Building DotVVM’s future, my one year experience with the community

It’s been an amazing year at DotVVM.

Roughly around this time last year, I wrote “Is DotVVM way forward for building complicated business apps?”. The DotVVM community and product have grown tremendously, with DotVVM now being in 2.5 version on Github. Reflecting back on this article, it’s time for me to give an update on my experience with DotVVM one year out, with all the pros and cons I’ve found along the way.

So before I list out my thoughts, note that my background, in terms of purely community view, is mainly coming from the open-source world.

So here’s what I’ve learned for a year now:

1. It is important to use tools that community members are comfortable with to progress toward goals and to scale the community. Community members from around the globe talked about the importance of having clear goals and outcomes, as well as using online tools to determine progress. Some members still prefer going face to face.
2. The success of DotVVM community-based effort relies, in part, on the broader support and coordination. Sub/country Communities exist within the larger DotVVM community and can build on the existing efforts of the larger DotVVM community.
3. To be successful, DotVVM has to meet the needs of the community. Each community has its own strengths and challenges. What works for one community may not work for another. Thus, early plans and initiatives that are planned for the larger community must include community leaders in the planning, development, and implementation.
4. Sustaining a community requires good intentions, ongoing effort. Sustainability requires aligning the effort with the broader goals of the community, city, and country. It also requires building a coalition of leaders, partners, businesses, and community members to guide the work and communicate its importance.
5. Success encompasses regular programs, meetups, innovation, and coordination. To reach the outcomes of the community, new strategies have to be implemented when needed and coordinated across the wider ecosystem. The regular running of meetups will not necessarily lead to success; coordination among the community members and other community is important to ensure that everyone remains focused on the shared goals and understands how their particular piece of the work affects others’ work.