Liz,

I am forwarding you this note from Roberto Allende in order to
introduce the two of you in the unlikely even your paths have not
already crossed.  In addition to being a Foundation board member,
Roberto is a one-man wrecking machine when it comes to making things
happen and getting people involved in everything from user groups to
the South American Symposium to World Plone Day, an event he invented
and has managed with great success for some time now.

Roberto,

Elizabeth is one of those rare folks who doesn't stand on the
sidelines and has the energy to shake things up and move things
forward.  She helped create and push forward PloneChix, made quite a
splash at this year's Symposium East, and announced that she was
interested in reinvigorating our Plone User Groups almost the same
instant I was scrambling to find someone to take on leadership for
this oft considered loathesome task.  Needless to say I didn't ignore
karma.

In a nutshell -

Roberto has agreed to provide his input, wisdom and serve in an
advisory capacity to the effort to revitalize our base of user groups
- particularly where it relates to a global audience.  I've given Liz
free reign to take this effort and run with it, providing only a few
ideas (attached) around what marketing and communications would like
to see come out of this.  My goal is to provide resources, make sure
nothing gets in the way, and then stay out of the way myself.

If there is anything I can do to help out, gather resources, provide
access to phone conferencing space, etc etc, please just let me know.

I am tremendously happy to have both of you involved in this.  I think
huge things are possible that will improve the entire community.

Mark


FYI - These are the User groups related items from the marketing plan:

• Update central listing of the groups (I did that earlier this year)
• collaborative forum for helping groups share ideas and activities;
let existing successful groups help bootstrap new ones
• central UG calendar and news feed for UG events; with visibility on
the front page of plone.org
• dump mangy user group presence on plone.org and create a new one
that is a destination (include a world map of all UGs)
• set up a plone-specific speakers list; encourage Plone luminaries to
visit local UGs when they are in the area
• establish a "welcome wagon" where Plone developers/users can get
connected to their nearest user group - introduced to the local
community members
• talk to UGs about having their websites hosted on plone.org /
research idea of the PF covering costs of domains
• engage user groups as source of articles for this month in plone
• when the foundation is funding a company to represent Plone at an
industry event, require them to involve / engage the local UG


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Mark A Corum
Writer  |  User Interface Designer  |  Online Marketer  |  Certified ScrumMaster

markcorum on AOL, Googletalk, MSN, Skype, Meebo, TokBox, Facebook,
Twitter and Yahoo

"Light up the darkness." - Bob Marley
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" (Who watches the watchmen?) -
Juvenales, Satires
"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other
time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that
we seek." - Barack Obama

 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -




---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Roberto Allende <rallende <at> menttes.com>
Date: Tue, Jun 29, 2010 at 3:23 AM
Subject: Re: Advising on the Reboot of User Groups
To: Mark A Corum <markcorum <at> gmail.com>


Mark A Corum wrote:
>
> Roberto,
>
> >From a global perspective, you probably have the most and best
> connections with user groups of anyone in the Plone community.
> Between World Plone Day, and the work you've done in South America
> with the Symposium, I think you are our global authority in the
> field..
>
> As part of our marketing goals, rebooting and strengthening our user
> groups one of the most important things that needs to be accomplished.
>  I've found a number of folks in the US who are trying to reinvigorate
> their user groups, but I don't think we can succeed unless we can
> spread the connections around the world.
>
> I was also thinking that having a strong global user group
> organization might provide you with a place you could put the care and
> feeding of World Plone Day going forward, if your goal remains getting
> out of being in full control of that effort.
>
>

I agree. I'm glad to read this mail and i appreciate your trust.

> Is there a chance you could provide some input, guidance and a reality
> check for the work being done around improving our user groups?

I wrote about user groups on my region:
http://robertoallende.com/technology/free-software/free-software-users-groups-part-1
http://robertoallende.com/technology/free-software/free-software-users-groups-part-2

Also i gave two talks:
http://python.mirocommunity.org/video/1071/pycon-2009-giving-back-and-hel
http://dev.comlounge.net/videos/plone-conference-2007-video-roberto-allende-plone-cono-sur-creating-a-plone-user-group-from-scratch/

On these material i share my vision, information and activities i know
about user groups.

I think the key with community is talking in terms of concrete
initiatives and that's the way to make changes. From a group such as
the engagement one we have to provide the 'excuse' to meet people to
work/talk about Plone promotion. I believe WPD is a good case: a very
concrete initiative, very concrete date, very concrete activities, and
so on.

We could define a list of initiatives and move them forward, some
examples i've are:
- write a Plone User group how to
there are good documents for another free software communities, but i
believe we've been able to create our own identity.

- push the user group list, organize meetings once a while to meet
people from user groups and talk about them, share experiences

- promote user groups on ploneconfs. It's very usual to find community
stands or banners on free software conferences here. We could promote
the identity of each user group

and so on...

> I'd also LOVE to have the names of people you've dealt with in user groups
> outside of the US that we might be able to pull into leadership roles
> in this effort?
>

I can do that and i would start by the country section on plone.org,
http://plone.org/countries these sections are mantained by the most
active people.

We could call for a meeting, i think the key is meeting all the people
involved on it. We could give a short agenda and see who comes. User
groups work with volunteer task force, and as such, is very volatile:
you're on day, you're not another. The best way to know who is today
is calling and talk them.

In a quick-list i would include:

Kamon Ayeva
kamon.ayeva-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org
http://kayeva.wordpress.com/
Country: France / Africa

Maik Roeder
mroeder-TWh9R00kwrs@public.gmane.org
Plone Meetup barcelona
http://www.meetup.com/plone-5/
Country: Spain / Barcelona

Hector Velarde
hvelarde-/E1597aS9LQAvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org
Plone Mexico
Country: Mexico

Érico Andrei
erico <at> simplesconsultoria.com.br
Brasil, Python Brasil

Tim Knapp
duffyd-asWXTnB1AhBg9hUCZPvPmw@public.gmane.org / tim-gMu3S4noFYp8UrSeD/g0lQ@public.gmane.org
http://kokorice.org/
New Zealand

Turgut Uyar
uyar-RkT7WutPhRIQR86gbvSPMg@public.gmane.org
Turkey

Leonardo J. Caballero
/Plone Venezuela/
leonardocaballero-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org


Most of them i met personally and they contribute somehow. Some don't
have a user group, some do. I will do a second check and see if i can
add more people to that list. I excluded people on the States, Canada
and some active countries on Europe, such as Uk, France, Belgium,
Germany and Italy.

> Let me know if you have time for this advisory role for the next 2
> months - reading plans, commenting, perhaps attending a couple of
> phone calls.  I promise I will make sure no one tries to draft you
> into doing a bunch of work, since I've noticed your work ethic and
> willingness to help make that all too easy for folks to take advantage
> of.
>

We're on the same boat, anything you need just let me know.

Besides the community driven model for marketing i believe we could
also improve and push the vendor driven model. Making the companies
work together and cooperate in certain sides of Plone promotion.
Plone.net which is already on progress is important and we could add
initiatives such promote success stories screencasts from vendors or
organizations using Plone. Success stories is a very effective tool
for promotion since the empathy it creates and vendors could be
interested to commit hard work if they're going to be well received
and promoted by community, a win-win situation. Of course there are
many more, but just to show what i'm talking about. If you're
interested, just let me know i would love to put energy on this way
too.


Kind Regards
r.

--
http://robertoallende.com