![\"Despite](\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/community\/files\/2014\/06\/photo11.jpg\")
<\/a>Despite Jishnu’s expression, the ice cream really helped us stay cool.<\/p><\/div>\n
They made New York manageable so that we could see the vibrant, the beautiful and the liberating.\u00a0 They made the content manageable, so we could see past the fear of ads and understand the possibilities for disruption. \u00a0Content Services is a small but mighty team, and I\u2019m excited to help them begin to build an open source community around their work.<\/p>\n
I was also nervous. \u00a0The Content Services team had some rocky press when they started sharing their work, and the online advertising world is the antithesis of everything \u201copen\u201d. I\u00a0 attended to help them take the first steps in working in the open. \u00a0Watching Darren understand the needs to his team, work tirelessly to make sure we were comfortable, and keep everyone focused, I saw a model of service leadership that helped allay my nerves.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve felt like a stranger in a strange land before. \u00a0It happened the first time I had a large-scale interaction with the community a few years ago. \u00a0I realized that everything that I knew was wrong, and that I just didn\u2019t get it. \u00a0I was lucky enough to have a tour guide in David Boswell, \u00a0so my journey to learning why we do what we do was pretty painless. \u00a0\u00a0I joined David\u2019s team to provide that same experience to others. \u00a0\u00a0The Community Building Team is here to help Mozilla work effectively with the community at scale.\u00a0 For groups like the Content Services Team that means we\u2019re there to help members on the team learn about Open Source, and connect to the idea of why<\/i> people do this. \u00a0\u00a0We cannot assume that newer team members will just magically \u201cget it\u201d.<\/p>\n
In designing my one-hour session for the team, I focused on the idea that much of the team was in a brand new culture \u00a0with a ton of expectations but limited explanations. \u00a0I knew that I couldn\u2019t lecture them. \u00a0I had to get them to understand the why<\/i>, and they had to connect with that on personal level, not just because it was their job.<\/p>\n
I got the room warmed up by playing a game called Fortunately\/Unfortunately, which is designed as a fun way to get people to share possibilities and concerns without pressuring them. \u00a0\u00a0We moved to some discussion about why the team might want to work with a community. \u00a0\u00a0Dia Bondi made me a funny video showcasing her first community experience at scale.<\/p>\n
When people started to see the benefits of working in an open way with a global community, \u00a0I sent them off to be creative. \u00a0If my presentation was working they would start to create lists of opportunities where they could encourage the community to engage.<\/p>\n
<\/a>This team had a lot of ideas, and enthusiasm.<\/p><\/div>\n
Luckily, it was working. \u00a0They came back full of ideas and created a six page list of possibilities for opening the work up!<\/p>\n My strategy was this: meet them where they are, not where you want them to be . \u00a0We all started in Open Source at some point. \u00a0Not a single person working within the project at Mozilla was born knowing how to work the way we do. \u00a0\u00a0We forget that, the same way New Yorkers expect everyone to walk and talk fast and woe to the person lost on the sidewalk. \u00a0When you have someone showing you where to go, and how to do it, things are better. \u00a0That was true as Darren made New York fun. \u00a0It was true for me when David patiently helped me learn. \u00a0\u00a0I hope it will continue to be true for Content Services as I partner with them.<\/p>\n Excerpts from Darren:<\/p>\n \u201cI honestly did not know what to expect with your presentation. \u00a0I didn\u2019t think it was going to bomb, but I didn\u2019t know how \u201cgood\u201d it could be – also wasn\u2019t sure how receptive most of the room was going to be towards community…<\/p>\n I heard some very positive feedback from the attendees. \u00a0They enjoyed the stimulation, the exercise and your energy\u2026<\/p>\n What am I excited about as result of the session?<\/p>\n Three things:<\/p>\n 1. \u00a0Knowing that someone like you exists in the org – not just Dia \ud83d\ude42 \u00a0Full of energy.<\/p>\n 2. \u00a0Our entire team now has a baseline understanding of community. \u00a0Not all are experts, and neither am I , but we at least all heard the same thing at the same time\u2026 so the baseline is there.<\/p>\n 3. \u00a0The opportunity of having community members help us in our quest towards building a great group within Mozilla\u2026. now exactly what those community members do, say, act, participate, I\u2019m not 100% sure\u2026 but we\u2019ll get there.\u201d<\/p>\n What\u2019s Next?<\/b><\/p>\n I plan to spend July teaching them some basic concepts of openness. \u00a0We are going to work on active transparency, communication channels, the language of Mozilla and open planning.\u00a0 Each week, starting July 7th the whole team will receive a short article on one of the above concepts to read then I\u2019ll hold an open call at the end of each week where we discuss how to implement the concept in their work.<\/p>\n I cannot do this alone, I am looking for some people who want to act as community mentors for the group to attend the open calls and help the team design for future participation. \u00a0\u00a0We will all be stronger and better from more perspective. \u00a0You can always connect with me directly, my contact info is on Mozillians.org.<\/a> \u00a0Reach out if you are interested.<\/p>\n Once that is done we can start piloting a few areas of participation in the projects as they get off the ground. \u00a0The best part of working with this team is that it is all new, so contributors to this part of the project will be able to make an impact immediately. \u00a0I\u2019ll be back in this space with open calls for participation.<\/p>\n Are you interested in learning more about the Community Building Team? <\/b><\/p>\n The Community Building Team is here to help! Contact us at CBT@Mozilla.com<\/a>. \u00a0We are here to support your work and your team, from nascent groups like this, through the work of scale and transformation that can happen with some our more established communities.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With all apologies to Heinlein, being a Californian in summertime Manhattan is sort of like being a stranger in a strange land. \u00a0The heat doesn\u2019t slow the pace everyone is … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":729,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1817"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/729"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1817\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1817"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n