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I'm breaking that in later today. So yeah, Neopitos, the stage is yours.

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Good. And don't forget this.

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Oh, yeah. Give me a second.

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Should be working now. Yeah, awesome. So hi, everyone. Thank you for being here

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and for joining me in this talk about building culture.

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What I wanted to share with you in this talk is basically some insights on how

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we can all collectively shape our culture at KDE,

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you know, reflect a bit of what we've been doing so far and how we can change

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and evolve this going forward and, you know, sustain a strong community within KDE.

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I believe this is like a very, very crucial project in terms of the long-term

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success of KDE, both as a community and our projects.

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So a bit about myself before we dive in. My name is Nefidos Kolokotronis.

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In my day job, I work at CCG.

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It stands for Core Engineering Consulting Group. It's specifically a platform

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engineering company, and there I'm responsible for our community offering.

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I've been a KDE contributor for nearly eight years now, contributing mostly

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to community and organizational stuff.

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You can see there I've been, nowadays I'm part of the community working group.

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I've been in the board of directors of some other working groups,

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and I've also been a gold champion in one of the first rounds regarding streamlined onboarding.

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This is actually my seventh academy and each

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year I'm very very amazed by how much

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both as individuals and as a community have to gain from gathering

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here together and I think particularly when viewed through the culture building

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let's say perspective academy is like a very essential and irreplaceable cornerstone

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for our community and for creating shared experiences here so again a big thank

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you to the organizers and for making this happen and for you to be here.

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So what is culture like to get started in the topic?

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In the context of our community, culture is a collective set of all the things

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you see there in that box.

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So the knowledge we have, the norms that we share, the beliefs,

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the rules, our behavior, it's all the things that in a way guide how we interact with each other.

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And you could say that all together for this is magic glue that holds us together

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and it guides how we interact with each other, how we collaborate,

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how we communicate and how we make decisions as well.

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It's a deeply social process culture, and this emerges kind of naturally through

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our interactions as we engage with the people around us.

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There are ways, of course, to improve it and, you know, enact it and reinforce

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it, but this grows naturally.

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So, according to Wikipedia, to go through some definitions, the way we acquire

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culture is by the process of of enculturation and socialization.

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In simple terms, this means that by being exposed and adopting knowledge and

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norms and customs from other communities, from other people around us,

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from other teams and people we interact with.

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And as Phoebe points out, it's one of my go-to community building consultancies.

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If you're into that, check them out.

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They emphasize that like a lot of things that are related to our behavior,

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culture is something that we can reinforce. We can point out the good things,

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reinforce them and build on top of that.

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So let's think of culture as the environment we create all together and that

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we maintain together and we should be responsible about evolving it.

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Every interaction we have could potentially be contributing to how our culture

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is being formed going forward.

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And this is what makes culture like a living, breathing organism that grows

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with all of us and our community all together.

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So, culture is very important, I believe, because it impacts every way,

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like most of the things that we do and how we operate in KDN,

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in every organization, every community.

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Are we supportive? Are we respectful? Are we open-minded?

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These are things that are behaviors that are driven by our culture,

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our values, and the norms that we have established between us.

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It also affects how we communicate with each other, both internally and also

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externally, with our users, with our community.

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So we use all these platforms, matrix, developer tools, the mailing list, our forum.

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So the tone and style of this communication is affected by the culture that

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we have and should actually reflect our underlying culture.

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Another important role that culture plays is on how we make decisions.

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Do we discuss before acting? How do we develop code together?

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Do we invite input from other team members? Do we involve people?

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So a welcoming, inclusive culture invites participation and in that way,

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it nurtures long-time engagement.

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Finally, our culture also influences how we interact with other organizations.

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And it's not something that affects us internally.

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So maybe are we open to collaborations?

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Do we want to join larger groups that are similar to what we are doing?

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Do we want to form new partnerships, new synergies with people?

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This is part of our culture. This is part of how we approach this kind of situations.

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So, KDE's culture is not something that happened by accident.

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It naturally evolves, but we guided it and we provided the means to do that.

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So you can see here, I gathered some of the foundational documents and some

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practices and initiatives that I feel they act as our cultural framework.

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They are in a historical timeline, so from the one that was first to the one that was more recent.

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And I find it interesting that to also note when these were last modified to

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see that there are actual people that still care about them and they try to

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update them and continue to make them, they put in effort to make them relevant.

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Quick question. Is there anyone here that knows about the existence of all these

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six documents or initiatives?

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I have Lydia only.

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Volker as well. Okay. I'd assume that most of you know at least four,

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like the big ones, let's say, like our code of contact, our manifesto,

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the vision and the goals.

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Is there anyone that has never heard of any of this?

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Oh, that's good. At least we're aware of most of them.

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So let's quickly go over them to see what each one is supposed to be doing for

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our culture and how they impact us.

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So the code of contact, it was actually created 12 years after the community

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was started, if my math was correct.

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And it's when we decided to make this code of contact an unofficial thing.

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And it's a good thing. It's a great sign of a community that is maturing,

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that is caring about its members, that it wants to have some guidelines of how

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we interact and how we do things together.

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So it's of critical significance.

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And it's very important that this document came out first

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because it gave us like a way to see

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how we treat each other and how we ensure

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that our community remains a safe space a welcoming

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environment so we can build on top of that then came the asking questions uh

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wiki initiative i was actually not aware of this before doing this uh the research

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for this talk and but it's uh you can see i was pleasantly surprised to see

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that it was still updated like a year ago and this it's it looks a bit outwards.

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It looks at newcomers and how we expect people to reach out to us,

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ask us questions, and in general, how we interact with people that are new to our community.

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And then came the KDE Manifesto, of course, another key cultural initiative, we could say.

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It more or less outlined our key values, and it provided like a compass,

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a very, very high-level level compass of how we want to operate internally.

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Um, and then moving closer to more recent times, you could say our vision and

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mission statements that were published,

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uh, like eight years ago, these are like touchstones that they should be reminding

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us about our long-term objectives, the principle we aim to uphold.

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And they came in a way to be complementary to our manifesto.

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Now, soon after the Goals Initiative was introduced, it helped the community

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at large to focus maybe on bigger things, on particular topics that we want

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to work on and improve upon over a couple of years usually.

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Just yesterday you must have probably heard about the new initiative,

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I think it's the fourth round this year.

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So it's great to see that this initiative is still fruitful,

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it's still productive, and it shapes the way we want to move forward.

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And I was happy to see that one of the three goals that was elected is related

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to what we're talking today here about, you know, the culture and bringing in

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more people and how we do that.

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Now, finally, another entry that I wasn't aware of when I was before doing this,

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the research for this talk is a kiddie culture wiki entry. It's a very recent one.

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And it's according to the wiki itself, it highlights some cultural conventions

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that have emerged over time in KDE.

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Per the way, these are not formal rules, it's just something,

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I think Nate was the one that initiated this one.

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It's like norms and guidelines about how to interact again with people in KDE.

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So there are a couple of things that were uncovered in other documents and people

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felt that they should put them here.

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So all these documents, all these initiatives, what they're basically doing

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is forming and shaping the backbone of our community, of our culture and helping us.

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We should use them as reference points, right? When we come across challenges,

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we want to make some big decision, this is where we should be going back to

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understand our core values, our principles, how we want to operate.

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They should be like our point of reference.

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Maintaining a strong culture within any organization, any community,

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like it's many, many, many ways and balancing acts.

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And this is not only difficult, but it also requires ongoing effort from everyone in the community.

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And the main challenge we need to address is change.

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Change is both internal and external, right? Our community is 28 years now.

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So it has evolved a lot. but its consistency has changed. Members come, members go.

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The community itself changes in the way we have evolved over the years,

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what we think is important, what not.

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So we have also the structure of community changes, new groups, new initiatives.

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So all these things evolve and they change the community internally.

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At the same time, we have external factors, social things, political factors that come into place.

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Like we have technologies, new technologies that bring in new norms,

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new practices, and the expectations of our users, their needs also change through the years.

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So we are consistently being asked to, on one hand, to remain true to our defining

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values, let's say, to being anchored to all the documents that we shared earlier

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and the principles, our foundational principles.

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And then on the other hand, we need to find ways to evolve, to reinvent ourselves,

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to grow our culture, to make a sustainable culture. And this demands adaptation.

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This demands evolution of our community.

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So what I would say that this means that from time to time, it's important to

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go back and look at our culture, go look at other documents and ask ourselves

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whether the documents we have, our principles, they still serve our community.

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And they align with our goals and where we continue to go, we want to go.

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Just to share a simple example of change, like let's pick, I think it's in the

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context as well, like a core value is being kind of polite to each other,

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which I think at its core, it's easy to understand for everyone,

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but you can easily imagine that enacting being kind and polite has changed.

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What we mean by being polite is probably not the same, and it's not acted in

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the same way that it was acted 30 years ago or 60 years ago.

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So in practice, this changes and evolves.

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And this is the challenge for us. Is this change reflected in these documents?

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Can we go back and maybe we should be refreshing them or updating them to make

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them more relevant and keep them updated?

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So this is all about finding that sweet spot between growing and embracing new

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ideas and new perspectives without losing sight of what this KDE,

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what our principles are, and what makes us then unique as a community.

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It's not an easy task, but I could summarize like the way we can approach it.

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Maybe we can summarize it in like four words, discuss, reflect,

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nurture, and reinforce.

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Discuss ideas, I would say, reflect on experiences from our members,

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nurture relationships and try to reinforce behaviors and values that are very important to us.

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We will dive a bit more in the next slides on strategies on how we can do that.

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Now, one of the most critical things of building and sustaining a strong culture is onboarding.

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When a well-structured onboarding process shouldn't be just introducing the

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new members to our processes and our tools,

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it should also be about putting effort into integrating new members of our community

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into our values and embedding them into our culture and into our community.

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Bending is usually it's obviously the first and most often one of the most influential

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experiences that new contributors will have And it kind of sets the tone of

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their future participation,

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I'm pretty confident that the vast majority of you

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can probably recall their first experiences when joining the

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KDE What was their entry point who they

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were talking to and you know It's probably the same in other communities because

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I guess most of you are also parts of other communities So I hope that you remember

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the impact this had on your own perception about the community and the impact

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Like how it affected you so you're still here and you're still contributing,

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So you can see why onboarding is so important and why it fits straight into culture.

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So effective onboarding and doesn't only help though new contributors like a

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big part of like talking to these contributors and making the transition and

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their being embedded into our community more smooth,

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means that we also strengthen the overlap community because we

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ensure that everyone is aligned like a more senior person within our community

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is now aligned with a new person because they have they share the same values

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they share their same principles so you can understand how this helps in you

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know um it basically means less friction between new members and less frustration

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between new and older members.

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But as I said in the title of this presentation, when viewed from the cultural

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perspective, onboarding shouldn't end in those first one, two months,

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one or two weeks, depending on how you see it.

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It should be an ongoing support, an ongoing engagement, and a key way to reinforce

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these cultural values to ensure at least long-term participation.

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So going into how we can sustain a strong culture, I split it into three pillars

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that made sense to me when I was preparing this talk, starting from participation and ownership.

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Good intentions are good, we mean well, we do the documents,

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but everyone needs to be active in our community.

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And when engaging with others, it's required to put active effort to enact this culture.

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And in the end, we should all be aiming at becoming like we have the gold champions.

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I don't know, maybe we can have cultural champions in a way.

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So we should all be aiming at being that. you know, and then it's like feedback and reflections.

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These are tools that are very, very important. We're talking about sustainability.

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We want to evolve. We want to grow.

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So we need to ensure that what we do and the way we do it, it's like it reflects

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and it stays in tune with all the new members in our community,

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with our community in general, and how it has evolved.

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And to do that, We need to make sure that you know, all the voices are heard

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that people come in with new ideas We we stop we listen we major we reflect

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and we make adjustments as needed,

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Uh, therefore the third point is about enacting and enforcing We have the guidelines.

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This is a must we have the reference documentation to point people at but um.

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Part like These things could easily remain theoretical if we're not acting on

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them them, then they are just there and they're not helping us in a way.

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We need to be going back to them. We need to be applying them consistently.

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We need to have ways to reinforce them. Because without active moderation,

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unfortunately, even the strongest communities, if they remain,

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without moderation, it means people will come in, the loudest voices will be

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the ones driving change.

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And this is not necessarily what you want to do here. You need to build an inclusive environment.

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You need to protect people that want to share their opinions.

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So, even the stronger cultures without enforcement, they tend to fail in the long term.

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Now, we talked about change and how important it is in this balancing act between

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being true to our values and evolving.

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And these are some mechanisms that help us for embracing change and adopting

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to new developments. And this is vital.

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At the heart of this process is being welcoming to new ideas and willing to

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adapt and evolve our culture and our practices.

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But we should always consider what we'll adopt and how we'll adopt it should

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come back to our values and our principles.

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We should make sure that it's in alignment and in accordance with that.

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Otherwise, we're just picking up stuff from other communities and things we

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see around them and bringing them inside without thinking how we integrate them based on our values.

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Now, we talk a lot about diversity by allowing variations, you know,

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different viewpoints, learning from each other and experiences,

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new suggestions that people have.

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We create an environment that allows for creativity. As new people come in,

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they bring in new ideas, they bring in new energy.

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We see that a lot from various initiatives that we have.

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And this openness, let's say, to new perspectives is a very,

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very important aspect for a community need to grow, to feel relevant,

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to remain relevant, to respond to all the needs of our community members.

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And at the same time, relationships, they are very, very important within our community.

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It's important to build trust-based collaboration among us and within the community.

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We can probably, if you are skillful enough individually, you might be able

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in a position to achieve a lot.

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But if you want to play the long-term game, you need people around you,

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you need the skills of other people, you want the support of teams and groups around you.

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Now some key challenges for this effort.

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The first one, at least one that I feel is very, very important and I've seen

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it in many communities have been involved, is apathy and overcoming it.

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So without active participation, I keep going back to that because this is,

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I believe, very important and acting this, our culture,

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it's very, very difficult to maintain momentum if we are apathetic,

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you know, and then there's a risk of stagnation, that that community remains

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at something and it never evolves.

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And it will inevitably cause and lead into a disconnection between our values

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in the way we define them in the documents when we sat down and thought about

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this and our mission and our vision and what we do in our everyday practice.

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And there will be a misconnection. And this will inevitably cause conflicts and frustrations.

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Another key challenge is navigating difficult topics. These are often like sensitivity

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issues that they do require some more careful handling.

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We want to avoid divisions. We want to avoid conflicts within the community.

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I think we have in the past come across such topics. Sometimes we handle them

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well. Sometimes we handle with ways that could have improved.

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Again, it's important to go back, reflect, and improve. It's always a difficult challenge.

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Now, toxicity, negativity, trolling, a lot of behaviors that I'm sure everyone has experienced.

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Experience in communities, all these are, they basically like deter participation

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and they at all trust and we should be shutting them down as they come.

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This shouldn't be an option even for anyone in our community,

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right? They should realize that this is not acceptable.

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It's not a behavior we allow here because many things could go negative.

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Bridging communication gaps, also a very, very important topic.

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Misunderstandings can easily arise between us. They can lead to conflict.

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They can lead to frustration.

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Being mindful of how we explain among us, it's a key to helping us here,

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which is not always easy to do when there are heated discussions,

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when we feel strongly about a topic, when it's something that we've been working

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on and we need to receive criticism on that.

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And then the final challenge is that of moderation.

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Do we over-moderate or do we do inefficient moderation?

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Both have their negatives, right? Over-moderating means that we are suppressing free expression.

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We need to be careful not to balance between free expression and ensuring that

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the conversation remains civil, respectful, and productive.

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Otherwise, it will give room to disruption and tension within the community.

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So again, not an easy thing to balance.

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In the community, in the working room, we also have this issue a lot.

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We make a decision and we will always have someone complain about the decision

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we made because they see it from a different perspective on this balance, on this game.

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Some feel like you are too strict there, some feel that you should be stricter

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there. And no matter what we do on this scale, there will always be people that complain.

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Now I talked about the challenges. The last part of my talk is about strategies

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that we can say that they can help us going forward.

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I split them like in four major categories.

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The first one is about setting expectations and accountability within our community.

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So while I was going through this list, I kept thinking maybe you can try doing the same.

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Do we do this in KDE? And if we do it, do we do it well?

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Is there room for improvement? Maybe maybe some things we tried them and they

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didn't work out, maybe some things we're not doing at all, and maybe someone

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here could lead that effort in helping us improve our culture.

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So let's quickly go through them.

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So first of all, setting expectations. I think this is something you could say we're doing well.

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We have all this documentation about our values, our principles, our code of conduct.

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So I feel like this is important. It's not like we need a ton of work there,

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on what we are doing. At the same time, what we are not doing very well,

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and this is apparent also by the work of the community working group,

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is the consequences for violation.

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People know what they shouldn't be doing, but when they do what they shouldn't

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be doing, they don't know what the repercussions of that will be.

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So nobody knows how, I don't want to say punished, but how we react in cases

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where people go and they have their own behavior based on our code of conduct.

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So, this is not currently documented at all.

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And even though we more or less know what we can do and how we can react,

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we should be documenting this and making it more transparent to everyone so they know.

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This is important both for stopping the violence, let's say,

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but also for our community to feel like we are consistent, we are fair,

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we're efficient in the way we approach things.

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Then we have guidelines for escalation. We are also missing those,

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like if an issue arises, it should be clear what the process is of how it would

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be handled and how it would be resolved.

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And this is not currently, again, something that we're doing. We're working on it.

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We noticed this early, at least in the new, I could say that community working

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group, we have new members over the last two years. and we feel this is again

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an important aspect of it.

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And then there's consistency in making decisions, whether it's moderation on

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the forum or some, I don't know, rights that we're removing from some developer that is misbehaving.

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We should be consistent on how we react.

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We should be explaining to people why we're doing this voice to this,

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both to the people that are affected, but also to the rest of the community,

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which is currently something that we're not very transparent about, I feel.

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And of course, all this should be guided by the documents and our policies and all that.

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Now, moving into another set of strategies that are more about empowering our

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community and supporting our community to be better at enacting our culture.

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I think in terms of capacity building, we have tried it in the past,

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particularly at Academy.

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I don't know if there's training this year. I don't recall if we actually booked something. thing.

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But I remember being part of some training and in terms of communication and

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social skills, things that are relevant to cultural building,

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let's say, I also know that the that they, they be the board of directors also

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reached out to the community working group offering some training in terms of,

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you know, the people within the community working group to learn and,

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you know, gain the skills on how we could be better at what we do.

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I don't think we ever acted upon that.

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Hopefully fully we will in the future because it's not enough to have guidelines,

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but we should ensure that the people responsible for enforcing them are well prepared.

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They know how to do that. They have the tools, but they know how to use them.

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I talked a lot about the community working group and active community working group is key here.

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In my personal opinion, we should be doing much more than just policing the

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community, which is more or less what we're doing now.

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I feel, provided we have the resources and the availability,

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we should be much more active in supporting and nurturing the community,

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nurturing our culture, helping the community evolve.

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We are now limited to policing and even that we're not doing it very well in

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terms of we don't have enough time.

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Now we talked already about zero-tolerance-to-toxic behavior.

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I think this is easy to understand.

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Maybe we should be doing more, as I mentioned earlier, on defining the processes

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and sharing them with our community, but overall I don't think we have so many

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cases of this within our community.

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And then developing Developing clear, accessible methods that help our people

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resolve conflicts is also important.

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I'm thinking here like how-to guides for people that have issues.

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Like an algorithm, when this happens, do this. We don't have these instructions for our community.

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So they're more or less left on their own when they come across an issue or

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a misbehaving people, person, they need to decide that time what to do and they'd

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have nowhere to look to, right? Right.

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Um, people do reach out. And if you've seen the reports yesterday,

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we had like a lot more, uh, complaints this year in the community working group.

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I feel that that's a success because now we're open and people feel like they can, they can come to us.

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But again, we should be empowering them to also to handle this.

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Third big category is like fostering positive engagement and collaboration. Sorry.

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Now, one thing we should all be remembering is that it's not enough to just

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complain when someone misbehaves.

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I think we're not doing enough of actually giving people kudos when they are

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doing well, when they are like the cultural champions I mentioned earlier.

399
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We like to point at the people that are misbehaving. We rarely say,

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hey, this person is like very, very good with newcomers.

401
00:28:36,667 --> 00:28:41,747
This person is very good whenever collaborating with. We do that maybe through

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the awards out here at Academy from time to time.

403
00:28:43,867 --> 00:28:47,147
I think there's a relevant category, but in general, I don't think we're very

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good at pointing out the people that are doing really well.

405
00:28:50,327 --> 00:28:54,247
Another key thing is leading by example. This is particularly important for

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people that are in positions that, you know, either they are more senior members

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maybe of their community, so junior members look up to them,

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or they're engaging much more with our community.

409
00:29:03,727 --> 00:29:10,027
We have people in positions that actually interact with new members or our community

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in general much more often than others.

411
00:29:12,147 --> 00:29:15,947
And these people are the ones that should be leading by example, right?

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Every interaction with you, that person who is like the most senior,

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let's say, or someone who is interacting with the community is an opportunity

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for the new members to learn.

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It's an opportunity for them to adopt and understand something more about our culture.

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And then what I think we've been doing very well is creating opportunities for collaboration.

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We have many ways to collaborate, and we do it also in person a lot.

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We participate in programs like the Google Summer of Code and the Summer of

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KDE, where we bring more senior members of our community with newcomers within our community.

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We have sprints. The board in their report yesterday also talked about,

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we should be doing more. There are resources.

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If you have ideas, you are part in a team that wants to do more,

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or go ask for those resources.

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And we are here, of course, at Academy, which is the highlight of this effort.

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So the more our community comes together, the better it is for the health of our culture.

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Finally, it's important to gain the skills of reflecting before acting.

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Like, we still see people that go in interactions that become personal,

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and they add fuel to that fire.

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And, like, after all these years, people still don't know how to manage that.

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And we should be trying more to keep discussions constructive and like focusing

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or resolving the issue and not making them personal.

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00:30:35,848 --> 00:30:40,168
But it's true that, you know, the internet, things will get there.

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Things will get personal, things will get overwhelming.

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And what I would advise is just disengage, like close the laptop,

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close what you're doing, go take a breath and try to calm down and seek support

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00:30:51,928 --> 00:30:52,828
from other contributors.

437
00:30:53,068 --> 00:30:56,588
Like like talk it through with someone else. Make sure you're on the right side

438
00:30:56,588 --> 00:30:59,188
of things. Make sure you're not doing yourself something wrong.

439
00:31:00,168 --> 00:31:03,108
Reach out to the community working group. We try to be responsive,

440
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which we might not always do it in the way we like, but we are there and we

441
00:31:07,988 --> 00:31:12,428
are very happy to actually receive more and more of these requests.

442
00:31:12,848 --> 00:31:15,848
So again, don't just come to complain, but also come for support.

443
00:31:16,008 --> 00:31:18,148
We can help you if you don't know how to respond to someone,

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00:31:18,268 --> 00:31:22,448
if you are having issues, if you think you yourself will misbehave when you're

445
00:31:22,448 --> 00:31:24,408
talking to someone with misbehaving.

446
00:31:24,528 --> 00:31:27,408
So by doing that, we obviously are

447
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maintaining a respectful and supportive environment that helps everyone.

448
00:31:31,973 --> 00:31:36,753
Now, the fourth, let's say, big group of strategies, it's about continuous improvement,

449
00:31:37,093 --> 00:31:40,273
continuous adaptation and moving forward. I talked a lot about this.

450
00:31:41,193 --> 00:31:43,973
Feedback, again, it's very, very important.

451
00:31:44,913 --> 00:31:50,613
We should be regularly gathering feedback from our community and particularly

452
00:31:50,613 --> 00:31:56,393
in regards to our culture, our practices, that will help us understand our current

453
00:31:56,393 --> 00:31:59,793
status and then consider what we need to adjust to move forward.

454
00:32:00,273 --> 00:32:03,693
So, There are various ways to do that.

455
00:32:03,833 --> 00:32:06,833
In KDE, we tend to gather feedback by talking to each other.

456
00:32:06,913 --> 00:32:10,833
We come here to the academy, I talk to three people, then I would pick up something

457
00:32:10,833 --> 00:32:13,673
that someone said and go talk to someone that's more relevant regarding that.

458
00:32:13,873 --> 00:32:17,133
And this is how we communicate feedback between us.

459
00:32:17,573 --> 00:32:21,113
We can probably do better than that in having more systematic ways of gathering

460
00:32:21,113 --> 00:32:24,893
feedback, whether that is some polls or whether that is, I don't know,

461
00:32:24,933 --> 00:32:27,713
some surveys that we do from time to time, just to make sure that,

462
00:32:27,813 --> 00:32:29,913
as we mentioned earlier, our community is changing.

463
00:32:29,913 --> 00:32:33,153
Are we receiving that feedback? What is the change that is happening?

464
00:32:33,453 --> 00:32:37,273
How is the demands? How are the needs of the community? And how do they change?

465
00:32:38,373 --> 00:32:40,873
I've already talked about encouraging inclusive participation.

466
00:32:41,313 --> 00:32:43,433
I think we have many initiatives on that front.

467
00:32:43,833 --> 00:32:47,633
It should be better for the people that don't feel they're included to be talking about that.

468
00:32:47,833 --> 00:32:51,493
So I don't want to go and say we're doing it well, because I feel like people

469
00:32:51,493 --> 00:32:54,113
here will strongly believe that we could be doing better.

470
00:32:54,293 --> 00:32:59,093
So better feedback. Again, we need to be asking people if they feel we're doing

471
00:32:59,093 --> 00:33:00,853
this well, not just deciding by ourselves.

472
00:33:01,093 --> 00:33:04,253
So again, we come back to why feedback is very, very important.

473
00:33:05,033 --> 00:33:10,713
Our goals, also, I come back to them. It's a great way to onboard new people, new ideas.

474
00:33:10,953 --> 00:33:14,173
I know that firsthand because I was part of the first round of goals,

475
00:33:14,253 --> 00:33:17,093
and that's how I was lured in to KDE, actually.

476
00:33:18,033 --> 00:33:22,013
And a big part of why I stayed, we're talking about onboarding as well,

477
00:33:22,173 --> 00:33:25,793
is how the first people, when I joined the community, treated me.

478
00:33:25,793 --> 00:33:31,133
Me, how the first people I interacted with engaged with me. And I felt welcomed.

479
00:33:31,393 --> 00:33:35,153
I felt like I had people to reach out to. I felt like I was,

480
00:33:35,193 --> 00:33:38,853
these people kept reminding me that my contributions are important.

481
00:33:39,033 --> 00:33:42,353
Go, do things, like join the community and push it forward.

482
00:33:43,733 --> 00:33:44,813
Five minutes, right?

483
00:33:46,179 --> 00:33:49,019
Yeah, okay. Two? Okay. I'm wrapping up.

484
00:33:49,139 --> 00:33:54,399
So this is why I strongly believe that our culture is key for more and more

485
00:33:54,399 --> 00:33:58,739
people to feel that feeling, which is very, very nice to feel like when you're

486
00:33:58,739 --> 00:33:59,619
joining a new community.

487
00:33:59,699 --> 00:34:03,879
And we want to pass that, like the KD magic, let's say, on.

488
00:34:04,039 --> 00:34:07,379
We want new people to come in and then bring other people in and make more people

489
00:34:07,379 --> 00:34:08,999
feel that, like our culture.

490
00:34:10,379 --> 00:34:15,179
So, wrapping up here, I would like to urge you to all become cultural champions.

491
00:34:15,599 --> 00:34:19,319
We all need to take more ownership of our collective environment.

492
00:34:19,619 --> 00:34:22,919
We need to build it together in order to maintain the community and our culture

493
00:34:22,919 --> 00:34:25,019
healthy and evolving at the same time.

494
00:34:25,599 --> 00:34:31,439
So, please try to remember that all of our actions in the end shape our culture and our community.

495
00:34:31,599 --> 00:34:36,839
All our interactions matter. And it's a lot of little things that they add together

496
00:34:36,839 --> 00:34:41,119
to form, let's say, these things that we're talking about and we refer to as culture.

497
00:34:41,859 --> 00:34:45,179
If you have new ideas, new initiative on how to improve it, lead that.

498
00:34:45,319 --> 00:34:48,779
We have ways, we have the goals, we have other things that you can gather people

499
00:34:48,779 --> 00:34:50,799
around that and you can improve.

500
00:34:51,459 --> 00:34:55,359
And to consider joining the community working group. It's a core support mechanism.

501
00:34:55,659 --> 00:34:59,319
We could be doing more. So if you have the time and you feel like you have the

502
00:34:59,319 --> 00:35:04,079
skills, join us and help us do more there. And yeah, let's work together to

503
00:35:04,079 --> 00:35:07,879
make KDE, you know, a vibrant and welcoming community with a strong culture

504
00:35:07,879 --> 00:35:09,939
over the years. Thank you.

505
00:35:13,879 --> 00:35:19,479
So we have time for questions. Okay. I actually have a question or a comment

506
00:35:19,479 --> 00:35:23,839
that's burning in me, but I'll give it first, Albert, and maybe we can talk afterwards.

507
00:35:29,552 --> 00:35:34,192
So, yeah, I definitely agree. We need a bit more, even on the onboarding side,

508
00:35:34,372 --> 00:35:35,212
a bit more of guidelines.

509
00:35:36,112 --> 00:35:39,612
I happen to, like, review lots of people's new patches.

510
00:35:40,312 --> 00:35:46,832
And, like, I never know how to encourage them to actually join the community,

511
00:35:46,952 --> 00:35:47,932
right? Like, they send a patch.

512
00:35:48,152 --> 00:35:50,792
Cool. And I merge it and I say, yay, welcome, blah, blah, blah.

513
00:35:51,092 --> 00:35:55,792
And then they send another patch. But like there's this step from the guy has

514
00:35:55,792 --> 00:36:02,052
sent five patches to the how do I make them ask for an account, right?

515
00:36:02,432 --> 00:36:05,892
And there's no guideline on that, right? And for some people,

516
00:36:05,912 --> 00:36:07,012
we do it with five patches.

517
00:36:07,192 --> 00:36:12,872
Some other people, they send 100 patches and we've never asked them to become part of the community.

518
00:36:13,232 --> 00:36:19,352
And something similar happens with the EV part, right? We have no guidelines on that.

519
00:36:19,472 --> 00:36:23,532
And always people say, oh, why is this person not part of the committee?

520
00:36:23,672 --> 00:36:25,952
Because nobody asked for it.

521
00:36:26,312 --> 00:36:30,912
Because we don't have a guideline for it. Should they be involved for five years?

522
00:36:31,012 --> 00:36:34,572
Should they be involved for five months? I mean, I know there's not a set into

523
00:36:34,572 --> 00:36:39,872
stone answer, but I feel like having a guideline on those is like, what do we feel?

524
00:36:40,592 --> 00:36:44,352
So I could go and say, okay, this person has sent one patch.

525
00:36:44,812 --> 00:36:48,832
Obviously not, right? But then I've said 20, if the guideline says 20,

526
00:36:48,912 --> 00:36:55,172
like, oh, well, maybe I can, like, when do I start gauging the I should tell

527
00:36:55,172 --> 00:36:59,512
them they should take the next step, right? Because, like, that's the thing.

528
00:36:59,632 --> 00:37:05,332
Like, we want them to be part of the community, and I have no idea myself when

529
00:37:05,332 --> 00:37:10,572
I should tell them to make the next step, and I don't think we have a guideline

530
00:37:10,572 --> 00:37:12,512
on that, so I would really, really appreciate,

531
00:37:13,272 --> 00:37:15,232
some kind of guideline on that.

532
00:37:15,232 --> 00:37:20,272
Like, I'm not an answer, not a question, sorry, but what's your opinion on that?

533
00:37:21,612 --> 00:37:26,232
My quick answer would be like from the first contribution, you should be treating

534
00:37:26,232 --> 00:37:30,292
them like possible newcomers to our community and like pushing them to do more,

535
00:37:30,412 --> 00:37:36,172
like again, and re-enhancing the positive back. Hey, this is a great patch, as you mentioned.

536
00:37:36,352 --> 00:37:38,812
This is already doing a lot for that person that reached out.

537
00:37:38,912 --> 00:37:41,492
Because remember that that first step is not always easy.

538
00:37:42,852 --> 00:37:46,152
It's like joining a group where everyone knows each other and you're the one

539
00:37:46,152 --> 00:37:47,392
that's just the new guy there.

540
00:37:47,652 --> 00:37:51,512
So it's very, very important, even that first approach. Let's start from that.

541
00:37:51,632 --> 00:37:56,172
But I definitely agree that we don't have this process sorted out in some sort of guide.

542
00:37:56,272 --> 00:38:01,212
It's a, what if, when this happens, do that kind of way. And we could be doing more there.

543
00:38:01,932 --> 00:38:06,492
Now, drawing lines, like at the fifth patch, we consider it a personal part of the community.

544
00:38:06,552 --> 00:38:09,452
Or in the 20th patch, obviously, it is something that happens naturally.

545
00:38:09,452 --> 00:38:11,052
Early and I wouldn't draw lines there.

546
00:38:11,192 --> 00:38:13,872
I had Joe, you wanted to ask something.

547
00:38:14,432 --> 00:38:18,212
A follow up to that. And then I do have a comment. Um, we actually were just

548
00:38:18,212 --> 00:38:22,312
talking about this earlier at lunch and it might be nice to have some sort of, um.

549
00:38:25,465 --> 00:38:27,145
A PDF that says, you're now part

550
00:38:27,145 --> 00:38:30,845
of the KDE community that you send to someone by email or put into, uh,

551
00:38:31,045 --> 00:38:34,865
you know, the somewhere that's visible to them as just a, like,

552
00:38:34,925 --> 00:38:37,365
you're now one of us, because I think a lot of people do contribute,

553
00:38:37,465 --> 00:38:40,545
not thinking I'm now a part of this community, you know, they are,

554
00:38:40,705 --> 00:38:43,765
um, and having some sort of official statement.

555
00:38:44,165 --> 00:38:48,065
My comment was, is I think personally, I've thought about some of this,

556
00:38:48,125 --> 00:38:49,605
um, in a different context.

557
00:38:49,845 --> 00:38:53,525
And I think some of this falls under the purview of the community working group,

558
00:38:53,605 --> 00:38:57,645
in my opinion, in the charge to be proactive in maintaining community health.

559
00:38:57,965 --> 00:39:02,905
And I think it would be nice if there were a way to move beyond just an informal.

560
00:39:05,785 --> 00:39:10,645
Undefined onboarding team to something that is perhaps more formalized,

561
00:39:10,745 --> 00:39:17,585
perhaps even a training for people who onboard and give some structure to that.

562
00:39:17,645 --> 00:39:21,845
Because I think it is such an important part of building the community

563
00:39:22,005 --> 00:39:27,865
and maintaining the community health is establishing the, as you said,

564
00:39:27,945 --> 00:39:32,145
expectations at the onset and giving the necessary information about what people

565
00:39:32,145 --> 00:39:34,625
need to know when they start. It's just a comment. It's not a question.

566
00:39:34,905 --> 00:39:39,585
Like to add to that, I think in the past while I was writing the onboarding,

567
00:39:39,605 --> 00:39:41,925
there was a discussion about doing a WorldCat team,

568
00:39:42,025 --> 00:39:46,345
which ended up having a WorldCat chat on Matrix where I still see a lot of people

569
00:39:46,345 --> 00:39:50,605
joining there when it's their first entry to our community and it's active and I'm happy about that.

570
00:39:50,605 --> 00:39:53,825
And I don't recall who I was talking to the other day in the host.

571
00:39:54,085 --> 00:39:57,625
There's discussion from what I know about building the Go Welcome team again,

572
00:39:57,765 --> 00:40:01,565
like in a more official way. So we have like a process of that.

573
00:40:01,745 --> 00:40:04,585
And going back to the Eric comment, I totally agree,

574
00:40:04,725 --> 00:40:08,585
like joining other communities from time to time, it happened to us that after

575
00:40:08,585 --> 00:40:12,305
like three weeks from my first contribution, I received something like in the

576
00:40:12,305 --> 00:40:17,005
mail, and it was just a sticker or something saying, thank you for your contribution.

577
00:40:17,105 --> 00:40:19,205
It had my name on it. And it's something that I keep like on,

578
00:40:19,325 --> 00:40:21,385
you know, And I cherish that.

579
00:40:21,685 --> 00:40:25,645
And there were little things, but they matter in the end, like if they add up,

580
00:40:25,705 --> 00:40:26,705
you know, and it's important.

581
00:40:27,365 --> 00:40:30,505
SPEAKER 1- Psychologically, it makes you a part of the community in a way that

582
00:40:30,505 --> 00:40:31,685
you weren't . FELIPE HOFFA- It's your first impression, right?

583
00:40:31,745 --> 00:40:33,405
And it's like a feel-good thing.

584
00:40:37,705 --> 00:40:38,265
Thank you.