Community Developer

January 2015 - January 2016

I spent a year working with an organization called OpenFarm. OpenFarm is a user-generated database of localized plant knowledge, specifically created for cataloging how to grow plants. The vision is a world where you can grow anything! I love plants and was very excited to be a part of something that aimed to improve our understanding of them, especially in a pragmatic, easy way. With communities of people centered around sharing and helping each other grow anything, the impact of the organization was greater than with just an online database. The foundation and catalyst for this project relied heavily upon community involvement and participation, which is where I came in as a Community Developer. I developed strategic relationships with other organizations and individuals in the contexts of funding, content creation, development, outreach, and education.

Skills Developed

• Testing, deploying and using a variety of digital community-building tools including Loomio, Github, Twitter, and mailchimp

• Building community and networks physically via workshops, conferences, meetings, public speaking engagements, and meetup events

• Documentation and publishing of all activity pertinent to the role for future staff and any interested parties in the spirit of open sourcing