[brainstorming] strengthening KDE's global communities

[Joseph P. De Veaugh-Geiss]

Hello!

I am brainstorming how to strengthen our "Global Communities" and would 
like your input.

tl;dr Currently I see separate and somewhat isolated teams which are 
nonetheless related to each other in terms of language or geography. I 
would like to try to strengthen these communities by bringing teams 
together when they may have related goals.

I will use "Global Communities" as an umbrella term, and in some cases 
these communities may be language-based, in others geography-based. I am 
aware there are politics involved in this discussion, and maybe my 
oversimplification here is problematic. Nonetheless, I will take a risk 
and open it up for discussion.

This work is very much in the "ideas/critiques welcome" stage, which is 
why I am writing here now. I would love to have your input; see below 
for some general questions but feel free to add your own.

If this idea has legs, I will eventually post to Discuss/kde-community 
ML for wider discussion, but want to consult stakeholders first before 
doing so.

_Background_

I am thinking specifically of the following 4 categories which are 
relevant for KDE's Global Communities:

- (i) translation teams (e.g., Spanish: 
https://l10n.kde.org/team-infos.php?teamcode=es)
- (ii) websites or blogs (e.g., KDE Italia: https://kdeitalia.it/)
- (iii) user support & networking channels (e.g., KDE India at Discuss: 
https://discuss.kde.org/c/local-communities/kde-india/19)
- (iv) promo and outreach (KDE Network Mexico: 
https://go.kde.org/matrix/#/#kde-network-mexico:kde.org)

For more examples, please see the following wiki (note: I plan to change 
this page to be called "Global Communities, since it is not only about 
local communities):

   https://community.kde.org/Local_Communities

Note: All of the links included at the above wiki page do /not/ appear 
at l10n.kde.org, with the one exception of international sites (e.g., 
https://jp.kde.org/). Perhaps some of the links from the wiki should 
eventually be included at l10n.kde.org, or vice versa, if stakeholders 
want that.

_Problem_

Although KDE has several active Global Community groups, activities 
across groups which could be relevant to one another are spread out over 
numerous channels. As a result, I think there may not be (much/enough?) 
communication between groups with possibly related goals.

Please feel free to correct me if you think this observation is 
incorrect or inaccurate.

_Initial Thoughts_

Unless I am seeing this in the completely wrong way, I believe we can 
bring some of these different groups under a broader community tent 
instead of having separate and somewhat isolated groups. How exactly and 
what that will look like is very much still an open question for me. The 
wiki above is my first attempts to start grouping things together in a 
meaningful way as I have been looking at it recently.

At this stage I am collecting information and ideas. I don't want to 
assume this work is on the right track, so as a primary stakeholder 
please let me know what you think. I would like to evenutally make some 
proposals to the community but would first like to get your general 
thoughts before proceeding.

_Open Questions_

  * Are there other stakeholders I should reach out to?
     + I have already contacted Aniqa (in CC) for her work in the area 
of promo/outreach under the "KDE Network" initiative.
  * What am I getting wrong here? Constructive criticism is very 
welcome. I am certain I have blind spots.
  * My impression is that translation teams in particular are a success 
story for KDE. Why do you think translation work has been so successful? 
Can some of that be 'translated' to other aspects of global community work?
  * Do you know of related work? What has worked? What has not?
  * What outcomes would you like to see if I proceed? What should be 
avoided?
  * What do you think could be some metrics to measure the health of 
these communities?
  * Any thoughts on how to best structure global community teams to 
facilitate communication between them?

Please let me know your thoughts, and thank you!

Cheers,
Joseph

-- 
Joseph P. De Veaugh-Geiss
KDE Internal Communications & KDE Eco Community Manager
OpenPGP: 8FC5 4178 DC44 AD55 08E7 DF57 453E 5746 59A6 C06F
Matrix: @joseph:kde.org

Generally available Monday-Thursday from 10-16h CET/CEST. Outside of 
these times it may take a little longer for me to respond.

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