Online communities provide a wide range of opportunities for supporting a cause, marketing a product or service, or building open source software. The Art of Community helps you recruit members, motivate them, and manage them as active participants. Author Jono Bacon offers experiences and observations from his 14-year effort to build and manage communities, including his current position as manager for Ubuntu. Discover how your community can become a reliable support network, a valuable source of new ideas, and a powerful marketing force. This expanded edition shows you how to keep community projects on track, make use of social media, and organize collaborative events. Interviews with 12 community management leaders, including Linus Torvalds, Tim O’Reilly, and Mike Shinoda, provide useful insights. Develop specific objectives and goals for building your community Build processes to help contributors perform tasks, work together, and share successes Provide tools and infrastructure that enable members to work quickly Create buzz around your community to get more people involved Harness social media to broadcast information, collaborate, and get feedback Use several techniques to track progress on community goals Identify and manage conflict, such as dealing with divisive personalities About the Author Jono Bacon is an award-winning leading community manager, author and consultant. Currently the community manager for the worldwide Ubuntu community, Bacon is a regular keynote speaker, has also authored four books and acted as a consultant to a range of technology companies. Bacon's weblog (http://www.jonobacon.org/) is one of the widest read Open Source weblogs and he writes regularly about community management.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 The Art of Community Collaboration-Driven Ethos The Essence of Community The Basis of Communication Unwrapping Opportunity A Community Manager: Becoming the Community Moving Forward Chapter 2 Planning Your Community Planning for Success Teams: The Building Blocks of Belonging Designing Your Community Filling Out the Plan Pulling Together the Threads Documenting Your Strategy Financially Supporting Your Community Wrapping Up Chapter 3 Communicating Clearly He Said, She Said Building Your Communication Channels Leading by Example Summary Chapter 4 Processes: Simple Is Sustainable Eyes on the Prize Building Great Processes Assessing Needs Getting Buy-In for Your Processes The On-Ramp: Creating Collaborative Processes Process Reassessment Moving On Chapter 5 Supporting Workflow with Tools and Data Understanding Your Workflow Building Great Infrastructure Avoiding Resource Fetishism Technical Considerations Building and Maintaining Transparency Regular Workflow Assessment Moving On Chapter 6 Social Media Don’t Be That Guy/Girl Being Social Social Media Services in a Nutshell Harnessing Social Media Social Media on Your Terms Chapter 7 Building Buzz Mindshare The Building Blocks of Buzz Setting Up Your Base The Buzz Cycle Buzz Targets Building Alliances Events and Conferences Summary Chapter 8 Measuring Community Community Self-Reflection The Foundations of Feedback Hooks ’n’ Data Anonymity and Privacy Moving On Chapter 9 Managing and Tracking Work Credibility and the Need to Track Progress The Importance of Tracking Our Work What We Need to Manage Tracking Projects Tracking Growth and Decline Tracking Health Reacting to Community Concerns Moving On Chapter 10 Governance Accountability Governance Does Not Suck Governance and Community The Case for Governance Learning from the Leaders Setting Up a Community Council Ubuntu Governance Example Expanding Governance Summary Chapter 11 Handling Conflict and Relationships The Nature of the Beast The Calm Before the Storm The Conflict Resolution Process Dealing with Burnout Handling Absence Handling Bereavement Summary Chapter 12 Creating and Running Events Building Family Values Events Getting Organized Organizing Physical Events Getting Sponsorship Case Study: The Ubuntu Developer Summit Organizing Online Events Summary Chapter 13 Hiring a Community Manager Why Community Building Has Become a Big Business The Role of a Community Manager in the Corporation Managing Your Community Manager Summary Chapter 14 Community Case Book Linus Torvalds, Linux Mike Shinoda, Linkin Park Mårten Mickos, MySQL and Eucalyptus Mike Linksvayer, Creative Commons Tim O’Reilly, O’Reilly Media Carolyn Mellor, X.commerce, PayPal, and eBay Ilan Rabinovitch, Southern California Linux Expo Richard Esguerra, Humble Indie Bundle Mark Bussler, Classic Game Room Mary Colvig, Mozilla Dries Buytaert, Drupal and Acquia James Spafford, Media Molecule Chapter 15 Onward and Upward Building Our Own Community The Community Leadership Summit Keeping in Touch Colophon