Community ambassador

This isn't actually official in any way - it's just me puttering around with thought experiments as to what might be good to look for in such a person. I repeat. THIS IS NOT A JOB POSTING! This is Mel going "hm, if there were a job posting, maybe it would look like this...

Introduction

Going off C. Scott's list of what kind of Community liason tasks there are made me wonder what would happen if someone was actually hired specifically for volunteer/community/grassroots stuff at OLPC - what kind of person would OLPC look for? What would that person do? At a conversation in Washington DC with several active OLPC community members (Christoph, Mike Lee, Aaron, Wayan...) we brainstormed up some things that I later stuffed in the format of job postings, just for fun.

You'll notice there are 3 job postings here. There are two scenarios we came up with:

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

So... here we go.

OLPC hires one person

Community Liason

Overview

The OLPC project has attracted a large and dedicated group of volunteers contributing their time and skills from around the world. We are looking for a Community Liason to create and manage outreach projects and programs for the members of our volunteer community, coordinate between and foster the growth of grassroots groups and independent pilots and projects, and facilitate the flow of information between grassroots groups and OLPC. This person would work closely with the development and deployment groups both inside and outside of OLPC.

This job requires a willingness to travel and flexible schedule. We are looking for someone with excellent 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.

The job function includes:

• Spending at least one week per month at a grassroots group or deployment to work with and learn from the people in that community
• Spending at least 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
• Maintaining an archive of talks, press releases, and presentation materials, including templates for groups and individuals who want to do their own local outreach presentations
• Coordinating blogging efforts amongst OLPC employees
• Facilitating (and when applicable, hosting) regular "open houses", both at 1cc and at local OLPC groups.
• Coordinating news releases to community sources like OLPCNews as well as traditional press sources. Providing access to traditional press for noteworthly 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, etc.
• Serving as a liason to universities and university-based research groups

Skills required:

• Excellent organizational skills
• Strong written and oral communications
• Strong attention to detail and follow through
• 5 or more years 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.

OLPC hires two people

Grassroots coordinator

The OLPC project has attracted a large and dedicated group of volunteers contributing their time and skills from around the world. We are looking for a Grassroots Corodinator to create and manage outreach projects and programs for the members of our volunteer community, coordinate between and foster the growth of grassroots groups and independent pilots and projects, and facilitate the flow of information between grassroots groups and between grassroots groups and developers and OLPC staff at 1cc. This person would work closely with the grassroots groups as well as the Communications Coordinator at OLPC.

This job requires a willingness to travel and flexible schedule. We are looking for someone with excellent 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.

The job function includes:

• Spending at least one week per month at a grassroots group or deployment to work with and learn from the people in that community
• Spending at least 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 noteworthly 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, etc.
• Serving as a liason to universities and university-based research groups

Skills required:

• Excellent organizational skills
• Strong written and oral communications
• Strong attention to detail and follow through
• 5 or more years 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.

The job function includes:

• Maintaining an archive of 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 required:

• Excellent organizational skills
• Strong written and oral communications
• Strong attention to detail and follow through
• 5 or more years 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.