Leadership By Numbers

Category Linux Open Source Ubuntu
Jono Bacon is the Community Manager for Ubuntu, and author of the highly praised "The Art of Community." The text has been published by O'Reilly under a Creative Commons license. Jono has decided to include access to a PDF of his work (though, he also encourages everyone to purchase a commercial copy, as well).

From OpenNTF to Sourceforge, if you are working in open-source, then this is a must-read.

Throughout the eleven chapters and 360+ pages the book covers the major elements of building strong community:

* Foreword by Leo Laporte ' emmy award-winning broadcaster and founder of the TWiT Network provides a thoughtful foreword, complete with his expected wit and repartee.
* Preface
* Chapter 1 ' The Art of Community ' We begin the book with a bird's-eye view of how communities function at a social science level. We cover the underlying nuts and bolts of how people form communities, what keeps them involved, and the basis and opportunities behind these interactions.
* Chapter 2 ' Planning Your Community ' Next we carve out and document a blueprint and strategy for your community and its future growth. Part of this strategy includes the target objectives and goals and how the community can be structured to achieve them.
* Chapter 3 ' Communicating Clearly ' At the heart of community is communication, and great communicators can have a tremendously positive impact. Here we lay down the communications backbone and the best practices associated with using it.
* Chapter 4 ' Processes: Simple Is Sustainable ' We then move on to focus on putting the facilities in place for your community to do great things. In this chapter we build simple, effective, and nonbureaucratic processes that enable your community to conduct tasks, work together, and share their successes.
* Chapter 5 ' Supporting Workflow with Tools ' We continue our discussion of community facilities to build workflows that are driven by accessible, sensible, and rock-solid tools that enable your contributors to do great work quickly and easily.
* Chapter 6 ' Building Buzz ' With a solid foundation in place, we move on to build excitement and buzz around your community and encourage and enthuse every man, woman, dog and pony to get involved and participate.
* Chapter 7 ' Measuring Community ' Although many consider community hand-wavey and unmeasurable, this chapter confronts the myth and guides you in tracking, monitoring, and otherwise measuring the work going on the community so it can be optimized and simplified.
* Chapter 8 ' Governance ' Our next stop is the wide-ranging and seemingly complex topic of governance. We explore what options are available for a low-friction, capable, and representative governance strategy for your community.
* Chapter 9 ' Handling Conflict ' One of the most sensitive topics in community leadership is handling conflict. In this chapter we explore how to identify, handle, and prevent irksome conflict; handle divisive personalities; and unblock problems.
* Chapter 10 ' Creating and Running Events ' Events offer an excellent opportunity for your community to bond, be productive, and have fun, and this is where we cast our beady eye in our penultimate chapter.
* Chapter 11 ' Hiring a Community Manager ' Finally, we close The Art of Community with some advice and guidance for organizations who want to hire a community manager to conduct and implement the wide range of topics that we have discussed throughout the book.

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