupal Panels in 3 Cities• Drupal 7 Release Party• Drupal Camp• Coding for a Cause• Drupal Party• Weekly User Group Meetings

Drupal in Bulgaria metrics (6 months)• 25 volunteers at the camp*• 80 members in groups.drupal.org• +200 posts about Drupalcamp Sofia• 250 active members• 300 registered on drupalcamp.bg• 2000 registered users at drupal.org (+60% growth)• 20.000 Unique visitors in 2 months with ~5mins and ~6

pages per visitor on drupalcamp.bg

Déjà vu – Portuguese style

• The community had to be restarted in September 2009, because it had been abandoned

• These early members are still around, and some are now active members.

• A community is a group of people with individual agendas – conflict is a certainty, given enough time.

• Deal with it early, before it snowballs

Drupal in Portugal in 18 months

• Monthly meetings• 3 Drupal sessions in 3 university / cities• Drupal 7 release party• 1st Drupalcamp in Lisbon: March 26, 2011

Drupal in Portugal metrics

• 30 active members• 119 attendants registered in Drupalcamp• 158 members in groups.drupal.org• 3300 registered users at drupal.org

Get out!

• Meet often, meet regularly• Monthly at least

• Different types of meetups:• Meet in a bar (scalability problems)• Barcamp• ½ day DrupalCamps

Community channels

• Usual channels:• groups.drupal.org• #drupal-* IRC channel on freenode• Your website

• Other channels (not recommended):• Mailing lists• groups.google.com

• Facebook• Twitter

Eat your own dog food

• Create a website

• Nice tool to create websites: Drupal

However…

• You all know how to make GREAT websites• You have all this neat stuff that you can use

But…• KISS

• Get it done , and then grow it slowly• Because it will be created, managed and maintained by volunteers• It only needs to tell who you are, what you’ve done and what you’ll do• Don’t make existing channels obsolete

Strength in numbers

• Establish ties with neighboring communities• Encourage the creation of new communities

• Meta-communities

• In Europe, there’s a continent-level group of communities organizing vertical Camps• The Drupal Hispano community gathers all the distinct Spanish-speaking communities

What did you think?

Locate this session on the DCC website:http://chicago2011.drupal.org/sessions

Click the “Take the Survey” link.

Thanks!