Being a part of a Community, developing and managing knowledge, working in a team, making yourself known, improving GeneXus applications. All this, and much more, is the essence of the Collaborative Projects.
Today, the GeneXus Community has 23 forums, composed of 4,700 members who have exchanged over 100,000 messages. It has a Wiki with more than 1,400 pages and 2,400 users. And, because communities are networks, if nodes are not strengthened, the whole network weakens. That is why, the Collaborative Projects are one more contributing element, which also entail the alternative of being formed by people from different countries.
These projects are conducted by members of the Community, and are currently supported by several companies. CP’s are basically software projects that provide short term benefits by solving a problem or frequent use feature in different sectors. They develop an application, a documentation, a test, etc.
According to Armin Bachmann, the benefits to community members are clear and diverse. "They increase their knowledge, experience and contacts; the two latter being, according to a survey we conducted, the most valued: namely, gaining experience in development in teams working remotely and getting to know other professionals, including people from other countries."
Equally important are the benefits received by ARTech: "it works well for us, our customers are satisfied, happy and work together" remarked Bachmann. This is the effect produced by the Projects.
How can I participate in a CP?
You may propose a project and request the collaboration of other members of the community. Or, you may participate in one of the projects that are already underway. There are currently 10 ongoing CPs, bearing the promise of more integration, more professional contacts, more experience, more knowledge, more ideas. At the end of the day, it all lies on the fact that we have to empower the GeneXus Community, and the Collaborative Projects are a clear way to do it.
Alejandro Araujo has been a CP member of the GX Unit since August, 2006 and says that for him projects are key "to see the benefits they entail for the community of developers and users. GeneXus is a tool to manage knowledge and knowledge needs to be shared."
Bachmann said at the XVI GeneXus International Meeting that "this is, in a way, the launching of the CPs, because we are reaching more people now. The Collaborative Projects were launched around three months ago in forums or in news that intended to explain how they worked. Today, we can not only show how they work, but also present the results they have achieved. "
Collaborative Projects are published and managed in GXOpen(http://www.gxopen.com/), the website to share public GeneXus-based projects and the updated information on every project published on the Wiki of the GeneXus Community. See:
http://wiki.gxtechnical.com/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=CollaborativeProjects
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