Building the passbolt community in 2023
At the end of last year, passbolt got in touch with us about doing some community work. Pleased to work with the passbolt team again, we’re kicking off 2023 with an organisation working to help people embrace their privacy and security while being realistic about how people collaborate in the digital space.
Passbolt is the open source password manager for teams. They aim to help people collaborate without compromising on password security. We share passwords. It’s just a fact.
TL;DR — learn about our community plans and get involved!
Why: To build communal power
If you know WAO at all, you know that we are proud to be a cooperative that has some…uh…perspectives. We don’t take on just any project — we prefer to work with organisations that are community-focused and trying to make the world a better place. Passbolt is focused on privacy and security, themes that are near and dear to our nerdy hearts.
As the passbolt community grows, they want to ensure that their values are baked into everything they do. They also want to be in a position to say no to corporate overloads and asshats.
WAO members have long been interested in the privacy and security space, and we feel like we have a lot to both learn as well as contribute. We’re good at community building, and a strong community means power. The power to say no, the power to influence change, the power to change the world.
Who: passbolt, WAO and YOU
The majority of the people currently in the passbolt community understand why password security matters and they are people who can help spread the word. They also understand the complexities of internet security and digital identity. These folks care about the ethics of their tech. There are active developers and security savvy people helping out with passbolt support.
We want to figure out how we can grow the community and to include people like…well, us. Internet savvy, privacy aware people. People who are trying to be safe online. People who love open source and want to contribute to a growing and ever more important conversation around online security, data privacy and the like. We want to learn and contribute to this discussion, and this community has something to teach us.
What: a privacy & security focused community
We’re lucky to be able to build together with the passbolt community, instead of from scratch. We are starting by looking at the passbolt community using our patented* Architecture of Participation. This framework helps us make sure we’re covering our bases. We’ve written about applying it many times. You can read all about it in:
- An Architecture of Participation for Community growth
- Quick wins to improve your Open Source community’s Architecture of Participation
- HOWTO: Create an Architecture of Participation for your Charity tech project
Other things we’re thinking about include resources that help ensure that community structures, workflows and processes are clear and being implemented. We’ll help the passbolt team and contributors embrace, encourage and distribute leadership.
* not actually patented because patents are corporate bullshit used to control people, keep people poor and generally stymie innovation
How: the tricky part
With any growing community there’s a delicate balance to be struck between improving things for new community members and ensuring that OG community members remain engaged. We’ve identified some areas that can help make the community experience more streamlined and robust. We’re also thinking about how to engage with current contributors and help them reach their goals.
Improving Documentation & Pathways
Open Source projects are often spread out all over the web and that can be confusing for potential contributors. It’s important to ensure a project is navigable for people who aren’t yet members of the community. Entry points can be varied, but they should signpost and cross link to the information that people are looking for. Getting lost causes frustration, and improving documentation and creating explicit contributor pathways can help keep people involved.
Solid plans
We found that there are 10 main reasons why people contribute to open source projects. A solid engagement plan will consider these motivations and create pathways for people to level up their involvement with the project. No matter the motivation, contributors are more likely to continue using their skills on behalf of the project if they feel valued. Ensuring that contribution is recognised is an important part of a healthy community.
Solid engagement also means consistent engagement, so we’re thinking about the patterns and workflows we need to co-design and document in order to ensure that people feel supported. This includes things like transparent roadmaps, moderation plans or updated community resources.
Making it Super Easy to Contribute
Any time spent in the service of a collective project is an amazing gift to the community that manages it. There are so many ways to contribute to open source. Open source projects need developers, yes, but they also need a wide range of other types of people and skills in order to be a success. Something as simple as providing feedback can change the course of an initiative.
Creating an inclusive community means encouraging all sorts of people to see their skills as valuable and necessary. Lowering the technical bar to contribution can help, and here modularity is key. We need to think about what ‘Minimum Viable Contribution’ might be for this community, and then make it super easy to contribute.
Where: Across the web and at an event near you
We are working to tie together and create spaces to engage with anyone who cares about privacy and security. Passbolt will continue to host spaces for people who are highly technical, while also working to spread good practices and knowledge amongst people who are learning. A community is made up of the individuals who join it, so there’s no way of knowing what this community might become. Our intention, though, is that the passbolt community remains a welcoming and inclusive space.
People from the passbolt community are planning to be at a variety of open source events this year. Next up is FOSDEM! If you’re going to be there, we highly encourage you to say hello!
When: Now!
We know that building a community like this has a lot of ins and outs.
Over the next months, WAO is going to help the passbolt team grow and engage an inclusive and healthy open source community. In addition to making sure that anyone can contribute to this amazing project, we want to help open sourcers, makers, co-ops, activists, edtechies and charity folks have an honest conversation about passwords. The reality is that people share passwords, and we’re not going to stop just because we are told it is a bad practice.
Help us!
We are making and sharing our plans with you, and we want your feedback! Do you have opinions? Do you care about privacy and security? Are you eager to help push an honest conversation? Just looking for a password manager that helps you collaborate? We want to hear from you!