NetBeans Guru

Hi,

This page is fully dedicated to my contribution to the Community Docs, as well as, working with James and Amit, the whole community for nearly 6 months now. Also, I have provided a dedicated blog roll for it on the right panel of this blog.

Its been a great journey so far, hope to continue that way in the future too…
I started off in late November (2007), when I was participating in Code For Freedom Contest (eventually becoming NetBeans Community Significant Contributor). It was during this contest, that I got addicted to NetBeans Community.

It was during that time, that I came across Amit Kumar Saha, who had just become the Community Docs Contribution Coordinator, so it was good to have an Indian there to get started with this program.

About Community Docs
All around the world, members of communities contribute to make their community a better one. NetBeans is no different. You can make a direct impact on the quality of the NetBeans community by contributing docs in a number of formats.

I started off with the Wish List, this list is intended for those who want specific tutorials from the community. It could be anything a flash demo, tutorial, blog, etc. that you want. So, just contact the Community Docs Team, or join their mailing list alias to interact with all the members from NetBeans Community over there to help you out and guide you.

Coming back to me, I contributed an article, Checking out from CVS and doing headless builds. It was my first ever contribution, and I was excited to get NetBeans Spotlight as well. Also, I was lucky enough to get an exclusive NetBeans 6.0 T-Shirt too.

Then, I didn’t contribute any doc for 1 month, as I was spending time over the mailing list a lot, querying my seniors and assisting newcomers, there were few people who had chatted with me personally on GTalk. I was sometimes annoyed the way some of them acted.

Then, I realised its not their mistake, every human being is different and we need to learn how to tackle them to live in a society. So, I contacted James for the first time ever and that too on such issue, i.e. there are some people who needed guidance on each and every step, to be able to contribute a doc.

It was then the Quick Start Guide was formed and you might see about this guide when you open up the Community Docs homepage.

First time contributor? Be sure to read Varun Nischal’s Getting Started With NetBeans Docs.

Since then, Community Docs has come way ahead, scored a 100 while on our way to entering Phase II of this amazing program. Now, we are available at social networking sites as well. We are still rolling out docs, and its surely be never ending…

Thanks, James and Amit.
Its been great working with you.

So, this was my story uptil now, you may see my contributions done so far here - Contributions -

Update: May 1st, 2008 -

Today is a one of the greatest days of my life, as I am appointed as the new NetBeans Community Docs Contribution Coordinator. Announcement was made by James Branam on his Sun blog!

It could be seen at the NetBeans Blogosphere too, where its featured at the top! I am looking forward to work with James and Amit, to take Community Docs to a new high!

Update: May 15th, 2008 -

I am featured on NetBeans Weekly Newsletter, Issue #341 published on May 13th. Finally, made it to the newsletter, that too because I became the Contribution Coordinator. Thank you, Rob Demmer!

Update: May 18th, 2008 -

Few months back, I had started to do research on whether its possible to contribute docs from within the IDE. You can see the initial work done on that project at wiki.NetBeans.org! You can follow me on NetBeans mailing lists as well, where I discuss about issues related to this idea.

Update: May 30th, 2008 -

Community Docs completed another milestone, its now a repository of 150 community-driven docs. Here’s Ruth, making an announcement on blogosphere. It happened when 5 docs were contributed on 22nd May, making it 150 in totality.

Update: July 21st, 2008 -

Community Docs completed another milestone, its now a repository of 175 community-driven docs. Here’s the announcement on blogosphere. Also, my tally of contributions reaches 16 docs!

To be continued…