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 <[email protected]> Sent: 21 August 2020 13:52 To: Marketing list <[email protected]> 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&data=02%7C01%7C%7C9cca20d780f9408e6ee608d845d12f19%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637336112029645168&sdata=LJl9ZVcZf9p5KPSvCZ2O9TImytHss9M9mVuPLiH9ldE%3D&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&data=02%7C01%7C%7C9cca20d780f9408e6ee608d845d12f19%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637336112029650159&sdata=YDDiFJ09cPyWNuW%2FeOaeUsToJxTJOL3gmuTwJv%2FEN3w%3D&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&data=02%7C01%7C%7C9cca20d780f9408e6ee608d845d12f19%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637336112029650159&sdata=u4D3i4ljFpnC4xD3QVBAbUMhmZkZG%2Fkzm72a%2Fet4Myk%3D&reserved=0 What do you think? -- Mike Saunders, Marketing and Community Coordinator The Document Foundation -- To unsubscribe e-mail to: [email protected] Problems? https://nam03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.libreoffice.org%2Fget-help%2Fmailing-lists%2Fhow-to-unsubscribe%2F&data=02%7C01%7C%7C9cca20d780f9408e6ee608d845d12f19%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637336112029650159&sdata=OLNbeRp%2BV4J2LwzMZxmSR9eleuQ4aV%2FCB6WhZGlSxzY%3D&reserved=0 Posting guidelines + more: https://nam03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwiki.documentfoundation.org%2FNetiquette&data=02%7C01%7C%7C9cca20d780f9408e6ee608d845d12f19%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637336112029655151&sdata=o4yaw0TL7ZvFIbaUsKJ4zmaHkzUHRR%2ByOC1EWQLS0RM%3D&reserved=0 List archive: https://nam03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flistarchives.libreoffice.org%2Fglobal%2Fmarketing%2F&data=02%7C01%7C%7C9cca20d780f9408e6ee608d845d12f19%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637336112029655151&sdata=i52GvaqQU0xdISrY1VZFCLiHLp%2Fr9u9eaC77EN1NMIk%3D&reserved=0 Privacy Policy: https://nam03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.documentfoundation.org%2Fprivacy&data=02%7C01%7C%7C9cca20d780f9408e6ee608d845d12f19%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637336112029655151&sdata=Kt1%2BFJHHZZlwkyljAuW%2B0i9bxVk6SboTVnadruMhWKI%3D&reserved=0 -- To unsubscribe e-mail to: [email protected] Problems? https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ Posting guidelines + more: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: https://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/marketing/ Privacy Policy: https://www.documentfoundation.org/privacy
