Community Diversity at TYPO3camp Rhine Ruhr

Everyone gave feedback about his journey from beginner to the insides of the TYPO3 community. For most people TYPO3 is a big family and more than a community. That make it hard sometimes for newcomers to get into the family but even is a great value once you're in. Together we discussed some problems we have especially at events like Camps, Developer Days and the Conference, and how it is for newcomers. We kicked up some ideas on how to solve the problems and help to get into the family. Some ideas were already tried at the Developer Days 2014 like the T3buddies, where old veterans are coupled to newbies. Each TYPO3camp is organised as a separate initiative, however. But as a big family we shouldn't reinvent the wheel at each event. We should work together and exchange feedback to improve all events for everyone. Having said that, the idea was discussed to come up with some best practices or guidelines together with organizers of the event. So each event will have some things in common like for instance sessions for newcomers or for that matter a great mix of sessions about different topics. We will see how this will develop in the future. Perhaps meetings between organizers of future and past TYPO3camps makes sense to exchange feedback and knowledge. In general there are many things we are doing great. At the TYPO3camp we had very different kinds of people from CEO's, project managers to designers, so not only developers. Next to other topics than TYPO3 there were talks about products we use, e.g. editors, ticket systems or knowledge based. There were also some sessions by Ben about stress and a yoga course he did in the early morning.. A great action by the organisation and a sign of appreciation was spreading the special green t-shirts for people that did extraordinary things for the TYPO3 community. We can be happy with our current state and be proud about our great family that will become bigger. But we also should pause and ask ourselves how we can help in very small steps. The session on diversity was one very small step that helped a lot.