Lessons Learned From Scaling An Open Source Community By 10,000%
About Drupal
The free, open source content management system that’s secure, performant, heavily customizable, future-ready, and powered by community.
22 years of open source history in 22 minutes… let’s go! 😎
The year is 2001…
This stuff was new and cool
Drupal 1.0 was released!
Flash-forward to 2023…
Millions
of websites
118k
Active Contributors
Developers
46K+
1.4M
Users on Drupal.org
12%�Market Share
Growth in Q1 ‘18
51%�Growth
Year over year
Drupal adoption 10x that of AEM and Sitecore combined
Largest open source community (by members) in the world
1.3 million community members
…but how?
Drupal’s Pillars Of Community Awesomeness™
Drupal’s Pillars Of Community Awesomeness™
Make Diversity and Inclusion a Foundational Principle
Step 0: Provide A Code of Conduct (that’s enforced)
Value ALL contributions!
accessibility
mentorship
event planning
support
documentation
translation
usability and design
Provide dedicated spaces for underrepresented voices to support one another and be heard
Provide a home for DEI-interested folks to collaborate and educate
Ensure underrepresented folks are in positions empowered to affect real change
Technical Leadership��(Maintainer, Comitter)
Governance Leadership
(Working Group Member, Initiative Coordinator)
Non-Profit Leadership
(Board Member, Association Staff)
Ensure EVERYONE can use your stuff!
Craft A Delightful Contributor Onboarding Experience
Your goal: Get new folks over the “suck” threshold ASAP :)
Mentors / First-Time Contributor Workshop
Tooling: Get people going in a couple of clicks.
Facilitate Peer-to-Peer Learning
Take Community Ownership to Extremes
Slap an edit / create button on *everything*
…including the ability to flag a problem. ;)
Provide ways for the *community* to build community
Invest in Thoughtful Project Governance to Reduce Burnout
Determine the Minimum Viable Trust™ needed, then share responsibility as much as possible.
Less Trust Required
More Trust
Required
Documentation
Maintain themes
Maintaining Core
Handling Security Issues
Code reviews
Mentoring
Handling Money
Accessibility reviews
Usability reviews
Maintain modules
Case Studies
User Support
Translations
Infrastructure Mainteinance
Organizing camps/events
Community moderator
Organizing meetups
Propose code changes
Legal Stuff
“Right-size” governance for level of trust needed
Less Trust Required
More Trust
Required
Individual Contributors
Formal Working Groups
Informal Teams
Formal Governing Bodies
Leave ample room for innovation.
Drupal Core
Drupal Contrib
“Golden” Contrib
Experimental Core Modules
Teams, with well-scoped roles, over individuals.
Drupal�(BDFL)
Drupal 5
Drupal 6
Drupal 7
Drupal 8
Product Managers
Backend Framework Managers
Frontend Framework Managers
Release Managers
Core JS
Committer Team Facilitators
Plan for the future as well
Renewable Term Limits
(Graceful Retirement)
“Provisional” Maintainers
(Role Shadowing)
Emeritus Recognition
(Remembering Those Who Got Us Here)
Never Miss A Chance To Celebrate Your Community
Community Spotlight
Live Core Commit
Leaderboards?
Be Robin Hood: Funnel Corporate $ Into Project Sustainability
Create opportunities for a Commercial Ecosystem around your project.
Incentivize giving back.
Incentivize giving back.
The result? The *majority* of Drupal contributions are sponsored.
Next: GitLab Feature?
Have a Plan for when Sh*t Hits The Fan
Community Crisis Management
4. Create spaces for healing
1. Get folks to as rich a medium as possible
2. Ensure all sides are heard (via neutral third party if possible)
3. Identify underlying problems, publicly acknowledge and address them
Recap: Drupal’s Pillars Of Community Awesomeness™
Ok, but… what if I’m just starting out?
Community Starter Kit™
Thank you! :D
Slides @ https://aiven.io/angie
OSDI Meetups @