⚠️ Notices and acknowledgments

I would like to start by clarifying that:

• I was born in 1984, so what I put in this article is mostly the result of my research and contributions received.
• I am sure that this article has gaps and errors.
• I am grateful for all contributions, which of course will be appreciated and will be under CC Attribution 4.0 International.

Acknowledgments: to JJ Merelo for his contributions and to SCIE because their website has been enormously helpful.

In this first article of the series "History of technical communities," we will review the history of technical communities in Spain, before the Internet, during the era when computing arrived and the revolution of personal computers began.

Previous context​

Let's review some facts from the national and international context to set the stage.

United States​

1975 is the year when the United States ended the Vietnam War.

IBM was already 64 years old, the giant and world leader in manufacturing computers (mainframes) used by companies, government institutions, and academia.

Another company, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), which in 1998 would be acquired by Compaq, began marketing in 1960 what they called Programmed Data Processors (PDP) around which user groups would be created.

At that time Xerox held a dominant position in the photocopier market. It was one of its printers that in 1980 would give rise to the anecdote that would eventually lead Richard Stallman to the creation of the Free Software Foundation.

Until recently, software was not perceived as a product. It was when IBM decided to unbundle it from hardware (in 1969) that the independent software vendor industry (ISVs) was born, where companies such as Microsoft would soon play a fundamental role.

By this time, some of the first user groups or communities I could find were already a few years old, such as:

• TMRC, MIT students related to hacking culture (1946).
• SHARE, IBM mainframe user group (1955).
• GUIDE, an IBM systems user group (1956).
• DECUS, the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) computer user group (1961).

In 1963, the IEEE was created, a non-profit organization that would later create standards such as Ethernet (1983), Wi-Fi (1997), etc.

By then, some notable computing conferences that brought together technical profiles had already been held, such as the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (1954) and the Symposium on Operating Systems Principles (1967).

On the other hand, Intel, already 7 years old, launched the first microprocessor in 1971, the Intel 4004 (at a cost of $450, as of 2023), which would revolutionize the personal computer industry.

Spain​

Now let's review some important facts related to computing in Spain before the dictator Francisco Franco died in 1975 after 36 years in power.

Up to that date, the most notable figure in the sector I have found is José García Santesmases, a physicist and pioneer of computing in Spain who was 68 years old that year. He:

• Created the Institute of Electricity and Automation (1952).
• Organized an international automation congress (1958).
• Created the Spanish Association of Computing and Automation (AEIA) (1967).
• Organized the First National Congress of Automation (1970).

It was also before Franco's death that the Association of Computing Technicians (1967) and the Institute of Computing under the Ministry of Education and Science (1969) were created.

In 1971, an order (law) was approved in Spain, and that would establish the study plans for the different degrees, which shortly afterwards would give rise to the first Faculties of Computer Science.

The Spanish transition​

The same year Franco died, in the United States, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft and launched what is considered the first personal computer that was well-received by the market (in terms of performance/price ratio), the Altair 8800.

In this year (1975), the mythical Homebrew Computer Club was also founded, where Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs showed their Apple 1 in 1976, a moment “immortalized” in movies like Pirates of Silicon Valley (see sequence) or Jobs (2013).

In 1976, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple, and launched the Apple-1. The same year Bill Gates wrote his famous letter “An Open Letter to Hobbyists”.

That year was when the first Computer Sciences Faculties were created in Spain at the Polytechnic Universities of Madrid and Barcelona, and the University of Valladolid (see more).

First associations​

On June 15, 1977, the first democratic elections were held in Spain.

Shortly after, the Constitution of Spain (1978) was approved, which among many other things includes the right to freedom of association, which would promote the formation of many associations in Spain from which articles, manuals, and case studies would be published.

Some of these associations are:

• 🇪🇸 Association of Graduates in Computing Engineering (1980).
• 🇪🇸 Spanish Association for Pattern Recognition and Image Analysis (1982).
• 🇪🇸 Spanish Association for Artificial Intelligence (1983).
• 🇪🇸 Spanish Society for Natural Language Processing (1984).
• 🇪🇸 Ada Spain Association (1987).
• 🇪🇸 Association for the Development of Educational Computing (1989).

In parallel, outside Spain, other notable groups were formed:

• 🇩🇪 Chaos Computer Club, a hackers association (1981).
• 🇺🇸 Macintosh User Group (1984).
• 🇺🇸 Apple User Group Connection (AUGC) (1985), promotional video from 1991.

First online communities​

Also, around this time (early 80s), the first online communities could be said to emerge, gathering around bulletin board systems (BBS), the precursors to today's forums.

Almost in parallel, Usenet emerged (~1980), another system for exchanging opinions and experiences. This is the system Richard Stallman used in 1983 to announce his plan for the GNU operating system. Two years later, in 1985, he founded the Free Software Foundation, whose philosophy would have a significant impact on the world of software and soon after on hardware, and of course around many technical communities.

Shortly after Usenet, in the year when Teletext was being experimented with in Spain and we could listen to Michael Jackson's recently released Thriller on the walkmans (1982), Telefónica began marketing Minitel, a system that could be used to access the phone book, retail shopping, access company information services, databases, forums, and messaging.

In that same year (1982), Sun Microsystems was founded, a company that would compete with DEC in the sale of servers and workstations, and where in 1991 they would start working on the project that would result in the Java language.

In 1984, FidoNet emerged, a popular network of BBS nodes that would gain traction in Spain and for the first time allow many strangers to communicate worldwide via computers over telephone lines. For example, the node "2:345/801" was the address of a board called “Atlantis” whose operator was Alfredo Sanchez, from Granada, and whose phone number was “958132748”. More information in "Traveling in time: SysOp of a BBS in 1997 and Fidonet in Spain". Here is another list of nodes from 1987, and here are other nodes from Spain.

Conferences​

In the national scene, most of the technical conferences and events held were more from the university sector:

• 🇪🇸 Automation Days of the Spanish Automation Committee (1977).
• 🇪🇸 IV National Congress of Computing and Automation (AEIA) (1979).
• 🇪🇸 V Congress of Computing and Automation (AEIA) (1982).
• 🇪🇸 Congress of the Spanish Association for Artificial Intelligence (1985).
• 🇪🇸 VI Congress of Computing and Automation (AEIA) (1985).

And in the United States, here are some that seemed interesting to highlight:

• 🇺🇸 History of Programming Languages (1978)
• 🇺🇸 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (1980)
• 🇺🇸 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) (1983)

PCs and video games​

Throughout this decade (the 80s), 386 (1985) and 486 (1989) computers arrived in many Spanish homes, and video game consoles began to flood houses: Commodore 64 (1982), Nintendo NES (1983), Sega SG-1000 (1983) Amstrad CPC (1984), Amiga (1985), Atari 7800 (1986), Game Boy (1989), ... In this climate, the first meeting called the Game Developers Conference was organized in 1988, in California, with about 20 people that would grow to about 125 the following year, and today gathers nearly 28,000 people.

As can be read in the History of personal computers in Wikipedia page, by this time Texas Instruments was the largest chip manufacturer in the world, and one of the high-tech electronics companies that entered the home computer market in 1979.

The Compaq Computer Corporation founders worked there, until ~1978, when they founded Compaq and launched their first product, a portable personal computer (portable computer) inspired by Osborne 1 but compatible with IBM software, mainly oriented to professionals. If you want to know more, the documentary "Silicon Cowboys" tells the story of Compaq and its impact on the development of portable computers. You can watch the launch event here.

End of the era​

Other relevant events at the end of this era:

• RedIRIS (1988) emerged in Spain, the Interconnection Network of Computing Resources for universities and research centers.
• Guy Kawasaki created a team of evangelists at Apple.
• The popular Concurrent Versions System (CVS) was born (1990).
• Also in 1990, Open Design Circuits proposed the creation of a hardware design community with the spirit of free software (more).
• Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger introduced the concept of “Community of Practice” that accompanies us to this day and is defined as: “a group of people who share an interest, deepen their knowledge and experience in the area through continuous interaction that strengthens their relationships” (1991).

Finally, what would change society and the community ecosystem in the coming years was presented by Tim Berners-Lee in 1991, the foundations of the World Wide Web.

Conclusions​

As we have observed, during this era, computing arrived in Spain, along with the constitution and the first associations, which emerged around the scientific and university community.

• The first computing, automation, and artificial intelligence conferences were held. At the same time, BBS and Usenet emerged, where the first more informal online communities began to form.
• Internationally, the first user groups and computer hobbyist clubs emerged around electronics, specific company systems, hacking... along with some conferences that were mainly face-to-face.

In summary, these groups and conferences talked about: operating systems, automation, robotics, circuits, programming languages, artificial intelligence, IBM systems, Apple, video games, networks, and security.

Based on this information, I would say that when we talked about community in Spain at this time, we mainly referred to: a group of people who meet in person on their own initiative and share an interest in software, whose goal is professional development. Mainly to publish articles, manuals, and case studies.

And you, what do you think?

If you liked it, you can continue reading in the following article of the saga: "1992-2003: The rise of online communities".

Following a series of reflections that led me to consider what a technical community is (for me), I decided to start this series of articles that compile the most relevant facts from the world of technology and communities, with a special focus on Spain.

The goal is to document the history and help us reflect on the past, understand how and why technological communities have evolved the way they have, and establish a common framework to help dispel some of the current controversies. This way, hopefully, we can focus on what I believe is important... collaborating.

The articles I plan to publish soon are:

• 1975-1991: First associations and online communities.
• 1992-2003: The rise of online communities.
• 2004-2012: The emergence of modern conferences and tech meetups (coming soon).
• 2013-2020: Professionalization of communities (coming soon).
• 2020-2022: Communities during the Pandemic (COVID-19) (coming soon).
• 2022-2024: The return to reality for communities (coming soon).

I’d like to remind you that all the content is on GitHub and under Creative Commons, and I would love to receive your contributions.

If possible, I will try to upload this information to Wikipedia in some way.

I hope you enjoy them 🙂

Today, I write this article motivated by a new community initiative that we are starting and still doesn’t have a name. It is mainly aimed at people with experience or the intention to create technical communities, with the purpose of helping to create healthier, more attractive, useful, and sustainable communities.

In this context, I find myself needing to define what a technical community is, at least for me.

An ambiguous term​

To begin with, I hope everyone agrees with me that the term community not only has many meanings and synonyms, but it has been used to refer to many things, sometimes more accurately and sometimes less so, making it very ambiguous.

For example, when we talk about a community, we could be referring to a multitude of things (at least in Spanish):

• A collective
• A guild
• A group (e.g., mutual aid group, group of users/customers, ...)
• A club (e.g., book discussion club, fan club
• A tribe
• A gang
• A sect, clan, or The Fellowship of the Ring 💍😂
• ...

In the tech world, the term has been used, and we could even say... abused or misused to the point where some of us feel that the romantic meaning of the word has been distorted.

Here are some illustrative examples in different contexts:

• The community of a technology
  (e.g., Python community, Java community, Android community, …)
• The community of a platform
  (e.g., GitHub community, Twitch community, Reddit community, Stack Overflow, Meetup…)
• The external community of a brand or organization
  (e.g., GDG community, GDE, Microsoft, Mozilla, Wikipedia, OSM, CodelyTV...)
• The internal community (of employees) of a brand or organization
  (e.g., SNGULAR, Izertis Community, Adevinta, ...)
• The community of an influencer
  (e.g., Midudev, mouredev, ...)
• The community of a movement, practice, or methodology
  (e.g., Open source community, Agile community, ...)
• The community of an event/conference
  (e.g., Codemotion, ...)
• The community of a field or guild
  (e.g., Frontend, Backend, DevOps, ...)
• ...

This often leads to debates about what we generally mean by community in the tech world.

Keep in mind that language evolves over time, and the use of words is closely linked to the context in which they are expressed. To dig a bit more into this, I’ve decided to start a series of articles on the History of technical communities (in Spain).

My definition​

Here’s what I understand by technical community, in the most traditional/romantic sense, heavily influenced by my own life experience, and clearly biased:

It is a group of people who:

• Emerge from their own initiative (grassroots movement).
• Share an interest in technology (software or hardware), for example: programming languages, methodologies, cybersecurity, data, or robotics.
• Are governed by a set of norms or rules, whether implicit or explicit (like a code of conduct, decalogue, nettiquete, ...) and defined by the community itself.
• Have a purpose or goal more focused on professional or personal development rather than pure entertainment.

Where all these people, both promoters and other participants, voluntarily decide to invest part of their free time (out of intrinsic motivation), and sometimes money, to interact regularly with each other. Sometimes without expecting anything more than the satisfaction of helping others, sharing knowledge, sharing experiences, learning from others, collaborating on projects, and ultimately enjoying with like-minded people their passion for technology in their free time.

Always altruistically, and even seeking the good of others at their own expense, often leading to the formation of strong bonds.

If I had to name some communities that I think would fit quite well, they would be:

• !Hispahack
• Hispalinux
• Local Python communities
• HOT communities
• etc.

That said, I must say that:

• This definition probably does not apply to more than 90% of the communities that exist today.
• Nor does it mean I do not appreciate or admire other types of communities.

The controversy​

The other day, thinking about some classic debates where people from the same generation discussed whether “X” was a community or not, I remembered when my father used to tell me: “what you’re listening to isn’t music, it’s noise!” Does that sound familiar? Personally, I think it’s natural that as we get older, we hang on to our memories and nostalgia for something, and it’s hard for us to accept that things change and evolve into something that we may or may not like.

And more often than I’d like, I find myself in similar debates: is an online community a real community? Is the community of a company a community? Is the community of X a community?, ...

What really matters​

But I wonder, how important is the label we put on it?

My opinion is quite firm on this. I say that, as always, the most important thing is to seek what unites us and not what separates us. We are already in a sufficiently divided, confrontational, and polarized society, to add more fuel to the fire over things that, in my opinion... are trivialities.

Just like people, communities are diverse; you may like them more or less, and everyone will judge which people and communities they like better, seem healthier, or toxic, but in any case, what I say is... let’s try to empathize, always act with respect, sincerity, honesty, and as far as possible... collaborate.

In my opinion, this is the antidote to most problems.

And you, what do you think?

It's been a long time since I wrote about these topics...

Specifically since I launched the family blog attempt (in 2018), although I hope to find time another day to share these experiences.

The truth is that I would like to share how I am trying to get involved in my son's school. Through the AMPA and other ways, and the initiatives I have recently participated in there. For example:

• A talk to 3rd and 4th-year ESO students (14 to 16 years old) at a career guidance event, where I shared my experience with them (starting from when I was their age until today).
• A discussion with Gabriel Zabal, for parents with children over 10 years old, mainly focused on the risks associated with new technologies, using social networks as a guiding thread but touching on many other topics.
• Or my experience participating with them in the sports day championships.

If you are interested in these topics, let me know in the comments (to prioritize it) 😉.

BTW, in case you need it, here is a table of course equivalencies between countries:

Spain	USA	Canada	Ireland	United Kingdom	France	Germany
1st ESO	Grade 7	Grade 7	1st Year	Year 8	Collège 5e	7 Klasse
2nd ESO	Grade 8	Grade 8	2nd Year	Year 9	Collège 4e	8 Klasse
3rd ESO	Grade 9	Grade 9	3rd Year	Year 10	Collège 3e	9 Klasse
4th ESO	Grade 10	Grade 10	4th Year	Year 11 & GCSE	Seconde	10 Klasse
1st Bachillerato	Grade 11	Grade 11	5th Year	Year 12	Première	11 Klasse
2nd Bachillerato	Grade 12	Grade 12	6th Year	Year 13 & A Levels	Terminale	12 Klasse

Those who know me know that I am used to giving training and talks to adults, but helping a 7-year-old child learn to study... is something totally different, and it is proving to be quite a challenge 😅.

So today I want to talk about my experience trying to help my son José summarize books, how I have come to feel frustrated by setting my expectations too high, and the conclusions I have reached.

The context​

To give you some background:

• Every two weeks he brings a book from school home.
• These are books that himself and his classmates have brought to class, usually bought by the parents.
• They are asked to fill out a worksheet after reading where they have to make a summary of about half a page.
• These books are like Anna Kadabra, Pokémon, Marcus Pocus, Dog Man, ... which mostly have +100 pages.
• Lastly, they have the "reading challenge" (optional), where each month they are encouraged to choose another book that meets certain characteristics. For example:
  • In January, one with a beautiful cover
  • In February, one with illustrations
  • In March, another with a number in the title
  • In April, one turned into a movie
  • In May, one with an author from your country
  • In June, a graphic novel/comic.

Although most books are recommended for children his age, in some ways it surprises me:

• The length of the books, especially for the pace at which they have to read. Although I suppose it is good because it requires them to read almost daily a chapter, which will help them develop a reading habit.
• The vocabulary contained in the books, sometimes quite advanced, which is good, I suppose.

But I would like to know if I am the only one or if other families also have similar feelings. I encourage you to tell me in the comments 😜.

The frustration​

It all starts when after several weeks, after reading my son's summaries looking for spelling mistakes, I realize that I don't understand the summaries very well. So, with the idea of helping him improve them, I start asking him questions, to see if I can understand the plot better, but still I'm missing characters, or clarifications, or anything else that makes it hard for me to understand the story.

In the end, both his mother and I decided that the best thing would be for one of us to also read the book, so we could help him because otherwise, how would we know if he had missed something important or not?

Well... something that initially didn't seem complicated, I realized was more difficult than I thought 😅.

One of the things I have noticed while reading the books is that every one or two pages, there are words that I suspect he doesn't know, like exhalation, arrogant, seep, utopian, electoral campaign, ..., so every time I read one of his books, I ask him to verify.

Indeed, many he doesn't know, and I always tell him:

José, when you don't understand something...ask what it means! Because if you don't, you're probably not understanding the story well.

I always do it... even when I'm reading Mikecrack stories to him and his brother in bed before sleeping, but no matter how much I repeat it... there comes a time when he stops asking.

But well, once the entire book is read and all the vocabulary is reviewed, we move on to the summary. There, my method consists of reminding him that every story has:

• A beginning, where something usually happens that disrupts the order and:
  1. Creates a problem to solve.
  2. Is the trigger for an adventure.
• Then there's the development (or middle), which is what is told in most of the book.
• Then there's an end (or conclusion), where the situation is resolved, or the story ends, and everything returns to normal.
• And besides this, there are some characters more important than others, without whom the story could not be told well.

And then I ask him to, using those four elements, tell me what happens at the beginning, the most important things that happen before reaching the end, how everything is resolved and returns to normal, and while doing that, explain who each of the characters are.

Well, as you can imagine, despite all attempts and trying to give him hints, because to be honest, even I sometimes find it hard to summarize... I can't get the summary to meet my expectations 😅, which ends in my frustration 😡, for which I then have to apologize to him, explaining that it is not his fault but my own frustration for not being able to help him 😞.

Asking for help from the teacher​

So I said to myself, "OK Raúl, you're not doing it right, ask the teacher for help!" (and that's what I did).

After talking to her, she gave me some advice. Since the books are quite long, she told me to ask José to write down "the main ideas" of each chapter on a separate sheet, and then with all of them, make the summary.

Here are the notes we made from the book Anna Kadabra 13. Danger at the Mansion:

The problem is that when taking notes and making the summary, he sometimes missed important things, like the fact that the supposed villain of the book wasn't so bad (but had been deceived), or he focused on things that caught his attention but weren't relevant, like an anecdote about a secondary character.

But of course... he's a child, how do I explain to him what is a main character or event and what is a secondary one?

I tell him: "if you remove that part of the story or character, can you still understand the story? Is it still the same?" and he says something like... "dad, if you remove anything... the story is no longer the same", and he's not wrong 🤣. So in the end, on more than one occasion, I end up telling him what I THINK is important and why.

Asking for help from my mother​

In the end, I turned to my mother, because besides being my mother, she was my language teacher, and the teacher of many children in a school in Nerja.

She recommended a book that seemed promising: "In primary school, learn to learn - 6: Learn to summarize and take notes", and I, as an obedient son (sometimes 😜😜), bought it.

As you can see on Amazon, the book was published in 2001 (more than 20 years ago!), but what caught my attention was what I saw in the introduction:

Seeing that "in the past" it wasn't until the age of 10 that summaries were learned reassured me. This, along with the last meeting with my son's teacher, who again hinted that I shouldn't be so demanding with the summaries, I've decided to relax and see it from another perspective 🧘💆.

My conclusions​

I have to get used to the fact that the summary is not that important (for now). What is important is that my son:

• Keeps enjoying reading.
• Continues developing his reading speed and comprehension.
• Learns vocabulary.
• And above all, doesn't start disliking reading because after... there's going to be a time of "dad's anger" ;(.

So now what I've asked him to do is that when he reads a book:

• Have a blank sheet of paper at hand.
• Write down all the words he doesn't know.
• And ask Alexa (Echo Show) what they mean, and write them down. I was going to buy him a traditional dictionary... but honestly, I think this way will be faster and he will use it more.

Because from now on, when I read the book, I will see if he has done "his homework" and taken notes, because now instead of putting so much emphasis on the summary, we will try to get him into the habit of looking up what he doesn't understand, so he can learn vocabulary and better understand what he reads.

How do you see it? Any advice? 🙂.

Comments​

Today I am writing to announce that in 🧠 My digital brain I have added a new section to collect resources for people who energize 🌈 Tech communities in the hope that they will help create more sustainable communities over time.

New resources section​

Following the document I produced with help from several people⁽¹⁾ last year (🇪🇸) after the Open Space @ CommitConf 2023, I have published three resources:

• 📄 How to attract new people to our community
• 📄 How to keep people's interest
• 📄 How to encourage new people to give lectures

I have also created several "placeholders" on resources that I hope to develop based on input from the upcoming Open Space⁽²⁾:

• 📄 How to finance communities
• 📄 How do you encourage others to energize
• 📄 Tools to manage a community
• 📄 Other resources for *community leaders

(1) At the end I have added a list of people who have contributed to this work.

(2) Next week is CommitConf 2024, where the OpenSpace on "How to sustain technical communities" that Dani Rey, Oskar Calvo and I have proposed will take place, which will be "the continuation" of last year's Open Space where some of the challenges facing technical communities were discussed.

Communities in recess?​

Are the communities in recess?, are the communities having more problems now than before?

After talking to many people, and in different forums, such as the Open Space, my perception is that there is a general feeling about the drop of activity in many of the technology communities (both in Spain and abroad) in the last few years, especially since the pandemic.

By "drop of activity" I mean a mix of things, but mainly I mean a lower attendance to meetings (face-to-face and online), interactions in mailing lists/IMs, etc.

And this situation, worries those of us who energize communities.

One of the concerns that I have heard recurrently is that the average age of the people who are part of these communities is growing, or said with other words, that it is difficult to attract and engage the new generations.

Personally, I am reluctant to believe that this is because the experience offered by the communities no longer provides as much value to the new generations as other new formats, channels or "forums".

But before we continue... what is a community?

What is a community?​

Or rather, what do I mean by community, or technology community?

Perhaps it is good to start with this question, since for example, during the Open Space, in my opinion, there were times when the conversation revolved around different concepts of "community".

In my case, I talk about what is known as "communities of practice", which in short are groups of people(user groups, associations, meetups...) that:

• organize regular meetings (face-to-face and/or online).
• share a passion / profession / concerns, ... for technology (software, hardware, methodologies or best practices, ...).
• mainly, seek to collaborate with each other, voluntarily and altruistically.
• they seek the common benefit above the particular one (including the particular interest of the organizations that may support/sponsor them).
• are always open to new people.
• feel part of the group and identify with it.

So, I just wanted to clarify that:

1. All this is in my experience and is based primarily on the type of communities I just described.
2. I believe that most of the ideas and tips shared in the documents, can be applied to this type of communities, whether they are local (in small and in big cities), as much as online/virtual, regardless of the fact that each one has its peculiarities.

Having said all of the above, it does not detract from the fact that some of the tips can also be applied to people who are in the business of disseminating online content, or people who organize large conferences.

What has changed?​

Why do those of us who have been energizing communities have this feeling/perception?

To give some context, I started to get involved with this particular type of communities at the university (in ~2009), and since then I have participated, contributed, founded and co-organized quite a few communities, organizing hundreds of meetings (of all kinds).

Based on this experience, I would say that the feeling that activity is declining is mainly due to the fact that it is harder for us to provide value as we did before.

Now the offer is wider and the attention is diversifying with the increase of communities, channels/media (Discords, Slacks, social newtwords, ...), but also the rise of influencers.

Personally I also think that digital contact is eating more ground to the physical, just see that almost everything is done through apps: order food, a cab, talk / chat, procedures with the administration, ... even flirting! 😅 and I have no doubt that this also has consequences.

That is why I believe that it is not that communities do not provide value, but that they simply have to take into account this change of context and reinvent/modernize themselves. Remember, as Albert Einstein said, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results."

I hope that sharing some of the advice I heard at the Open Space, and some of my own, will serve to help refloat some communities and help new ones to emerge.

A book I really like that talks about adapting to change is Who Moved My Cheese? 🧀🐁.

Anatomy of communities​

And before I finish, I wanted to share some ideas and resources to share my understanding of communities.

The most basic are the degrees of involvement. I used to explain them this way to my Esri colleagues several years ago (~2017):

After that, Jorge taught me several theories:

• The Orbit Model, which serves as a model to explain that to increase the feeling of belonging to a group, it is necessary to increase the number of interactions and positive impacts between people, and that bonds are forged.
• The 1% rule, which I use to adjust expectations that no more than ~1% will help to energize, nor ~10% participate, although really measuring this is often quite subjective, just like trying to measure a friendship (because at the end of the day, that's what they are).
• The Community Maturity Model, an interesting framework for classifying different types of communities.

Contributions​

I would like to start by thank Dani Rey (@kdarrey) from XantarDev and the Commit team, who made it possible for us to meet last year to share experiences and reflections about this very interesting topic and that has been the germ of these resources.

Below is a list of the names I was able to capture during the Open Space held in April 2023 at CommitConf.

• Attendees representing local communities and events:
  • Dani Rey / @kdarrey, from XantarDev (Santiago)
  • Óscar Calvo, representing Spanish Drupal Association and DrupalCamp (Madrid)
  • Pablo Castro, of the [Linux Programmers and Users Group].(https://twitter.com/gpul_?lang=en) (Coruña)
  • Juanma Ruiz, Roberto García Romero, Javier Pulido, Álvaro Barahona Sánchez, Francisco José Hermoso Baños, from DevopsDays Cáceres (Cáceres), CáceresTech and CáceresDevOps
  • Javier Gutiérrez Fernández, from Pamplona Software Crafters
  • Luis Mesa, from Databeers Sevilla
  • Soraya Muñoz, of The Spanish GNU/Linux Users Association Hispalinux and Machine Learning Spain.
  • Jesús, from Comunidad Python Coruña
  • Pablo, from Córdoba Free Software Classroom
• Content producers:
  • Noe Donato / @vamoacodear
  • Carmen Ansio
  • Martín (Disseminator since 2011)
• Other attendees representing members of the public from these communities:
  • Tomás Giménez from coches.com
  • Marta Rey, Inés Huertas, Gustavo Vargas, and others from Kairós
  • Kini Software from Criteo
  • Reinalia
  • Fabiola
  • Jordi
  • Santiago B. @santyx_error

Sorry for those people I left out!!!, if you read the article you can leave me a message in the comments to add you (or make a PR) 😜😂.

And I also want to explicitly thank: Soraya Muñoz, Juanma Ruiz, and Mariano Pérez Caro for their contributions and reviews to the papers I have shared.

Comments​

📄 Note: The interactive version of this article is available at Dev.to 🇺🇸🇬🇧 & Medium.com 🇪🇸.

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If you want to know what the benefits of attending developer conferences like CommitConf and why you should consider submitting a proposal for a talk or workshop, keep reading! 😄.

Recently, I was fortunate enough to attend CommitConf. It is one of the largest events for developers that is held annually in Spain. It is well attended and draws strong participation from around 50 Spanish technical communities.

Why attend conferences like CommitConf?​

At the conference, developers were brought together to retrain, discover, and share new insight and knowledge about our profession. For example, attendees shared information about:

• New tools and languages.
• New capabilities for the tools and languages already used by the community.
• How companies solve different software development challenges.
• Best practices in accessibility, security, and design patterns.
• New trends.

Additionally, the conference provided a place to meet new people and reconnect with those already known. At events like this, it’s not uncommon to run into people you know! In my case, I bumped into some of my former colleagues, and some developers who use ArcGIS to create Location-Aware apps or map applications.

What made this conference special?​

This event, like many others, gives us, developers, the opportunity to present talks, workshops, and even Open Spaces.

For attendees, a unique factor that sets this event apart from others is the system used to create the event‘s agenda, allowing the communities themselves to be involved in the selection process of talks. This system is called Koliseo and is free for anyone to use.

Why submit a proposal?​

Going to an event like CommitConf is an opportunity to learn from and contribute to the developer community. And, there are many different motivations for a person to send a proposal.

• There are people who simply enjoy sharing knowledge and experiences.
• Other attendees want to increase the visibility of their company and to raise awareness of the cool work they do, with the hope of attracting new talent.
• Some attendees want to create a personal brand.
• While others want to discuss and find solutions to a problem with their colleagues.

And if you are lucky enough to have a proposal accepted, as in my case, you can attend the speakers’ dinner the day before the event, where you meet a lot of experts on different topics 😍.

What did Esri bring to the conference?​

From the company I work for (Esri), they have always encouraged me to attend to conferences and to send proposals that I thought might be relevant to other developers.

This time, I presented a variety of proposals:

• DataViz & Map Optimization
• Designing Beautiful and Intelligent Maps
• Using and Creating Collections in Postman Like a Pro
• 🔑🔒 OAuth, OpenID Connect and JWT for Dummies

I was lucky that the conference organizers accepted “OAuth, OpenID Connect, and JWT for Dummies” because it gave me the opportunity to share what these auth standards are and how they work. I showed practical examples based on some of the resources that we have created from Esri's Developer Experience team, like the Authentication workspace in Postman.

In case you want, you can check the slides out here. If you are interested in the topic and want me to repeat this talk online, just let me know in the comments!

What did I learn at the conference?​

Below are some of the takeaways from the sessions that I attended:

• Local Communities Outside Big Cities (Open Space): This session was super interesting. I had the opportunity to share tips and ideas to overcome challenges in creating and maintaining developer communities with approximately thirty other people. Among them were representatives from different communities about Python, Software Crafting, Data, Machine Learning, generalists’ communities, Free Software, GNU/Linux, DevOps, Drupal, and us representing the GeoDevelopers community.

Note: After the session, I decided to create a guide with what we learned and our own experience. If you are interested, save the article in favourites because we will add it [here] in a few weeks.

• Detecting Web Performance Issues with Chrome DevTools: @nucliweb gave an overview of the Chrome DevTools and showed us how they keep adding new tools like Recorder and Coverage to help evaluate your web performance and optimize it. Also, he showed us how the new AVIF image format improves WebP performance. More info at web.dev.

• Don’t Yell at Me, I Can’t See You: @javierabadia and @jameshedaweng explained to us how to divide the responsibilities between an Engineering Manager and a Product Manager to avoid failure when creating a product. In summary, a PM must be responsible for what features to add and why, and the EM in the how and the who. The when should be a shared responsibility.

• Why I Decided to Pursue the Developer Relations Path: @kinisoftware told us about his experience as a Staff Developer Relations Engineer, where he works to promote the expertise of Criteo’s technical team by facilitating participation in events and communities.

• Testing Web Accessibility: @bolonio showed us a multitude of tools and resources for testing web accessibility: axe-core, eslint-plugin-jsx-a11y, jest-axe, axe-core/cli, pa11y, pa11y-ci, axe chrome extension, arc toolkit, accessibilityinsights.io, wave.webaim.org, and more.

• The Mistake of Becoming a Manager: @npatarino explained to us that becoming a manager of people is not the only way to have leadership or increase your salary. He said that for those senior software engineers who want to continue growing, there are other positions such as Staff Software Engineer, Principal Software Engineer, Distinguished Software Engineer and Technical Fellow.

• Past, Present and Future of EducaMadrid: @asanzdiego talked to us about the educational platform of the Community of Madrid that he leads; he told us about the technical challenges they suffered during the pandemic, when the number of active users grew exponentially, along with the strengths and limitations of his team and his technological stack based on free software.

In summary, if you don't use to go to developer conferences, I hope my experience has encouraged you and given you arguments to attend in the future. I would say also to the Esri Developer Summit in the USA (or in Europe), although this rather applies if you are an Esri partner or customer 😉.

Remember, although much of the content of these conferences is then made available online, there are many other things that can only be achieved by attending.

If you want to leave comments, you can do it in the article published in Dev.to

I have shared a new document (not 100% polished) where I try to explain what problems anyone can better solve by learning new geospatial skills and tools, including spatial databases, spatial analysis techniques, web mapping frameworks, geospatial libraries and APIs, spatial data formats, and spatial data visualization tools, GIS software, etc.

I group them into five big categories:

• Geospatial algorithms.
  • How to do spatial queries or operations.
  • How to do spatial calculations.
  • How to do network and topological analysis.
  • Geostatistical analysis.
  • Data transformations.
  • Georeferenced Image analysis (aerial, ground, satellite, ...).
• Client-side development
  • Display 2D and 3D georeferenced data.
  • Create faster maps.
  • Customize / advance maps.
  • Interact with geospatial data.
  • Work with offline geospatial data.
  • Other.
• Server-side development
  • Design system architecture (how to store and access/integrate geospatial data).
  • Data capture/creation.
  • How to render 3D web animation as a video GPX track.
• Data gathering and geolocation
  • Data gathering.
  • Data geolocation (georeferencing).
• Map creation (not programmatically).

Do you want to help me increase the list? the document is on GitHub and published under CC.

If you have any comments 💬 please leave them on Medium / Twitter.

Welcome to my new website!, it was time for a change...😁

Some of you might remember the old website I built back in 2013:

Back in the days, I decided to build that website to introduce myself, share some thoughts, and give updates about my life to my friends.

Today I have decided to replace it for this new website built with docusaurus.io for several reasons, but mainly because I will be:

• Easier to maintain and update (no backend and almost everything in markdown),
• Able to share resources in Spanish and English.
• Allow you to contribute/repurpose the content I share (it is hosted on GitHub).

So, the next step is to start migrating the content I could rescue from my blog and put it here.

I have always thought that it is a pity to create resources and leave them in a drawer, so from now on I plan to start taking many of the resources that I have created over the years and share them in what I have defined as my "🧠 Digital Brain".

I'm starting by compiling all the resources I could share, so please, if you are interested in one in particular let me know in the comments.

This tool is not meant to be a social tool where you can subscribe, so if you want to stay up to date on what I share I will be republishing my articles in two channels:

• https://medium.com/@hhkaos for Spanish speakers
• https://dev.to/hhkaos for English speakers

I hope you like it, and any suggestions are more than welcome.

And... once again, the number of birthday wishes keeps growing!! Compared to 146 in 2014 and 2013, 120 in 2011, 115 in 2010, 89 in 2009, and 48 in 2008.

Thank you very much for remembering (or for taking the time to write when Facebook/LinkedIn/Skype... gave you the heads-up haha) to:

The first little gift... by María ^_^

Dad, Mom, María del Mar, Carmen, Brother, Iván, Milagros, Verde, Luisette, Mota, Analice, Jose Antonio (Copera!), Dani SEO, Ali Boscan, Sara, María, Patri Zamora (team!), Borja Dlb, Oguz, Jorge Ferreiro, Pedro González, Sonia Hernández, Nacho, Javi Rincón, Gustavo, Oscar Cumí, Fátima, Carlos Iglesias, Ana María Palop, Mari Carmen, Gerardo Casas, Eva Merlo, JJ Merelo, Pepe Moles, Paco Montes, José de la Chica, Javi Abadía, Alex Hidalgo, Antonio Remirez, Irene, Loli, Milagros, Pepe y Jose (in-laws! :D), Estrellas, Patri Romero, Aida M, Belén Carvajal, Cristina González, Fernando Benito, Tomas, Sergio Lillo, Silvia Bootello, Belen, Mónica, Almudena, Jorge Margenta, Matías, Jordi Pérez, Kini, Tita Angelines, prima Isabel Pilar, Álvaro Mora, Ana Paniagua, Pelos, Pablo Capilla, Guaning, Luisa, Alejandro (Mr Simar), Celia Maracena, Álvaro Maracena, Nico (Maracena), Gerardo (Maracena), Jose (cabeza), Rocío (Fever), Isaac, Marta (prima), José Manuel Cartes, Josep, Pili Díaz, Zam, Gloria, Alex Vega, Víctor, Antonio (Tony Ryan), Jason, Ana MC, Nuño, Juancho, David Cuenca, Pablo Hinojosa, María Platero, Guille, Chaparro, Antonio Rabago, Karla, Javier Rivero, Oliver Calvo, Luis A. Nerja, Tita Inés, David Arroyo, Nieves, Paula, Natath, Miguel Calero, Jessica Plegue, Elaine, Francesc y Tita Espe, primo Oliver, Guillermo Sanz, Tita Pili y Tito Paco, Yirli, Diego Bañales, prima Pilar, Fede, Francesc, Jorge Barrachina, Jesús García Villar, Juasmilla, Fernando MTC, Milu, abuela, AngelID, Jon Garrido, Uri, Fran canario, Mari Carmen López, Rubert Pacheco, María González Jaime, Cristina Granados, José Manuel Robles, Andrés Bayona, Yisus, Max, José Mª Berlanga, Juan Antonio Franco Rojas, Eugenio Morarescu, Antonio Fdez Ares, Gonzalo Fdez, Virginia, Pascual, Pozu, Santiago Aguilera, Mercedes, Sergio Jiménez, Chilli, Rufa, Dani Molina, Miguel Fdez Calero, Manu (Quea), Yusep, Fran Servia, David Galán, Noelia Rodríguez, Marina Azagra, Priscila, Fernando Rodríguez León, Miguel Ángel Lozano, and Dugo!!

And... sorry once again if I forgot someone! It's really complicated to keep track with so many channels: wishes in person, on Facebook (wall+messages), calls, WhatsApp, Hangouts, SMS, LinkedIn, emails, etc.

Thanks once again and... see you next year! (as we used to say when we were kids... if Johnnie Walker wills it! ;-P)

Google Glass and Android Wear​

Although I already told you that I had acquired Google Glass and how they worked, since September I also have a G Watch with Android Wear. Additionally, I have been motivated to develop a basic geolocated alerts application that works both on the watch and on the glasses.

We Won the 1st BEEVA Hackathon​

On September 25th, I participated in a BEEVA (BBVA) Hackathon where we won first prize with the development of a geolocated promotions application prototype for smartwatches with Android Wear and ArcGIS Online.

Iniciador Madrid​

On September 26th, I attended the Global Meeting of Iniciador, an event organized by the Iniciador Foundation for organizers and former organizers to discuss various issues affecting the organization.

There, I was able to reconnect with many old friends and meet new ones, but the best part is that after that event, I decided to collaborate with Iniciador again both at the national and local levels. So, starting this month, I will be helping organize Iniciador Madrid.

Photo at the Global Meeting

Afterwork​

On October 6th, I was on Capital Radio's Afterwork program in an interview with Enrique O’Connor, founder of Spotlinker.

Esri Spain Conference​

On October 22nd and 23rd, we held the annual Esri Spain conference, a large event where we showcased the full power of the ArcGIS platform to professionals of all kinds. Here is a video where I demonstrated a mini-application I developed for my watch with Android Wear ^_^.

You can find all the conference videos on the Esri Spain YouTube account.

During my presentation in the plenary session

University Tour​

During October, I also went on a university tour visiting Seville, Castellón, Complutense in Madrid, and Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona) to explain the professional opportunities available if they specialize in application development using technologies we offer at Esri (ArcGIS).

Talk at Universitat Jaume I in Castellón

Google Developer Festival​

On Friday, October 31st, I was at the Faculty of Granada at the Google Developer Festival talking about wearable devices with Google Glass, Android Wear, and ArcGIS Online.