November 15, 2007
On Community
by Brian Donahue
The last couple months have been really amazing, and I have learned a ton about the software development community, and people in general. I had been thinking for a while about the great sense of community that exists in the Ruby and Rails world that I had witnessed at RailsConf 2006, and in our local Rails user groupBroken Link: http://phillyonrails.org/, and likewise with the Agile PhillyBroken Link: http://agilephilly.com/ user group. These communities were very open to people of all levels of knowledge and skill, engaged in constant conversation, provided thoughtful and patient answers to questions, and seemed to almost always treat each other with respect. I wondered why we didn't seem to have something similar for .NET developers.
I also knew the Austin ALT.NET Conference was coming up, and a lot of people I admire were attending. I hadn't registered, and now it was too late. That seemed like the type of .NET group that I was looking for, even if it was only going to last for 1 weekend. I decided it was time to put some thought and effort into developing a local community, and see what might happen.
I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I wrote the initial blog post about starting Philly ALT.NETBroken Link: http://phillyalt.net/. I expected that maybe a few of my friends and former co-workers might humor me, and we might get together a few times like we used to do at lunches, and talk about geek stuff. My first big surprise was a comment on the post from Dave LaribeeBroken Link: http://codebetter.com/blogs/david_laribee, offering to help in any way he could. Shortly thereafter, Scott BellwareBroken Link: http://codebetter.com/blogs/scott.bellware/ gave a shout outBroken Link: http://codebetter.com/blogs/scott.bellware/archive/2007/09/27/168800.aspx. It was amazing to see how quick these prominent .NET folks were to reach out with encouragement and support. Dave urged me to come to the ALT.NET conference to talk about community, and I wasn't going to pass up a second chance. The next thing I knew, I was sitting in a room at one of the first scheduled sessions of the conference with people like Martin Fowler and Jeremy MillerBroken Link: http://codebetter.com/blogs/jeremy.miller, discussing various software communities and subgroups, how the .NET community compared, and what we could learn from them. I was having conversations with JP BoodhooBroken Link: http://jpboodhoo.com/ and Scott Bellware. Not only was everyone incredibly friendly and welcoming, they were genuinely interested in hearing my thoughts and ideas, along with those of everyone at the conference. They were encouraging everyone to speak their minds, and get involved.
A couple weeks after the conference, I spent a week in JP's "Nothin But .NET" class, and was truly inspired by his energy and passion for what he does. I learned a ton about C#, .NET, and software development, but more importantly I learned a lot about what it takes to be a great developer, and a leader in the community. JP holds nothing back - whatever he knows, he wants to share with his students, and the software community. He has spent much of his life working incredibly hard to learn everything he can about software development, had risen to the top of his field, and now he doesn't hesitate a second to share anything he knows with anyone who asks. He truly believes that investing in the software community only helps him and his profession in the long run.
I was completely surprised, honored, and humbled when JP recently mentioned meBroken Link: http://www.jpboodhoo.com/blog/LeadingByMultiplicity.aspx as someone with potential to develop as a leader in the community. JP's post was titled "Leading By MultiplicityBroken Link: http://www.jpboodhoo.com/blog/LeadingByMultiplicity.aspx," and in it he discusses his belief that the most valuable leaders in any group are not those with the most followers, but those that take the time to grow other leaders. When you think of leadership in this light, you find that perhaps the most important qualities of a leader have less to do with possessing the most knowledge or experience and more to do with passion, integrity, and humility.
This made me realize that those traits - passion, integrity, and humility - might be the primary drivers in developing a great community. The willingness to share what you do know and admit what you don't know, and the desire to encourage others to do the same through asking questions, making suggestions, and sharing ideas - that is what community is to me. Great communities invest in themselves by encouraging others to share, learn, and grow, knowing that this will only make their community stronger. That's the kind of atmosphere I hope to help create with Philly ALT.NETBroken Link: http://phillyalt.net/.
I think we are on our way. We had our first meeting this past Wednesday, and it turned out even better than I had hoped. About 30 people were in attendance, and everyone seemed engaged and friendly. The topic was a whirlwind tour through Monorail and Castle, via the creation of a simple to-do list app. My only regret is that I didn't stop often enough to invite more questions and conversation. That will be a goal for future meetings. But overall, people seemed to have a good time, the momentum is picking up on our mailing list, and future meetings are taking shape. I am really looking forward to the rest of this year, and 2008 - I think there are a lot of great things ahead.