Why have I been talking so much lately about community? Well, I truly believe that the best way to impact the world is to impact your community. I was talking to a good friend of mine not long after he returned from spending nearly two years in Uganda. Something he said to me has stuck with me. He said that after two years, he realized that no American could ever make as much of an impact in Uganda as a Ugandan could. Dave Eggers, founder of 826 Valencia gave an amazing speech at TED about his locally funded and staffed tutoring centers. He says “A bunch of happy families in a neighborhood is a happy community. A bunch of happy communities tied together is a happy city and a happy world, right?” I see the value in this. I know that I can make a difference, and I’m going to start in my community. I’m in a situation where I have more than one community. As a husband, father, friend, businessman, etc, I have a local community in Arizona. As a web developer, I’m a part of the online community. You’ll often find me helping new programmers in IRC channels, trying to empower quality community sites like Open Designs, submitting articles to resource sites like Attackr, releasing plugins free of charge, and yes, participating in open source software projects like WordPress.

I really wanted to talk about open source software, how it relates to Xavisys and specifically me, why I believe in it, and why I support it. I knew that before I did, I needed to address the issue of profiting from open source. Take the time to read that, it will give you a more accurate picture of my relationship with open source, as well as some tips on how you can benefit from a similar relationship.

I personally love open source, because I love the idea of benefiting others. I enjoy giving someone else an advantage that they wouldn’t otherwise have. Take WordPress for example. It benefits two sets of people, the users who get a better experience and better functionality, as well as the companies and developers who use it as a platform to build on. Sure, some of those companies are competitors, but I want them to succeed too. I certainly don’t want to move ahead in life at the expense of others, I’d much rather move ahead by helping others. In the end we can all benefit. Whenever I hear the saying “It’s lonely at the top,” I can’t help but think that maybe they did something wrong then. If they’d have worked with people on the way to the top, and brought them along for the ride, they wouldn’t be so lonely. That’s my goal.