This session will present ten ways (or more!) to become involved in the Plone community, from sponsoring or organizing a sprint to testing and submitting bugs to hanging out on #plone, there are a multitude of ways for programmers and non-programmers alike to become active members of the Plone community. Audience members will leave this session with practical advice and steps on how to contribute to and participate with the rest of the Plone community.

1. Top Ten Ways
to Become Involved
in the
Plone Community
Darci Hanning
Technology Development Consultant
Oregon State Library
Salem, OR

2. Introduction
► Became involved in Plone two years ago
► Currently a non-developer
Integrator / Customizer
► My involvement to date:
2006 Conference Presenter
Two sprints
Documentation Team
Local user group co-founder

3. Not going to talk about…

4. 10. Blog about Plone
► How you use Plone
► What you like about it
► How it compares to
other CMS’s
► Promote improvements
► Share ideas
► Jon Stahl’s Blog
► http://planet.plone.org/

5. 9. Contribute a Theme
► “You can always spot a
Plone site…”
► CSS, plenty of tutorials
and examples at
plone.org

6. 8. “Adopt” a Product
► Assist the developer:
Verify bugs and bug
fixes
Write documentation
Test upcoming releases
► Become the Product
Owner
Manage issues and
releases

7. 7. Marketing
► Advertise how you use Plone
plone.net: join and submit
del.icio.us: tag with “plone-site”
► Marketing Group
plone.net site
organizers
Currently
re-organizing
Gerry Kirk’s blog

8. 6. Online Participation
► Numerous mailing lists
General (plone-users)
Install, setup, upgrade
More…
► IRC
#plone on
irc.freenode.org
Via plone.org website

9. 5. Local User Groups
► Groups in cities around
the world
► Not in yours? Start
one!
Presentations
Socializing
Virtual
Announce it!
User group leaders’
mailing list

10. 4. Sprints
►A chance for developers to
focus on specific areas or
features
► But not just for
developers!*
► Can’t attend? Sponsor one!
► Help organize one!
► Host one!
* Virtual documentation sprint (2/2006)
and Documentation Sprint at Google
(6/2007)

11. 3. Beta/RC Releases
► Download and play!
► Report Bugs ;-)
► Test Migrating Sites
► Start Identifying
Documentation Needs

12. 2. Documentation
► Use it! Comment on it! Write it!
► Join the Documentation Team
► plone-docs mailing list
► Documentation issue tracker

13. 1. Report Bugs
► “Feedback” to developers
► Not sure if it’s a bug? Report it anyways!
How:
► Join plone.org
► Visit: https://dev.plone.org/plone/
► Detailed information! Tracebacks!
► Select an area or just use “unknown”