Building Foundations of the Node.js Community

Node.js is a community centric platform. It grew with individuals and startups into something that’s used at a massive scale today.

With the io.js split and the resulting Node.js Foundation, where is that integral community now? Where is it going? And, importantly, how can you get involved?

Node.js is an amazing project in terms of code - it’s evolved rapidly to cover an immense landscape, from web apps, desktop apps, APIs, IoT, robotics, and beyond. There’s something else that Node has also been absolutely killer with, though: the community.

When the community split off of the core Node project into io.js, things changed dramatically. Suddenly, the community was in charge - of everything. The project wasn’t under the control of a small few, but rather it adapted to enable the project to be entirely controlled by the community.

Great - Node.js is governed by its community. But how does the Node community grow? How should it communicate? How can it encourage people to stop by and give Node.js a try - and hopefully not get thrown into a catch()?

One really awesome thing is that the Node.js community has an established community for building the Node community. How meta is that? The Node.js project is sectioned off into different Working Groups (WGs) with that are tasked with different objectives - the one that was tasked with building the community was the Evangelism WG.

Now, we’re seeing step two in process of building the Community for the Community: The Node.js Community Committee.

There have been several new developments, such as…

• Scaffolding out processes for the community to become technical editors to The Node.js Collection (https://medium.com/the-node-js-collection)

• Moving community education efforts like nodejs/education and NodeTogether into a central place

• Developing the documentation around the Community Committee to enable the Community to develop and grow naturally

These are the buds of momentum that is building for new community-based content that we’re seeing a need for as Node.js is growing, spreading, and diversifying.

All that said, there’s a transition happening. The Evangelism WG planted the seed of the grassroots Node.js Community efforts. Now, the Community Committee has taken this a step further and is mobilizing to start exploding the awareness and understanding of Node and its diverse ecosystem.

To succeed with this effort around enabling the Node.js community, we’re going to need help.

We’re going to need help.

We’re going to need ideas.

We’re going to need feedback.

We’re going to need people.

We’re going to need the community.

We need you.

I originally gave a version of this talk at EmpireNode - but, there have been a series of developments recently that directly affect and update the narrative. Namely, the development and growth of the Community Committee as a peer of the Node.js TSC has introduced a new dynamic that I’m excited to be able to share with the community. Given that new context, I’ve updated the talk several times and have given it at multiple events, including Node.js Interactive, LibertyJS, and Node Camp.