For Community Manager Appreciation Day 2015, I wanted to do something special to thank many of the hard working community managers involved in the open source ecosystem.
Last year, community managers from various open source projects including Ubuntu, Kaltura, MongoDB, eZ Publish, Sourceforge, MySQL, Joomla, and DebianMed told us why they love their job. We ended 2014 with five community managers sharing advice and tips from the TYPO3, Puppet Labs, Bonitasoft, Elasticsearch, and Nethserver communities.
Here, I've compiled a list of 30 community managers in open source you should follow on Twitter. All of them have tremendous experience. And there's a good chance, if you're going to this year's Community Leadership Summit, you'll get to meet many of them in person.
Thank a community manager today! Join the conversation during Community Manager Appreciation Day, and follow on Twitter with hashtags #CMAD and #CMGR.
30 community managers you should follow on Twitter
Angie Byron | @webchick
Follow count: 12.8K
Twitter bio: Herder of cats. @Drupal core committer. Director of Community Development for @Acquia. @OReillyMedia author. @DrupalAssoc. Mom. Wife. Queer. Nerd. Gamer.
The scoop: I first met Angie at Drupal event in 2009. She's smart, upbeat, and is often found speaking at open source conferences. I had a chance to interview Angie before (and during) the 2013 All Things Open conference. Help her out by submitting a few patches to Drupal!
Jono Bacon | @jonobacon
Follow count: 12.5K
Twitter bio: Dad, Sr. Dir. Community at XPRIZE, former Ubuntu Community Mgr, author The Art of Community, founder Community Leadership Summit/Forum. Tweets my own.
The scoop: I first met Jono at the Community Leadership Summit in 2013 when he was the community manager for Ubuntu. He wrote the book on community management and often shares his experience with managing burnout and conflict, as well as a variety of other community management topics.
Benjamin Kerensa | @bkerensa
Follow count: 12.2K
Twitter bio: Developer, Speaker, Community Manager, @Mozilla Community Evangelist, @Firefox Community Release Manager, Soapmaker and Photographer.
The scoop: I met Benjamin at a Community Leadership Summit event and remember we were in a session together about community engagement. He had lots of ideas and has a passion for the Mozilla community.
Leslie Hawthorn | @lhawthorn
Follow count: 5,400
Twitter bio: Director, DevRel @elasticsearch. American expat in AMS. Cannot be trusted with quinoa salad. Open source, collaboration + saving the world. Tweets = mine.
The scoop: If you haven't seen Leslie's talk on "Checking Your Privilege" it's worth a watch. The first time I met Leslie was at an open source conference. She's witty, smart, knowledgeable, and an amazing human being.
Heather Leson | @HeatherLeson
Follow count: 5,400
Twitter bio: Idea hacker, community builder. I'm obsessed with bridges, visit Gehry cities and am a serial volunteer. Imagine this world if we all lent a digital hand.
The scoop: I started following Heather when I first learned about Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software (HFOSS). She's a community builder for the Humanitarian OpenStreetMaps Team. I finally met her in person and OSCON and have been impressed with her passion and the work she does for the open source community.
Rich Millington | @RichMillington
Follow count: 6,200
Twitter bio: Founder FeverBee - Community Consultancy
The scoop: Rich keeps things at FeverBee buzzing. But more importantly, his Twitter stream is filled with great tips and advice for community managers. Tune in to avoid common mistakes.
Heather LaGarde | @HeatherLaGarde
Follow count: 5,100
Twitter bio: Tech & Innovation for Good, HumanitarianUX. Producer SwitchPoint Conference, TEDxChapelHill. Music & all things Saxapahaw. Co-Owner Haw River Ballroom.
The scoop: I met Heather through her work with IntraHealth and she's got a lot of things going on. Great ideas and passion. Be sure to check out the SwitchPoint conference she helps organize.
Kate Chapman | @wonderchook
Follow count: 4,900
Twitter bio: Executive Director at @hotosm. I love #OpenStreetMap, teaching tech, #GeoGlitterDomination & chickens. #tech #feminism #opendata #crisismapping @digihums
The scoop: I don't know if I've met anyone more passionate about OpenStreetMaps. I discovered Kate through her work for Humanitarian OpenStreetMaps and finally met her in person at OSCON during a panel discussion about Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software (HFOSS). Help her out by finding a way to contribute to OpenStreetMaps.
Stefano Maffulli | @smaffulli
Follow count: 3,300
Twitter bio: Still an architect, building a free digital society. Advocating Free Software for Free Society. Opinions are mine not of my employer.
The scoop: Stefano is all things OpenStack. And he's having a great time being at the center of the growing and diverse OpenStack community.
Erica McGillivray | @emcgillivray
Follow count: 3,300
Twitter bio: 6'7 & green-skinned like She-Hulk, can't you tell? Feminist. Author. Sr. Community Manager for @Moz. @GeekGirlCon alum.
The scoop: I met Erica at a Community Leadership Summit, where I gladly accepted a Roger sticker (the iconic Moz mascot). She knows SEO and her Twitter stream has an interesting combination of SEO, shareable content, and fun.
Rikki Endsley | @rikkiends
Follow count: 3,500
Twitter bio: Community evangelist, Open Source & Standards, Red Hat; writer; editor; a little bit country & a little bit rock 'n' roll.
The scoop: Rikki can often be found wrangling the different upstream community projects at Red Hat and making their social media harmonious. Or you might find her speaking at an open source conference. I've known Rikki for years and she has a great Twitter stream filled with open source goodness.
Josh R. Simmons | @joshsimmons
Follow count: 2,400
Twitter bio: fair warning: i am a prolific tweeter! futurist, web dev, queer, armchair philosopher. cmgr @oreillymedia @fluentconf @oscon @oreillydesign and ceo @beawimp
The scoop: Josh is the community manager at O'Reilly Media. I first met Josh at SCALE 12X where we hit things off talking open government. Great Twitter stream with a blend of open source and good stuff from O'Reilly.
Jessica Dunbar | @jessicadunbar
Follow count: 3,200
Twitter bio: Mother of 2, Data Geek, Athlete
The scoop: Community manager at Joomla, Jessica was very helpful to Opensource.com during our latest Women in Open Source week—helping us gather profiles for outstanding woman in the Joomla community. Recently disappointed by the Green Bay Packers not making it to the Superbowl.
Angela Oduor Lungati | @angienicoleod
Follow count: 2,600
Twitter bio: Community Engagement @ushahidi. Co- founder @akirachix. Wife. Kenyan born in Ukraine. Smily and bubbly...Tweets = mine ;)
The scoop: Angela is passionate about Ushahidi. I first meet her at OSCON a few years ago when she was part of a panel about Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software (HFOSS).
Greg DeKoenigsberg | @gregdek
Follow count: 2,000
Twitter bio: Raconteur, bon vivant, automator, orchestrator, community guy for Ansible.
The scoop: Leading the community efforts at Ansible, Greg was one of the first people I met at Red Hat (way back in the day). He's into DevOps, open source, and community-building. One of my mentors for not only the open source way, but for community management.
Elizabeth K. Joseph | @pleia2
Follow count: 1,800
Twitter bio: Sysadmin @ HP on OpenStack Infra team, Ubuntu Community Council Member, http://Partimus.org Board Member
The scoop: Elizabeth has a knack for OpenStack, sits on the community council for Ubuntu, and is an advocate for women in technology. I finally met her in person at All Things Open in 2014.
ben van 't ende | @benvantende
Follow count: 1,600
Twitter bio: Community Manager, OmArm, Yogi, Innervator. Visit my blog at http://ben.vanten.de to feed your inner-net. Social Media, TYPO3
The scoop: Ben is community manager at TYPO3. I first met him at Community Leadership Summit where we hit it off chatting about open government. His Twitter stream is a blend of fun, shareable content, and of course, good info about community management.
Michael Downey | @downey
Follow count: 1,800
Twitter bio: Researcher, digital activist, and cause builder. @OpenMRS community manager.
The scoop: Michael is the community manager at OpenMRS (which does Open source Health IT). I met him at a past Community Leadership Summit. He enjoys a good hackathon and shares lots of fun pictures on Twitter.
Lydia Pintscher | @nightrose
Follow count: 1,600
Twitter bio: charmer of all things free and open - making the world a bit better as product manager of @wikidata, president of @kdecommunity and editor of @OpenAdviceBook
The scoop: President of the KDE community, Lydia was instrumental in getting the Open Advice book together. She has a steady stream of Wikidata, KDE, and lots of other open source topics.
Amanda Smith | @ayymanduh
Follow count: 1,500
Twitter bio: Community Engagement Manager for @ODIHQ | Previously #Police.uk | 'Sells space on The Google' | #OpenData geek | Shoreditch Blonde | #F1 fanatic | Girly giggler
The scoop: Amanda got into open data via criminology and the justice system. She is the community engagement manger at the Open Data Institute and has the pulse on open data.
Patricia Dugan | @patricia_dugan
Follow count: 1,200
Twitter bio: Community Manager. Brand Builder. Open Source. Yoga. Wine. Not Trippin. Dancing. San Francisco. @zuluJDK
The scoop: Community manager at Zulu JDK, you'll find Patricia tweeting about everything from coding, yoga, music, random thoughts, and everything in between.
Kara Sowles | @feynudibranch
Follow count: 1,000
Twitter bio: A sea slug in Portland OR, working @Puppetlabs. Mycology, RPGs, geekery, and stop-motion animation ensue.
The scoop: Kara is the community manager at Puppet Labs and is passionate about inclusiveness. I first met her at a past Community Leadership Summit. Easily spotted in a crowd with bright blue hair, you'll see that Kara tweets about Portland, hair color, good reads, and much more.
Sarah Novotny | @sarahnovotny
Follow count: 2,900
Twitter bio: generally pleasant person continuing to learn new things wherever i can. these are my views alone.
The scoop: Evangelist and community leader for NGINX, I first met Sarah at OSCON. As one of the program chairs, she's got a tough job and helping make OSCON a great experience for attendees. Often found tweeting about leadership, geeky stuff, OSCON, and more.
Ross Turk | @rossturk
Follow count: 1,200
Twitter bio: VP of Marketing & Community at Inktank, open source junkie, musician, photographer, gadget purchaser, understander of things.
The scoop: I've known Ross for years, mostly through open source conferences. He's the community manager at Inktank, which means he's at the center of the Ceph community. He knows a lot about storage (the computer kind) and open source.
Jos Poortvilet | @jospoortvliet
Follow count: 1,100
Twitter bio: People person, technology enthusiast and all-things-open evangelist.
The scoop: Jos is the community manager at OwnCloud (and formerly the community manager at OpenSUSE). You'll find him tweeting about Linux, security, and of course, OwnCloud. He's got some great advice and tips on how to get started with OwnCloud.
Amber Graner | @akgraner
Follow count: 1,200
Twitter bio: OCP Community Manager, Ubuntu User, Geek, Event Planner, Author, Journalist, Volunteer Extraordinaire, Fantastic Mom, Awesome Wife & a little on the shy side!
The scoop: Amber is the community manager for the Open Compute Project and also involved in the OpenStack community. She's also living the ups and downs as a fan of the Carolina Panthers during football season.
Alession Fattorini | @ale_fattorini
Follow count: 700
Twitter bio: @NethServer (based on #CentOS) Community Manager, #OpenSource, #Linux SysAdmin & Learning #devops, Customer Service & Productivity Tips
The scoop: As the community manager for the Neth Server community, you'll find Alessio tweeting about open source, Linux, and good advice on community management. I met Alessio at a past Community Leadership Summit and he's got some great experience to share.
Marina Zhurakhinskaya | @marinaz
Follow count: 1,000
Twitter bio: Community Engagement Lead at Red Hat, FOSS Outreach Program organizer, GNOME contributor, Ada Initiative supporter, cultured funny foodie
The scoop: Marina is the community engagement lead at Red Hat. She's passionate about women in open source technology and tweets about Linux and how to get involved in communities. She does a phenomenal job to help organize the FOSS Outreach Program, be sure to help out by encouraging under represented people to apply for this outreach program.
Zohar Babin | @zohar
Follow count: 600
Twitter bio: Dad, community leader @Kaltura, internet video activist, and developer. I find my peace in coding and passion with people
The scoop: King of open video, Zohar is the community manager for Kalture. Zohar is also one of the community leaders and volunteers for the Community Leadership Summit. You'll find him tweeting about coding, hackathons, and video.
Holly Goldin | @HollyGoldin
Follow count: 800
Twitter bio: I mosey. I love ice cream. And Texas. Challenge me to a pun-off. Global Community Lead at @Atlassian! Opinions are my own...and usually crazy.
The scoop: Holly is the community lead at Atlassian. I just started following her and discovered her Twitter stream to be informative and fun. Apparently, she does not like to do planks with her office mates. Check out some of the Atlassian user group meetups.
Community support online
Join the conversation on the Community Leadership Forum and try to attend the Community Leadership Summit for an in-person gathering.
And finally, the Community Roundtable has a very active Twitter community, be sure to give them a follow as well:
Community Roundtable | @TheCR
Follow count: 10.3k
Twitter bio: Dedicated to advancing the business of community. We run TheCR Network, a peer network for cmty & #socbiz leaders facilitated by @jimstorer & @rhappe
Special thanks to Robin Muilwijk for helping me curate this list of community managers in open source.
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