How do you get started with a new FOSS community? Perhaps someone recommended a software package to you. Or it came up in a news story. Or someone spoke about it at an event you attended. Or someone has told you (your boss?) that you need to get familiar with it. Or maybe you are just curious and want to learn something new (hey, it's possible!). What do you do?

No doubt your first step is going to be to go grab the software, install it, and give it a whirl. Sure, that's a good idea, but I'm focusing here on your first steps in getting to know the FOSS community that is using, developing, and supporting that software. How do you get to know a new community?

One starting point is the user email list. If there isn't a user email list, then I would go straight to the developer list. Some projects do not separate their user list from their developer list, or at least not until the volume on the unified list becomes unmanageable. But assuming there is a distinct user email list, the first thing I usually do is sign up to that list.

And then I listen.

And listen.

And listen.

I might sit on a user list for some new FOSS community I am joining for months before I make my first intervention. A user list is not the service window in a repair shop. It's (usually) a community in the midst of a conversation. I want to listen to the way this new community talks to itself before intruding.

What are its typical concerns? How are queries handled? Is it friendly? Is it tolerant of new members who may ask naïve questions? Just a few of the questions I'm going to have foremost in my mind. In reality I want to know whether this is a community I want to be part of, to spend time in, to contribute to.

Is the user email list active? What is the frequency of questions being asked, and how long until someone offers an answer? Who usually answers questions on the list? Is it one of the key developers, and, perhaps more important, is it the same person all the time (which might be a sign that knowledge is overly concentrated in one individual)? Do people who have asked questions in the past ever start answering questions later? More questions here about whether there is a progression from user to supporter. And if that isn't the case, why isn't that happening?

When someone asks a question, are answers given in a form they are sure to understand? Are they regularly referred to user documentation, maybe a project wiki or manual that ships with the software, where the asker can both find the answer to this question and others they are likely to have? Great if this documentation is already in place. But why hasn't the user found their answer there already?

If the user email list isn't publicly archived, that is a bad, bad sign. And if it is, then I've got a fabulous resource available to me as well as to web indexing services like Google. By investigating the archive I can see how this community has acted and reacted over time. I may even get a sense as to where it may be headed in the future.

Why is all this important? Because in many cases the user support email list will be the first port of call if I run in to difficulty deploying software. That, even if my institution should choose to take out a support contract from some company. It might even be a factor (though perhaps not a deciding factor) in my institution's choice between competing FOSS alternatives.

For the past 3 months I have been lurking on the user email lists of both Koha and Evergreen.

• Koha mailing lists
• Join the main Koha user mailing list  (Koha also has a number of specialized lists available including lists in French and German, see above)
• Web archive for the main Koha user mailing list
• Evergreen mailing lists
• Join the Evergreen (Open-ILS) user mailing list
• Web archive for the Evergreen user mailing list

What have I found? Well, that's a subject for another day. I am more interested in what you have found, if you too have been lurking on these lists.

I invite you to share some of your impressions of the Koha or Evergreen communities based on your participation on their respective user mailing lists. We still haven't sorted our spam control for comments, so please just write to me at randy.metcalfe[at]eifl.net and be sure to let me know whether you wish your comment to published and attributed (I'm also happy to receive comments that you don't wish to have published).

One final thought: FOSS communities evolve. Your participation on a user mailing list can impact, even transform, the nature of that user community. And that is a heartening prospect :-)