The Secrets of Building and Participating in Global Communities

Joint meeting of IEEE Computer Society and GBC/ACM

Attendance at this event is free, but because of limited seating capacity, registration is required at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1379501125.

We all know many successful communities, but how are active communities built? In this session, Drupal founder Dries Buytaert will share his secrets for building a thriving global community with more than 500,000 members worldwide. He'll describe processes essential for community growth and share his experience building the Drupal project. Attendees will learn:

  • Lessons community managers can use to foster participation
  • Why to focus on coordination, rather than planning
  • How bumps in the road can bring communities closer together
  • How to ensure your community includes a diverse mix of participants

Dries Buytaert is the original creator and project lead for the Drupal open source web publishing and collaboration platform. Buytaert serves as president of the Drupal Association, a non-profit
organization formed to help Drupal flourish. He is also co-founder
and chief technology officer of Acquia, a venture-backed software
company that offers products and services for Drupal. Dries is also
a co-founder of Mollom, a web service that helps you identify
content quality and, more importantly, helps you stop website spam.
A native of Belgium, Buytaert holds a PhD in computer science and
engineering from Ghent University and a Licentiate Computer Science
(MsC) from the University of Antwerp. In 2008, Buytaert was elected
Young Entrepreneurs of Tech by BusinessWeek as well as MIT TR 35
Young Innovator.

The IBM Innovation Center is located at 404 Wyman Street, Waltham.
There is free parking in the garage at the north end of the
building. To reach the meeting room, walk out the front of the
garage and around to your right to the front door of the building.
Directions to the room will be available when you sign in at the
front desk.