How can I continue to stay connected and to give back to a community that has given me so much?
I’ve been wrestling with that question for a while. My connection to Plone the product is becoming less and less. I don’t use Plone in my work any more, now that my focus is on training and coaching Scrum, an Agile software development framework.
Meanwhile, my ties to Plone the community remain. I’ve been fortunate to work for companies that do build Plone solutions: Jazkarta, ifPeople and currently Web Collective, and am exploring options with a few others. Each company is doing amazing work, progressive in spirit and deed. That higher purpose thinking pervades the community, and is another tie that binds me.
So I find myself in this awkward situation – how to contribute and remain connected without immersing myself in the technology that binds everyone else together?
Then, my last day at the Plone Symposium, an idea came to me – donate 1% of all Plone-related earnings to the Plone Foundation. Yeah, I like that. Any time I work with an organization offering Plone-related services, the 1% pledge applies. And just for fun, let’s make it retroactive to the start of this year, So far, then, that donation totals over US $125, maybe enough for printing some new Plone schwag from the great minds at SixFeetUp.
I don’t know where my Plone-enabled journey will go from here. After 6 years, I hope we’ll dance for a few more. We’ve got more world changing to do.