OpenSUSE Linux Rants

OpenSUSE Linux Community members, rejoice. We have a new community leader, Joe ‘Zonker’ Brockmeier. I’m excited for this.

One of the major driving forces that makes a successful distribution is its sense of community. Where do you get tech support? The community. Where does the maintenance come from? The community. Who contributes patches? The community. To whom can you contribute if you want to help out? The community.

I’m sensing a pattern.

If you can take the concept of the community and reach out to them, you will likely enjoy more success than if you do not do this. People want to form communities, and will with or without a little guidance and direction. So, why not take someone who knows about communities, an operating system that thrives through communities, and people who want a community, and put them all together? That looks like exactly what they are doing with Mr Brockmeier. Go Zonker!

Excerpt:

“I’d like to give a warm welcome to Joe ‘Zonker’ Brockmeier who joins the openSUSE project as “openSUSE community manager”. You can reach him directly at zonker@opensuse.org. He has his own openSUSE blog at http://zonker.opensuse.org, I advise to go over and see what he has to say himself!

He is a long time Linux user and does a lot of writing about Linux and open source for several publications and conributed to books as well. Prior to his new role as community manager for openSUSE he served Linux Magazine as Editor-in-Chief. His personal webpage is http://www.dissociatedpress.net.

The openSUSE community manager will act as community advocate and ombudsman thus relaying openSUSE community and users needs back to Novell. Therefore you will find Zonker on many community events. He will also drive marketing programs around openSUSE to make the project more successful and attract more developers and users.”

Read “openSUSE Welcomes Zonker – The New Community Manager