I’ve been asked how we are involving new members in our TTN Madrid community, so I decided to write this topic and encourage other community initiators to share their thoughts.
I think it’s a matter of constancy, divulgation, and interesting workshops.
The idea of a free, open, neutral, decentralized, secure and useful IoT Network is a very nice and convincing argument, but it is not easy to find the channels to communicate this message.
Some of our actions till now:
- We meet every Friday evening, online or physically, for introducing TTN to new members, discussing use cases, devices reviews, soldering workshops, learning how to integrate TTN with various IoT platforms, IoT actors’ interviews…
- We think TTN is not a product but a service, so we have developed a full user cycle trying to smooth the learning curve, from the node, to gateways, IoT platforms and messaging (Telegram, Whatsapp, Matrix…). We have created several types of DIY nodes (TTNMAD_CO2, TTNMAD_Door, TTNMAD_Fridge, TTNMAS_SOS, TTNMAD_plant…). We schedule regular meetups to help users to configurate their gateways. We have also deployed myIoT (https://my.iotopentech.io), a fork of ThingsBoard CE, where integrating a new device with TTN, visualizing data through appealing dashboards, or configuring alarms is just a matter of a few clicks.
- We try to participate in all IoT/open software activities/forums organized in Madrid to let people know that TTN exists. We also try to find synergies with other communities, like guifi.net, IOTA…
- We have printed an informative flyer to hand out in all our meetings, and to post to the neighbors of the areas in which new gateways are installed.
- We try to keep contact with other Spanish and Latam communities to share knowledge and find cooperative projects.
- We try to contribute to family and scholar activities, like “Pájaros en la nube” (https://pajarosenlanube.ibercivis.es/) or TTNMAD_PLANT.
- Just now we have started a crowdfunding system through OpenCollective to finance new gateways (Gateway en Chamberí - Open Collective).
We would like to see a more collaborative approach among communities (sharing projects, sharing resources…) that would convert somehow isolated regional communities in a real global community of communities.
We’re not willing to accept that TTN is just a platform for learning and testing.
Some media:
