Re: [libreoffice-marketing] Bringing younger people/students into our community

Hi Mike

These are all great ideas. I think, though, it's important to take a step back first and consider 
how LibreOffice must appear to a young and/or relatively inexperienced potential contributor.

It's a huge and complex application. Getting to grips with the code is a daunting prospect, even 
for someone like me who's been coding off and on for over 30 years. For the newcomer, I can well 
imagine their feeling they couldn't possibly make a useful contribution. Consequently, it is surely 
essential to highlight right from the start all the many ways that people can contribute beyond 
coding, and how "start small" is the way everybody gets involved. Perhaps the videos from 
experienced contributors can emphasise the important role that even small contributions can play in 
developing and supporting the project.

Cheers

Nige

________________________________
From: Mike Saunders <mike.saunders@documentfoundation.org>
Sent: 21 August 2020 13:52
To: Marketing list <marketing@global.libreoffice.org>
Subject: [libreoffice-marketing] Bringing younger people/students into our community

Hello,

Over the years we've seen various young people join our projects and
community, and their enthusiasm for LibreOffice and FOSS has been great
to see. We'd like to encourage even more to get involved, so here are a
few ideas I've been thinking about -- feedback very welcome!

* Set up a dedicated community channel (eg Telegram group) for younger
contributors. Needs to have a good name that's not patronising. Maybe
something with "next generation"? Ideaas:
https://nam03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wordhippo.com%2Fwhat-is%2Fanother-word-for%2Fyoung_people.html&amp;data=02%7C01%7C%7C9cca20d780f9408e6ee608d845d12f19%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637336112029645168&amp;sdata=LJl9ZVcZf9p5KPSvCZ2O9TImytHss9M9mVuPLiH9ldE%3D&amp;reserved=0

* Do more in-depth video/audio interviews with younger contributors and
TDF members. The challenge here is that we don't always know someone's
age, but we can reach out and ask

* Build these into success stories, showing how participating in a FOSS
project has many advantages - leading towards studies/jobs

* Prepare an article/video about how LibreOffice is useful in
schools/unis, looking at certain features, options and extensions
particularly geared to education. Then encourage readers/viewers to join
our community

* Take advantage of the popularity of Python amongst younger coders.
Make a video showing how to write Python macros in LibreOffice - more
newcomer-friendly than the wiki page:
https://nam03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwiki.documentfoundation.org%2FMacros%2FPython_Design_Guide&amp;data=02%7C01%7C%7C9cca20d780f9408e6ee608d845d12f19%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637336112029650159&amp;sdata=YDDiFJ09cPyWNuW%2FeOaeUsToJxTJOL3gmuTwJv%2FEN3w%3D&amp;reserved=0

* Organise an on-line virtual meetup for younger contributors, to answer
questions about the project and community. We probably can't say
"limited to people X years old", but try to make sure younger people who
are already active in LO are available to chat with newcomers

* Some more ideas/experiences in this video:
https://nam03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.libreplanet.org%2Fu%2Flibreplanet%2Fm%2Fengaging-young-people-how-to-include-positive-youth-participation-in-our-free-software-community%2F&amp;data=02%7C01%7C%7C9cca20d780f9408e6ee608d845d12f19%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637336112029650159&amp;sdata=u4D3i4ljFpnC4xD3QVBAbUMhmZkZG%2Fkzm72a%2Fet4Myk%3D&amp;reserved=0

What do you think?

--
Mike Saunders, Marketing and Community Coordinator
The Document Foundation

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