I knew we needed to build a community, but where to start? How to set up a framework where strangers would be empowered and encouraged to work together and build relationships and improve overall performance? I needed to find examples of other successful planned communities and learn from them.
The first place I turned was Open Source software communities. I've been an avid user of Ubuntu since 2006 and have closely watched its development into the premiere Linux distribution. Ubuntu's prominence is due in no small part to it's powerful online community. Even in its early days, there was an air of helpfulness. Hard work and collaboration over several years has resulted in an innovative operating system built for humans.
This community was not accidental and was a result of the efforts of Jono Bacon, the former Community Manager of Canonical (the corporation which spearheads Ubuntu). Conveniently, he wrote a book about how to build engaged volunteer communities called The Art of Community. This book spells out important features of successful, productive, collaborative communities ranging from channels of communication to community governance to hosting live events.
Reading this book was an invaluable first step to planning out the community I wanted to build and helped me draft a battle plan. Many of my later posts will review this plan in more detail. However, as expected, this book's narrative focuses heavily on building technical communities. Patient advocacy is not a profession that requires computer literacy. I knew that if technical hurdles were in the way (e.g. installing new software), my efforts would not result in the engagement I sought. I needed to find a way to temper this information for a less technical community.
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