Becoming an Open Source Community Manager

On Monday 5th, June 2023, I started my journey into becoming an Open Source Community Manager.

If you follow me on Twitter, you might have seen this tweet I made some weeks back — “Open Source Community Manager is such a cool job title”.

I meant it…and I’m currently walking in that reality.

A little bit of context, An Open Source software is a software with a source code that can be seen, modified, and distributed by anyone. I’ll be using OSS and open source interchangeably all through this article, but know that they mean the same thing.

I’ve always been fascinated by open-source communities. I like the collaboration, and diversity that is its heartbeat and I’ve been an active open-source contributor for the past 4 years.

Last year, I started working as a community manager with a vibrant Open source community after joining my current company and managing the Veramo community. In the past year, I’ve learned how OSS communities work, and how to make our community better and more welcoming and inclusive for our members, but I haven’t delved into the more maintainer-like roles that involve reviewing and approving pull requests and issues. Most of the things I’ve learned and implemented have been mostly self-taught, but knowledge is knowledge, they say.

The past year has been a great learning experience indeed…but if you know me, you’d know that I’m an Oliver Twist for knowledge, and I always want more.

Let’s rewind a Little bit

Earlier this year, the GitHub Social Impact team introduced the GitHub Open Source Community Manager Program through which Digital Public Goods project can maintain their communities, for sustainability. There are seven (7) Open Source projects in this cohort, you can find more about them in the link above.

I applied as a community manager with the Open Terms Archive team, because out of the 7 projects, their work resonated with my interest the most, as I’ve been learning about data privacy and security after joining the Identity team at Consensys Mesh. Open Terms Archives ensures transparency in the way Big tech companies use our data, and I wanted to be part of the team.

The interview, which was conducted by the Open Terms Archive team happened sometime in May 2023 after an initial selection phase by the GitHub team. I remember feeling anxious after the interview, cos I had some network glitches during the interview, and was quite sceptical about the outcome. However, two days after, I got an acceptance email with this heartwarming feedback.

…and so, the journey began

June has been “that” month. I have been learning from the best, and this didn’t come without a bit of stretch. As part of the Github OSCM program, we underwent a one-month training, from a member of the Github team - Bonnie Wolf. During this one-month training period, we had sessions on various topics including, inclusion and diversity in open-source communities, open-source sustainability, GitHub project organization and management.

By the way, GitHub is doing such a great job, at empowering Digital public goods communities, and I like that they’re investing in human resources as well.

What Next?

Month 1 is over, and I must say, it was one month well spent. July is the beginning of the contributing phase, and obviously, the time to walk the talk.

Over the next 6 months, I’ll be volunteering with the Open Terms Archive team to onboard contributors and improve the general experience of members and contributors within the community, and I’ll be doing this alongside the team, and a fellow Github OSCM volunteer — Clifford Ouma. I am so excited about this new learning adventure, and can’t wait to meet and collaborate with the community.

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Keep up with my journey to becoming an Open Source Community Manager, by connecting with me on Twitter.