I recently received a request from Barry Cranford (cc'd) the man behind the London based Graduate Developer Community and the London Java Community, both very active groups. He's on the look out for "project ambassadors" from open source projects that can spend a little time with his groups raising awareness about their projects and how to get involved. I've been to some of his past events and am happy to recommend them.
See below for more information. Ross ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Barry Cranford <b...@recworks.co.uk> Date: 20 October 2012 06:39 Subject: Re: LJC MaP - Can you help? To: Barry Cranford <b...@recworks.co.uk>, Ross Gardler <rgard...@apache.org> Is this the best address to use? The last one bounced. B On 20 Oct 2012, at 03:25, Barry Cranford wrote: Hey Ross, I hope all is well. I'm not sure if you noticed my recent email out to the LJC (below), but it struck me you may be able to help me out with a few introductions or by sending to any Apache projects you know of with committers in London. No worries if you'd rather not get involved in this particular part, but hopefully it will really help get more people involved in OSS development. Either way because of your background and role, I'd be especially keen to hear your thoughts and opinion on the project and subject in general... I am now in the process of reaching out to as many people as possible to get a network of Project Ambassadors that would be interested in the opportunity to meet with and pitch their projects at small groups of developers, with the aim of drafting new members to get involved in their projects. This is only going to work if we get a good population of projects involved. I would like to invite you to join a google group of Project Ambassadors, for the LJC Meet a Project series of events. If you did miss the earlier emails (or have had this email forwarded to you) then here is some background - one thing I have observed over the last five years, both as a recruiter and as a community leader is that there is a gap in the software industry, around open source software. There are a lot of developers in the industry, from students to experienced developers that are interested to get involved in something in addition to their day time position, but aren't really sure where to start. There are also a great deal of interesting projects covering everything from popular open source frameworks to the Adopt a JSR program launched by the LJC. Many of these projects rely on support/enthusiasm from developers and are keen to get more enthusiastic people involved. Not to mention that most candidates that get involved in personal projects seem to escalate their careers, salaries, day rates and passion for the industry (which all makes our job easier ;-)). Having been involved in several sporadic events over the last few years that aim to plug this gap, we are now looking to run a permanent series of events called LJC Meet a Project (@LJCMaP). The events will be in a speed networking style, similar to the GDC Meet a Mentor events, involving Project Ambassadors speaking to small groups of 3-6 developers. Giving a pitch of the project, then answering questions before moving on to another group. The events are intended to answer potential committers' questions around the projects, focussed mainly around starting points. These are not recruitment events or opportunities for companies to find new employees, but to help offer a way for developers to work alongside their existing positions to gain experience and develop communications and technical skills. The events will run in association with my company RecWorks, the events team here will take care of all of the organisation/facilitation of the events to ensure that all is well organised and the process is as smooth as possible, so all you need to do is turn up on the day which should hopefully boost attendance, scale and sustainability of the events. I'd love to have you as a part of this group, if it sounds like something that could be of interest, let me know. The project ambassadors will all be organised through a separate Google Group - if you're up for being involved let me know and I'll send you an invite to the group. Warm regards, Barry | recworks.co.uk | b...@recworks.co.uk | LinkedIn | Skype barrycranford | +44 7876 355215 | | Office +44 20 7866 8155 | Fax: +44 20 7379 0801 | Update about our recent rebranding RecWorks Ltd | Registered in England and Wales. Registered No. 05864437 Email disclaimer: This email contains information which may be confidential. It is for the exclusive use of the intended recipient(s). If you are not the intended recipient(s) do not copy this communication, or disclose it to any other person. If you have received this email in error please notify the sender immediately, delete the message from your computer system and destroy any copies. Except where this email is sent in the usual course of our business, any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RecWorks Ltd. Although RecWorks Ltd operates anti-virus programs, it does not accept responsibility for any damage whatsoever that is caused by viruses being passed. Replies to this email may be monitored and/or recorded by RecWorks Ltd for operational or business reasons. | recworks.co.uk | b...@recworks.co.uk | LinkedIn | Skype barrycranford | +44 7876 355215 | | Office +44 20 7866 8155 | Fax: +44 20 7379 0801 | Update about our recent rebranding RecWorks Ltd | Registered in England and Wales. Registered No. 05864437 Email disclaimer: This email contains information which may be confidential. It is for the exclusive use of the intended recipient(s). If you are not the intended recipient(s) do not copy this communication, or disclose it to any other person. If you have received this email in error please notify the sender immediately, delete the message from your computer system and destroy any copies. Except where this email is sent in the usual course of our business, any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RecWorks Ltd. Although RecWorks Ltd operates anti-virus programs, it does not accept responsibility for any damage whatsoever that is caused by viruses being passed. Replies to this email may be monitored and/or recorded by RecWorks Ltd for operational or business reasons.
