During the past 9 months I have been acting as MeeGo Network Finland community manager. That time has included exciting and frustrating moments, joy and sorrow, but above all it has included a lot of lessons about what is a community manager. Here’s a few things that I have discovered.

Believe in future

When you are lucky enough to be a community manager in some open source community, make sure you believe in the goals and aims of that community. There might be times when you are the only one who can find something positive about the situation. Sometimes the situation is opposite. In other words, you are human too after all. You might loose (some of your) faith in future, but then when you least expect it, community will notice this and help you to get back on track. That is if you are lucky :) I was lucky. I lost some of my faith in MeeGo during the spring 2011, but then some of the community members supported me and expressed their belief in MeeGo’s future. That helped me to rebuild my thoughts.

Kick some ass

Every community faces moments of ’silence’. Community is there, but they need to be pushed a little bit. But be careful! Using carrots works better than stick. Even if there is a valid reason to whip the community, don’t get too tough. Be understanding, respect the fact that at least some of them are using their free-time (which it self is a sign of their commitment) to participate.

Enthusiasm is needed

Community manager who ‘just works’ for the community is doomed. Well, perhaps not doomed, but success is less probable. You have to be enthusiastic to get things rolling. You have to believe in open source communities and culture, you have to be part of the open source community. If you are too ‘old fashion business oriented’ person, don’t expect to be a great open source community manager, at least not straight away. You have to learn what open source is, how it works, what are the values and modus operandi.

Make decisions and take the blame

Obviously decisions need to be made. Every community can not be run in Linus style, where decision making is avoided. Make the decisions, it’s your job. Make sure you listen to the community first, ask their opinions and insight. No matter what you decide, it will never satisfy all. Learn to live with it. Note that decision making might take rather long time, depending on the issue. Keep the discussion alive as long as it needs, and keep the discussion in open. Don’t fall into traps like discussing community issues in closed email circles.

Be consistent, be yourself

Don’t loose your true identity, be yourself. If you are hard core open source believer, let it show. If you start building a ‘manager role’ which is different from your own personality, you will fail (in epic scale). People in your community will see through your mask. That will ruin the trust that might otherwise build between you and community. Trust is one of the most important things in open source communities. If you manage to avoid the above mistake, you are able to be consistent. That means, that others can anticipate you and your thoughts. They will learn what to expect from you. That builds trust.

Throw ideas at the community

Be bold with new ideas, throw them at the community, but be prepared that every idea will not get supported. Your task is to keep community vibrant, alive and bring new life into community activities. Just like in open source projects, you might need to do a lot of work yourself before others get interested. This obviously requires time and efforts.

Listen to the community

A good community manager listens to other comrades (or brothers and sisters). Don’t shut your ears and eyes even for a moment. Be alert and try to probe what is the spirit of community, what they are doing, what kind of stuff might get them more engaged.  Don’t get frustrated if things don’t seem to go forward in the speed of light. Sometimes community is silent, but it takes only perhaps one off-topic line in IRC and then all hell breaks loose, there is chaos, confusion and trouble, but above all there is activity.