Community ambassador

Brainstorming about what might be good to look for in community ambassadors, which a number of people have noted are much needed. From discussions among mchua, cscott, mikelee, aaron kaplan, sj, wayan, christophd, and others.

Introduction

Reviewing lists of potential community liason tasks inspired thought about what a dedicated volunteer/community/grassroots ambassador might look like w/in OLPC. What would that person do? What skills would they need?

A few conversations led to this description, at 1CC, in Berlin, and in Washington, DC.

There are 3 'job postings' here, covering two scenarios:

1. OLPC finds one person to do all grassroots/communication stuff. This makes for one incredibly hosed, stretched-thin superhero employee, a community liaison.
2. OLPC finds one person to do grassroots stuff "from the outside" (a grassroots coordinator) and another to do communications stuff "from the inside" (a communications coordinator). This is more of a reasonable workload, but possibly overkill, and if both are employees, possibly over-budget.

One person

Community Liaison

Overview

The OLPC project attracts a large and dedicated group of volunteers. We are looking for a community liaison to create and manage outreach projects and programs for members of our volunteer community, to coordinate between and foster the growth of grassroots groups and independent pilots and projects, and to facilitate the flow of information between core OLPC teams and the rest of the world. This person would work closely with development and deployment groups inside and outside of OLPC.

This position requires a willingness to travel and a flexible schedule. Useful skills include negotiation, dialogue facilitation, and communications. A technical background, prior experience with open-source software and community facilitation, and foreign languages are all plusses.

Being a liaison includes...

• Spending > one week per month at a grassroots group or deployment to work with and learn from people in that community
• Spending > one week per month at 1cc to coordinate with development and deployment teams
• Running a monthly community "mini-conference," alternating between tech and education foci, to present current work and wild ideas
• Serving as an organizational contact point for local OLPC chapters worldwide
• Maintaining an archive of talks, press releases, and presentation materials, including templates for groups and individuals who want to do local outreach presentations
• Coordinating blogging efforts amongst OLPC employees
• Facilitating (and at times hosting) regular "open houses", both at 1cc and at local OLPC groups.
• Coordinating news releases to community sources such as OLPC News as well as traditional press sources. Providing access to traditional press for noteworthy community work.
• Facilitating travel to allow different groups to interact: 1cc developers giving talks at local OLPC groups and vice-versa.
• Facilitating long-term community-run projects such as UI research, liveCD image maintenance, Activity/bundle development, &c.
• Serving as a liaison to universities and university-based research groups

Skills

• Excellent organizational skills
• Strong written and oral communications
• Strong attention to detail and follow through
• Long experience with open-source software communities or similar
• 2 or more years project management experience
• Technical or technical-related background

Details

• Location: Cambridge, with frequent traveling
• Compensation: Compensation is appropriate for experience. This position will begin as a 3-month trial contract, with the possibility of a longer-term position.
• This is at a non-profit organization.

To apply send a resume and cover letter to: blah blah blah email goes here.

Two people...

Grassroots coordinator

The OLPC project attracts a large and dedicated group of volunteers. We are looking for a Grassroots Coordinator to create and manage outreach projects and programs for the members of our volunteer community, coordinate b/t and foster the growth of grassroots groups and independent pilots and projects, and facilitate the flow of information between grassroots groups and b/t grassroots groups and developers and OLPC staff at 1cc. This person would work closely with the grassroots groups and the community communications coordinator.

This job requires a willingness to travel and flexible schedule. We are looking for someone with skills in negotiation, dialogue facilitation, and communications. A technical background, prior experience with open-source software and community facilitation, and foreign languages are all plusses.

job function

• Spending > one week per month at a grassroots group or deployment to work with and learn from the people in that community
• Spending > one week per month at 1cc to coordinate with development and deployment teams
• Running a monthly community "mini-conference," alternating between technology and education foci, to to present current work and wild ideas
• Serving as an organizational contact point for local OLPC chapters worldwide
• Working with the communications coordinator to provide access to traditional press for noteworthy community work.
• Facilitating travel to allow different groups to interact: having 1cc developers give talks at local OLPC groups and vice-versa.
• Facilitating long-term community-run projects such as UI research, liveCD image maintenance, Activity development, &c.
• Serving as a liason to universities and university-based research groups

Skills

• Excellent organizational skills
• Strong written and oral communications
• Strong attention to detail and follow through
• Long experience with open-source software communities or similar
• 2 or more years project management experience
• Technical or technical-related background

Details

• Location: Cambridge, with frequent traveling
• Compensation: Compensation is appropriate for experience. This position will begin as a 3-month trial contract, with the possibility of a longer-term position.
• This is at a non-profit organization.

To apply send a resume and cover letter to: blah blah email goes here.

Communications coordinator

Overview

With developers and volunteers spread throughout the world and a need for transparency in communications between them, OLPC is looking for a Communications Coordinator to facilitate the flow of information between various parts of OLPC, including its volunteer community. This person would work closely with the development and deployment groups both inside and outside of OLPC, as well as the Community Coodrdinator.

We are looking for someone with journalism/PR experience and excellent skills in communications. A technical background, prior experience with open-source communities, and knowledge of foreign languages are all plusses.

Job function

• Archiving talks, press releases, and presentation materials, including templates for groups and individuals who want to do their own local outreach presentations
• Coordinating news releases to community sources like OLPCNews as well as traditional press sources
• Providing access to traditional press for noteworthly community work
• Maintaining an archive of transcripts and meeting notes, both public and private, and continually working to bring as much information as possible into the public domain
• Working together with the community coordinator to maintain a bidirectional flow of communications between grassroots groups and OLPC
• Working with developers and deployment teams to publish work reports and stories from the field, via blogs and other means

Skills

• Excellent organizational skills
• Strong written and oral communications
• Strong attention to detail and follow through
• Long experience with journalism/PR

Details

• Location: Cambridge
• Compensation: Compensation is appropriate for experience.
• This is at a non-profit organization.

To apply send a resume and cover letter to: blah blah put email here.