Re-growing a DevOps Community (in Boston)
summary
A volunteer-run non-profit Boston DevOps Network organizes monthly meetups, an active Slack, and an annual conference, and converts ticket sales to a 100% donation model that has yielded $40,000 donated so far. Virtual booths and game nights repeatedly fail; virtual AV loss feels like the venue disappearing. Practical fixes include weekly one-on-one check-ins, breaking work into 4–5 hours/week core roles or one-hour microtasks, shipping Lego trophies globally, and hauling up to 400 chairs when vendors collapse.
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chapters (14)
- 0:00Introduction and background
- 3:35Gardening and community analogy
- 10:58Community as garden and puzzle
- 14:07Boston DevOps structure
- 15:30Defining community and DevOps
- 17:19DevOps history and evolution
- 21:11COVID challenges and solutions
- 23:45Alignment in organizing
- 25:10Logistics and volunteer efforts
- 27:59Open Spaces importance
- 29:23Organizing effort and growth
- 31:10Comfort vs growth in community
- 31:55Strategy and volunteer work
- 32:36Closing and Q&A
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