The Users' Community: Your Hidden Treasure and Best Ally (Part 3)

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Welcome to the third part of The User's Community: Your Hidden Treasure and Best Ally were the focus is going to be: Resources created by Community Members

On the Part 1 of this series of articles I explained the resources that are solely developed and provided by Atlassian. The article address when Atlassian involve other team members.

On the Part 2 I addressed resources that are sponsored or created by Atlassian that involves the  user's community, such as: Atlassian User Groups, Company User Groups, Developers Community, this website, etc.

The User's Community

The User’s community is a valuable source of knowledge. Experts share their experiences on their own sites or sites sponsored by Atlassian as well as other platforms. Some examples are: Atlassian Community Articles, LinkedIn Articles and training, Blogposts, Books, Webinars, Partners and Users’ days, On Line Education, Whitepapers, Best practices, podcasts, etc..

The best part of this source of cohesive and comprehensive knowledge is that it is coming from all over the world. I was reading some post from people from my country Argentina (Buenos Aires, Mendoza, Cordoba...) and then an answer from Italy, Spain, Nigeria and other countries. Another example of globalization and impact of Atlassian is easy to perceive by attending to the Summit or the Atlassian User Group Leaders workshop. It is amazing to interact with other "Atlassians" from all over the world.

And if you take that synergy and push it into the web, this community site or in their own spaces, the volume and type of knowledge available is infinite and just a click away. It doesn't stop there because if you ask.... they will respond and knowledge sharing will continue without stopping, without time zones, countries or barriers, it is organically growing as we write or read this article. 

My first steps...

When I started with the development of the Open Source collaboration environment for vxVistA (www.vxvista.org) I found a good platform based on Atlassian Confluence and a great book that provided an alternative point of view to achieve collaboration and community engagement. Concepts and ideas from the book called “Wikipatternns” by Stewart Mader are useful today as they were in 2008. I really recommend you get a copy or read the full content from his website. “… the patterns and anti-patterns in Wikipatterns enable you to build an enduring, useful space for collaboration, whether your team is in the same room or spread around the world.”

The other book is from Jono Bacon, called “The Art of Community: Building the New Age of Participation”. These two books are not directly related to Atlassian products, but it will help understanding the power of the community and the importance of providing the right collaboration environment to nurture participation. This site is a perfect example of an active a collaboration hub and in this article I will share some of my findings with the hope that they can be of great help for you and your team. Members of the community clearly understand the organic foundation of receiving and giving, and if each one of the players do their little part, the symbiotic effect will produce invaluable outcome.

 

I will review some of the most common community contributions, such as Atlassian related articles, blogposts, books, Webinars, partners sponsored events, podcasts and online learning. What you will find on this article it is not a comprehensive list of resources but it could be considered just the tip of the iceberg.

Furthermore, here is an invitation for you. If you identify that I missed some resource available please add it as a comment. My main objective is just to generate the initial spark that will ignite collaboration about this particular topic. Let's get started...

Atlassian Related Articles

Articles in general are a great source of knowledge, we usually focus our search into the community site, but there are other good sources of knowledge that are not created or sponsored by Atlassian. LinkedIN is an example of that. On the other hand, I am developing a series of articles where I share our AUG common project for Warfighter Made and Atlassian, explaining on each one how we are doing our project.

Where to find them?                  

Do not limit your search to community.atlassian.com only. Expand your search to LinkedIN, SDTimes and other newsletters.

Authors

Follow technical journalist, book authors, community champions, partners, experts and Atlassian team members.  Subscribe to regular newsletters.

Examples:

Look for partners and expert’s articles. Here is one… and David has other related articles as well.

“How Atlassian is carrying the developer world”, SD Times, February 2nd, 2018, David Rubinstein

In this article in particular from Software Development Times, David Rubinstein explains How Atlassian is carrying the developer world. “Gaining entry into organizations one development team at a time, Atlassian has managed to create a vibrant ecosystem of software tools that has become among the most popular in the developer arsenal. And it’s no accident. By lowering the barrier to entry for its tools, Atlassian has gained a broad developer following. “

“How to get your non-development teams on board for using JIRA Software” - Atlassian Community, June 8, 2018, Danny Harris. Danny is an Atlassian Use Group Leader and a Community Champion. This article that he published in June it is a perfect example that demonstrate how a little spark can trigger collaboration. After publishing his article other community members and experts interacted with him adding additional value to the original Post. Bill Cushard (book author that will be referenced later on this article) point some part of the article and add another perspective to the original content.

Atlassian Related Blogposts

Blogposts are a good source of tips and knowledge. I always try to visit Atlassian partners and subscribe to their newsletter. There is a new tendency that is of great value for me where I see how partners are focused on sharing best practices or business cases instead of concentrate the message on the features of their products. For us, as users, that is  important because, after understanding how a business needs were addressed, we will have the desire to dig deeper and learn more about the suite of products or addons used. I found good tips and best practices shared on Atlassian ecosystem blogposts.

Where to find them

Start on Atlassian Marketplace partner’s page, visit their website and subscribe to their newsletters or blogposts

Authors

Blogposts authors are usually active members of the community and most of them are focused on sharing best practices. Do not assume that their blogposts are created only to support their product or services.

Topics

News and best practices tips are the ones I like to get inspired and to find ideas for my company.

Examples

Ecosystem’s members are always trying to help sorting the information released about Atlassian by providing some tips or shortcuts to help you focusing in what you are looking for. K15t member did this article to help planning the Europe Summit.

“Amplify your Atlassian Summit Experience”, K15t Blogs, July 26, 2018, Shannon Meehan

Some tips… GET INSPIRED

With over 60 sessions and keynotes from top Atlassians and industry leaders, there will be no shortage of inspiration for how to get the most out of your Atlassian tools. Use this handy session schedule to build your agenda based on the tools you use or the track that makes sense for your use case. Here are a few that caught our eye: 

How to Win Friends and Confluence People: Break down organizational silos and build a cohesive culture with Confluence. 

The Ultimate Guide to Confluence for Software Teams: How to use Confluence throughout the software development process, from concept to launch. 

20 First Time Jira Admin Tips: From choosing the right number of admins to little-known resources for assistance, this talk will help Jira beginners get started. 

Here is another example, “Overview of all 180 Confluence features”, Seibert/Media blogs, August 18, 2017

Atlassian Related Books

Got tired of your screen? Well, we have books too, and good ones.

Where to find them

Most of the books are published at Amazon and Pactk, but some authors use alternatives publishers.

Authors

Some of the authors that I know are: Rachel Wright, Matt Doar, Patrick Li, Bill Cushard, Jobin Kuruvilla, Rynder Roy Klomp, Ravi Sagar.

Topics

Administrators Guide, uncommon use of Atlassian tools, best practices, tips, workarounds and shortcuts, use of Atlassian products with non-software development teams, project management, etc.

Latest releases

Atlassian Related Webinars

Webinars are my preferred way of sharing knowledge. There are hundreds of free webinars available on YouTube, Vimeo or community member’s sites like Atlassian Partners or champion media channels.  When I started (2009) I watched the Atlassian TV webinars and I also had the chance to present our Open Source environment developed on Confluence. That experience motivated me to generate the Open Source Electronic Health Records Extension Hub that has more than 130 webinars with almost 12,000 plays. (www.ThevxHub.org). Despite it was for EHR I used the opportunity to explain how we used Atlassian products to develop our collaboration platform.

Where to find them?

YouTube & Vimeo is a good start. Check also:  Skillshare and LinkedIn INLearning. And of course: Atlassian Partners websites.

Authors

Some of the authors are: Rachel Wright, Ravi Sagar, Sistel (Spanish), Wonderslab, Michael Kittay-Jurdyga and more…

 

Topics

Webinars are covering multiple topics and not only application training. Some of the best ones are related in how to use the tools for specific aspects, like product management, Agile development, etc.

Partners Sponsored Events

Another source of knowledge are events organized by Atlassian Partners, they are usually free and, despite of commercial intentions, the content is usually valuable as they share best practices and invite key speakers. Follow the Atlassian partners in your area and subscribe to their newsletters so you are aware of the upcoming events. Below are a couple of examples, one from Deiser days, free events with attendance that goes from 200 to 300 attendees and with keynotes speakers from companies that share their lessons learned on the use of Atlassian Products. (Spain)

Here is another example from Seibert Media. (Germany)

Jira Day from Deviniti (Polland)

TSoft & Atlassian (Argentina/Chile)

Where to find them?

Subscribe to Atlassian partners newsletters and follow them on LinkedIN

Topics

The new trend is not to focus in direct sales, instead, Best Practices, customers experiences and training. 

Examples

In this example Isos Technology supported my efforts in the company and provided content for our Internal Atlassian Day.

In this case, @Larry at Isos a representative of Isos Technology, an Atlassian Partner, was attending our local Atlassian User Group (AUG) in Palm Beach, Florida. I asked them if they would like to do some presentations for our Team members. I was thinking, maybe a Lunch and Learned session… instead, they offered 4 sessions and more Q&A if needed. This type of attitude helps the overall community as it fosters pure collaboration and knowledge sharing.

As you will notice on the content of the agenda, the presentations were focus on teams needs and not on add on developed by them or their services. They were here doing a genuine knowledge sharing and mentorship. I am sure they know that if we have success the whole community will be recipient of direct benefits.

 

 Part 4 - Resources that are created by Community members including Atlassian Partners.