Art Of Community Online

I am excited to announce another member of the team who is proof-reading the content that I am churning out in his general direction. His keen eye and expansive knowledge of Open Source is a positive influence on the book. Of course, it is Ryan Paul.

Ryan is the editor of Ars Technica‘s open source software articles. He has used Linux for over a decade and contributes code and documentation to several open source software projects. Ryan began his career as a tech journalist when he wrote his first magazine article at the age of 17. His articles have been featured by numerous publications, including NewsForge, Linux.com, IT Managers Journal, Linux Pro Magazine, Tux Magazine, Linux Journal, and many others. He joined Ars Technica in 2005 and has authored over 1000 articles for the popular web site. Ryan is also the creator and lead developer of Gwibber, an open source microblogging client for the GNOME desktop environment. He lives in California with his pet, a programmable robotic penguin. When he is not creating open source software or writing articles about technology, Ryan spends his time stockpiling ammunition in preparation for the inevitable Roomba insurrection. Ryan likes science fiction novels, humorously captioned felines, anime, and surreal art.

Behind the scenes, a number of people are helping make the Art Of Community as great a read as possible. This includes the editors, the O’Reilly marketing staff, people contributing thoughts and stories and more. One important group of people in this process are the proof readers. This is a set of people who I have asked to offer their thoughts and views on the content as it is written. They are there to not only ensure the content is as easy to understand as possible, but to ensure the material covers all the bases that they expect. They are each helping to make the Art Of Community great book. Over the coming weeks I want to share with you all some of these folks. You should go and high0five them, folks.

One of them is Stuart Langridge. Stuart is a well respect Javascript expert, information architect and web developer who works for Canonical Ltd. He is the author of a few books himself and is a regular contributor to Open Source projects. He is based in the West Midlands in England.

Stuart has more than a passing responsibility for proofing the book. As my best friend and fellow presenter in LugRadio, he has been demanding I write a book about community management for years. Many an evening was spent in my house, drinking tea and discussing many of the concepts in the book. Stuart helped me to run ideas and thoughts past him for input. He has been valuable part of my development as a community manager, and is the subject of a few stories in the book. His contributions have been excellent.