At GitLab our mission is to change all creative work from read-only to read-write so that everyone can contribute. In order to fulfill this mission, we need to create both the tools and platform to enable this change and a community of contributors who share our mission. We are just getting started in building the GitLab community and we encourage everyone to contribute to its growth.
There are many ways to participate in the GitLab community today: contributing to an open source project, contributing to our documentation, hosting your open source project on GitLab, or teaching your colleagues and collaborators about the value of Concurrent DevOps.
We are building an evangelist program to support people who share our mission and want to give tech talks, run local meetups, or create videos or blogs. For now, please email [email protected] if you have feedback on our vision, ideas for how we can build our community, or suggestions for a name for our evangelist program.
We use the Evangelist Program, Heroes, and Meetups labels to track issues. The Evangelist Program issue board provides an overview of these issues and their status.
Evangelist Program issues typically exist in the Evangelist Program subgroup but they can also exist in Field Marketing, Corporate Marketing, or other marketing subgroups. Our upcoming Meetups are tagged with the Meetups label and listed on the Meetups board.
We utilize a process of having a epic for current OKRs and using labels and boards to track ongoing work related to our KPIs (for example: Meetups). As our OKRs and KPIs change, this page will be updated so you can see what we are working on and track our progress.
We are actively looking at ways to improve the data collection for our Evangelist Programs. If you have ideas for how we can improve, please reach out to evangelists@gitlab.com.
Key Performance Indicators for the Evangelist Program can be found in the Marketing section of GitLab's KPI index.
When reporting on program activity, you may wish to include charts or graphs for different program KPIs. For example, you will likely want to update the program metrics when preparing for a Group Conversation. When you need to report on program metrics and activity, please follow these steps:
Meetup metrics
GitLab Heroes members
GitLab Heroes contributions
The GitLab Developer Evangelism calendar includes a list of our upcoming meetups, hackathons, office hours, and other community events. After opening the calendar, you can click on the + in the bottom right corner of the browser window to add GitLab Developer Evangelism to your list of calendars in Google Calendar.
GitLab supports team members and members of the wider GitLab community who want to organize or speak at meetups. Our goal in supporting these events to better engage with and increase connections among the GitLab community, increase awareness of GitLab, and better educate the technology community.
[email protected]. Team members should submit an issue. Please note, providing sufficient lead time (at least a month) allows us to better support your event so feel free to reach out as soon as possible.Meetups label, and be given a due date on the date of the event. Meetup issues created by a GitLab team member should receive the same treatment.[email protected]. You can find the list of GitLab meetups on the meetup.com page.
Start from a template in the right sidebar and choosing a template that best fits your event.Think outside the box. All meetups and community events are diffent. Find what works for your members and fits the event goals.
GitLab provides support to meetup organizers to drive attendance at meetup events. In order to help support our organizers, GitLab will consider the following:
Edit this page action at the bottom.Organizers are encouraged to take the following steps to drive attendance to their events:
Note: GitLab asks that community organizers do not create social media accounts that make use the GitLab logo or trademark in their username and profile as this may create confusion as to whether or not you are affiliated with GitLab in any way. Instead, we encourage our community organizers to leverage the communications tools on Meetup and their own social media profiles for community building and outreach. If social media outreach is needed to promote events or attract new members to a group, GitLab's social media team will amplify the personal accounts of organizers, when appropriate.
**IMPORTANT: We have resumed providing some support for in-person events. Support for any in-person events is dependent on the meetup group and event. If you are planning a meetup event and wish to get reimbursed for event-related expenses, please confirm your event's eligibility in writing in a GitLab issue before spending money towards your meetup.
For some virtual meetups, a Zoom link may be required to execute the event. To create a Zoom link for a meetup, follow these steps:
If you must edit a meeting, following steps 1-3 from above will show a list of your upcoming meetings. Then click the "Edit" button next to the meeting that you want to change.
Meetups help us raise awareness of GitLab and build communities in new places. We love to track them to know where the community is growing. If you are speaking at a meetup as a representative of GitLab or you are giving a talk about GitLab, please let us know! Here's how and why we do this:
[email protected] if they wish to share an upcoming speaking opportunity with the GitLab team.[email protected].To ensure proper metrics we must vet for:
GitLab Heroes engages, supports, connects, and recognizes members of the wider GitLab community who make outstanding contributions to GitLab and our community around the globe. Examples of activities that may make a member of the wider GitLab community eligible for the Heroes program include:
Heroes are eligible for rewards to help enable and encourage contributions. These rewards include:
We have three levels of Heroes: Contributor, Hero, Superhero. A community member's contributions will determine at which level they enter the program and the benefits for Heroes increase as they progress through the levels. More detail can be found in the Hero's Journey section of the Hero's page.
Community members who are interested in applying for the Heroes program should apply through the application form on the Heroes page.
The Heroes program is managed by the Evangelist Program Manager with support from the GitLab's Developer Evangelism team. The Evangelist Program Manager leads the review of applications along with the Developer Evangelism team. The Evangelist Program Manager also serves as the main point of contact with the Heroes community, manages Heroes related marketing pages and events, and is responsible for the adminstration of the program including metrics and KPI tracking.
Select Heroes may be asked to join the GitLab Developer Evangelism Community. At that point, those community members will be supported by and engage with the Developer Evangelism team.
Please email us at [email protected] if you have questions about the GitLab Heroes program.
We use GitLab to manage our Heroes application process. To apply for GitLab Heroes, community members must follow these steps:
GitLab Heroes Application project using GitLab's Service Desk feature. Note: only GitLab team members can view this project as the issues may contain applicants' email addresses.heroes-application template to their Service Desk issue.After completing the above steps, the application is ready for review. The review committee consists of the Evangelist Program Manager as the lead with the Contributor Success team members supporting. The composition of the review committtee is subject to change. Any changes will be reflected here.
Generally, applicants will receive a response from GitLab within two weeks of submitting an application. Following the review process, the Evangelist Program Manager will inform folks who are selected to be GitLab Heroes of your status including the level (Contributor, Hero, Superhero) at which time you will enter the program. If you have any questions about the status of your application, please reach out to evangelists@gitlab.com for support.
We conduct semi-annual reviews of the current GitLab Heroes members to ensure they are remaining active in the community in order to maintain their GitLab Heroes status. When a current GitLab Hero is inactive, the Evangelist Program Manager will contact them to identify the reasons and work with them to resolve any blockers or issues. When a GitLab Hero no longer plans to remain active in the GitLab community, the Evangelist Program Manager will remove them from the active membership of the program.
Upon acceptance, Heroes are asked to submit a Merge Request to add themselves to the GitLab Heroes members page.
To add yourself to the Heroes page, you will need:
Picture Requirements
- Crop image to a perfect square.
- Keep maximum dimension under 400 by 400 pixels.
- Use the JPEG (
.jpg) or PNG (.png) format.- Test image in color and black-and-white.
- Name file
yournameinlowercaseand add the appropriate file extension.
Once you have the above items, follow these steps to add yourself to the Heroes page:
Web IDE near the middle of the page.Fork to create a Fork of the repo which will allow you to make changes and submit a Merge Request.heroes.yml file open in your browser once the fork has been created. Add the following fields to the end of the file and enter your information into each of the blank fields:- type: person
name:
locality:
country:
role: GitLab Hero
twitter:
bio:
gitlab:
picture:
# List of your domains of expertise, remove the ones that do not apply
# or add others if missing
domains:
- frontend
- backend
- database
- documentation
- blog posts
- videos
- talks
# List of your interests related to GitLab, for example Project Management,
# CI/CD, etc.
interests:
- Interest A
- Interest B
story: # The story of your GitLab journey
heroes.yml, use the file browser on the left side of the screen to navigate to source/images/heroes.⋁ icon next to the heroes directory, select upload file, and upload the photo of yourself. Be sure to follow the picture requirements listed above and confirm that the file name matches your picture entry in heroes.yml.Commit button in the bottom left. It should say something like 2 unstaged and 0 staged changes. This will bring up a sidebar with an Unstaged and Staged area.Create a new branch. Name the branch in the format of YOURINITIALS-heroes-page or similar. Tick the Start a new merge request checkbox. Then click Commit once more.Create merge request button at the top of the page.Allow commits from members who can merge to target branch as detailed on the Allow collaboration on merge requests across forks page in our docs.@gitlab-de in a comment in the merge request so our team can review and merge.Upon accepting new members to the GitLab Heroes program, newly accepted members should be invited to the GitLab Heroes project.
To add a new member to the project:
Project information > Members in the left sidebar.Invite Member, input all new members using their GitLab username or email address associated with their application.Choose a role permission to Developer.Access expiration date one year from the date of acceptance.Communication with Heroes applicants and members of the GitLab Heroes program is conducted through email updates, generally from the Evangelist program, and via the GitLab Heroes project. Please communicate using MRs and Issues in the GitLab Heroes project whenever possible to provide transparency to the wider GitLab community and allow for easier collaboration.
The GitLab Heroes Feedback form collects the feedback of the heroes who are looking for a more private way to contact the Evangelist Program Manager.
When communicating with GitLab Heroes:
The purpose of monthly hangouts is to bring together the Heroes to network, share hacks and build camaraderie amongst the GitLab Heroes. As the evangelism program manager, one of my goals is to get to know more of the GitLab Heroes and engage with you all on a regular basis.
Each hangout is either hosted by a GitLab evangelist team member or a hero. The goal of rotating hosts is to be inclusive to all regions.
Please follow the process detailed in the GitLab Heroes project to request support from Heroes.
If you are a GitLab Hero seeking an Ultimate license, please create an issue in the GitLab Heroes project using the heroes-license-request template. These licenses are only open to GitLab Heroes at the Hero or Superhero level. Licenses should be for 1 user. Licenses should be issued for 6 months and can be extended as long as the GitLab Hero maintains their Hero or Superhero status in the program.
GitLab team members follow the steps below to assist with license request.
The internal request form is used by a GitLab team member to conduct or request any modifications to licenses.
Type of request:
* SaaS Subscribtion related
* SaaS Trial related
* Self-Managed Licence Related (paid customer only)
* Self-Manged Trial Related
* Other (inclues wider community)
Internal team member steps to complete Internal Request Form:
We are planning to launch the GitLab Heroes Alumni group in early February 2022. The alumni group provides a way for us to continue to recognize the important contributions of Heroes who are no longer able to contribute regularly. As folks experience changes to their personal and professional lives and as we have all had to adjust to new norms, we understand and empathize. We are implementing this solution to keep alumni involved and connected to our community while allowing us to focus our program resources on our most active community members.
Those who join the GHA group are welcome to reinstate their active status upon resuming community activity at the GitLab Heroes level.
The requirements listed on the hero’s journey table will continue to be the standard for qualifying to be a Hero.
The ask
If you would like to remain in the active GitLab Heroes group, please update your community contributions to maintain your GitLab Heroes status by following these steps: Adding a contribution to the GitLab Heroes Contributions.
If you have not shared any recent contributions or otherwise been involved in the GitLab community between February 1, 2021 and January 31, 2022, the Evangelist Program Manager will reach out with an invite to join the GitLab Heroes Alumni group.
Looking ahead
The evangelism team is looking towards the future of the GitLab Heroes program and wants to ensure we are supporting each of you.
The future of the program includes:
These are just a few benefits of being an active hero. We look forward to learning more about each of your contributions to GitLab. #EveryoneCanContribute
GitLab Heroes swag is available only for GitLab Heroes.
Gitlab Heroes swag fulfillment is managed by Boundless.
Note: Process will be updated soon, new merch is coming soon.
To replish Heroes swag, please follow the necessary steps in the Merchandise workflow pages of the Handbook.
The GitLab Heroes project is used for discussion via Issues, as a repo for materials that GitLab Heroes create, and a home for other resources for members of the program. Everyone in the program will have Developer access. GitLab Heroes and our community are encouraged to contribute to the project.
If you are organizing or speaking at a community-driven GitLab-centric event, we will do our best to support you including connecting you with speakers and, when possible, sending stickers or other small swag items. At this time, we are unable to provide financial support to community events. If you have questions, you can always reach us by sending an e-mail to [email protected].
Student hackathons are the events most frequently submitting requests for support from GitLab. Hackathon organizers who wish to leverage GitLab's DevOps platform for their events are encouraged to use free trials for their events. This can be done by directing hackathon participants to apply for a free trial of GitLab for use during the hackathon which will allow them to use all of GitLab's features. In some cases, if your event meets the criteria above at a score of 9 or higher, we may also send stickers for participants or swags as prizes. Given the volume of requests we receive, providing financial support for these events is not feasible.
The Beyond Code series elevates non-technical conversations and connects GitLab to the wider community. The topics are relatable, ranging from burnout, developer relations, remote work, branding, and much more. The chats are casual and intended for all audiences. We would like folks to feel included and heard in the discussions.
We chose to host the conversations on Twitter Spaces. It is an audio-only component of the social platform, Twitter. Hosting on Twitter Spaces allows us to expand our reach of listeners. Everyone is able to listen in from their phone or a web browser. Attendees can also ask questions by ‘raising a hand’ or by using the hashtag #BeyondCode. Speakers are required to join the Twitter Space from the Twitter application on their phones (iOS or Android) in order to be able to speak. A recording is available on Twitter after the space ends.
Use the Beyond Code Episode Proposal issue template to share your idea. We look forward to hearing from you!
The social team plays a very key role in the success of each episode of a Beyond Code episode. Alisha Ward, Sr. Social Media Marketing Manager, is the driving force behind all of the behind-the-scenes social media strategies of the series.
Each conversation should showcase a diverse array of thoughts on the topic. The max number of speakers should be 3-4 max. Given the allotted time of 45 minutes, this number of speakers allows for a natural flow of conversation. One or two speakers should be external to GitLab and, in line with GitLab's speaking policies, at least two speakers should be from an underrepresented group.
When looking for internal guests, mention the topic in the #whats-happening-at-gitlab slack channel. If you have a particular person or persons in mind for the topic mention them directly in the issue template.
Contact external guests by sending an email. The email allows for tracking the conversation taking place. Being that everyone doesn’t have a GitLab account.
Use the guest invitation copy provided here. The email template has the Know-Before-You-Chat checklist which sets expectations for pre, post, and day-of logistics for each conversation.
We have digital assets on Canva that were created by the GitLab Design team.
There will be digital asset cards created for every episode. All cards have pertinent information to promote the episode. Only selected team members have access to edit these assets.
| Episode | Date | Time | Live Listeners | Playbacks |
|
May 6 | 2 PST | 277 | (no recording) |
| June 8 | 1 PST | 448 | 1596 | |
|
July 7 | 2 PST |
We'd love to support you if you are organizing an event, be it GitLab-centric or around a topic where GitLab content is relevant (e.g. DevOps meetup, hackathon, etc.). There are a few ways you can get in touch with speakers from the GitLab team and the wider community to participate and do a talk at your event:
For GitLab team members, you can check the #cfp channel on Slack where many of our active tech speakers will see your speaker request. Most speakers will also be able to do talks remotely if the event is virtual or if travel is a challenge.
If you have questions, you can always reach us by sending an e-mail to [email protected].
GitLab team members and members of the wider GitLab community are encouraged to nominate community members to participate in our programs. This is a valuable way to contribute to the growth and sucess of the GitLab community.
To nominate a community member who may be interested in becoming a code contributor or meetup organizer, who actively shares their knowledge of GitLab in talks or blog posts, or who meets the criteria for the GitLab Heroes program, please contact the Developer Relations team by emailing [email protected].
GitLab actively supports content contributors. If you would like to submit your content for review, please create an issue on our evangelist program project.
We make an effort to amplify and support content contributions that generate value for our community. Criteria we consider include: how well a post addresses an issue in the Community Writers issue tracker, how well a post aligns with our strategy and values, and how well a post is written.
GitLab must collect a signed Media Consent and Release Form before their content is published by GitLab. GitLab team members can request a copy of the form to send to members of the wider GitLab community via the #legal channel in Slack.
Join GitLab developer evangelists and community program managers as they host Community Program office hours. Office hours will begin May 10, 2022, via Zoom every other Tuesday at 10:30 - 11:10 AM ET - excluding holidays. They want to answer all things pertaining to contributions, release features, hackathons, meetups, events, and more. The team wants to connect with you all. Find the meeting information on the [Community Events](
) calendar and our meetup group.
For resources for GitLab team members who are planning on attending events or speaking at conferences, see Speaker Resources.