Alfresco (“al fresco”) means “in the open”. Our open source ethos is built into our name – the foundation of what we do. We are first and foremost, a transparent and collaborative company. While I have a background in community management, Alfresco was my first open source community experience.
I was so excited to work with these people, but I didn’t quite understand how it all worked. “We have an entirely free version of the product?” I asked. During my first week on the job, I attended BeeCon, a conference organized by our community members (Order of the Bee, specifically), focused entirely on our technology.
BeeCon is when I fully came to understand the open source ethos. Our community members are experts in their field. They understand the intricacies of our software, to the extent that they are able to create new features and implement fixes to the core code. They are skilled and passionate, and just as dedicated as our employees.
Since I joined Alfresco in 2016, our community has continued to grow. We have a healthy developer community, with thousands of active members and hundreds joining each month. Our members are responsible for creating a plethora of resources in several languages. They ask and answer hundreds of questions on a monthly basis. They participate in early access programs and find (and sometimes fix) issues before a general release. They host and participate in monthly live technical webinars and organized local meetups in their area. Their interest and engagements seems to know no bounds.
This was really demonstrated earlier this year, when we hosted DevCon 2018, our annual developer conference. The largest responsibility, selecting the conference content, was a shared responsibility between Alfresco and the Order of the Bee. In the end, the community contributed just more than half of all the sessions. They taught technical sessions, demonstrated the solutions they’ve created, and showcased their innovative ways of thinking and building.
And while the dedicated to and knowledge of Alfresco technology is impressive, they are not just colleagues or people with a similar interest – they are friends. They are family.
I consider myself lucky to be a part of it.
PS: if you want to meet us, visit us at We Are Developers, one of the largest developer conferences in the world taking place in Vienna from May 16-18. You can not only meet thousands of software leaders and code enthusiasts but also win a cool UpAir One Quadrocopter drone at our booth!
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