Over the last two weeks, we’ve had a robust and enthusiastic discussion (70 posts as of last count) in the Backdrop CMS forum about how to improve our Outreach efforts.
The discussion will continue in upcoming Outreach meetings, every other Thursday at 8:00PM UTC (Noon Pacific Time - USA).
It was great to see so many voices chime in and offer their thoughts and suggestions. However, as I mentioned in my last blog post, what we really need are your skills and your time. We now have a laundry list of items that need action, many of these ideas just need someone to step up and start work - the rest of us will do our best to be supportive and help out as much as we can.
No one needs permission to write a blog post about Backdrop or to speak at a local technology meetup/user group. If you need ideas, stickers, or even slides - let us know and we’ll do everything we can to support you. If you have ideas about how we can better support and encourage the creation of content or how we can better recruit and manage volunteers, please let us know we could use your experience and your skills.
If you would like to translate Backdrop CMS content into your native language, there is plenty you can do without our permission, but if you need ideas or support, we are here - just reach out. There are Backdrop CMS websites in Greek, German, and Russian and apparently another is coming in Bulgarian. None of these are official projects or needed permission from the core leadership team, but we are willing to help or support you as we are able.
It was suggested that we do a better job of porting important contrib modules from Drupal 7 to Backdrop CMS, which already seems to have triggered activity in the Organic Groups issue queue. Anyone is welcome to start and organize an initiative to port your favorite module to Backdrop, if you need help, come to one of our weekly development meetings and make your case. If you would like to lead a more organized initiative, I am confident that you will find support.
Some folks expressed interest in generating audience personas. If anyone is interested or willing to work on this, I am sure they will find support and encouragement from the community. We’d be happy to allocate time for this at upcoming meetings. This might be a good place to get started.
There were a number of ideas about improving Backdropcms.org as a promotional tool. We have an issue queue where these ideas are discussed and acted upon. Help us move these ideas forward by organizing a contribution sprint or task force or by drafting content strategies to help us achieve these goals.
Yes, we welcome your ideas and your constructive critiques about our current efforts, but what we really need is your time and energy. Backdrop CMS is a volunteer effort and everything that get's done is the result of a motivated volunteer willing to step up and help us do the work. Long ago, I learned a lesson that more often than not has proven true, if I have an idea and the willingness to work on it, the Backdrop community will be there to provide feedback, encouragement and support.