Speaker
Description
GNOME Nepal started with fewer than 5 people at the beginning. In just over 1 year, GNOME Nepal now has more than 370 members in its community platform. Open source thrives on contributions, but contributions don’t come without awareness, motivation, and a strong community culture. In this talk, I will share how GNOME Nepal leveraged marketing and community engagement to grow from zero to hundreds of members, revive dormant projects, and lead continental-scale open source conferences. GNOME Nepal successfully attracted over 450 participants to UbuCon Asia 2025 through effective and genuine outreach and marketing efforts.
Marketing is often undervalued in open source, seen as secondary to code, but our experience shows it is just as critical. By combining social media storytelling, offline outreach, corporate connection leverages, student involvement, and consistent branding, GNOME Nepal successfully engaged thousands in a country where open source was often overlooked.
| Category | Community Building and Diveristy |
|---|---|
| Talk Description | This talk explores the role of marketing and engagement in building sustainable open source communities, with a focus on the journey of GNOME Nepal. Starting with fewer than five members, GNOME Nepal has grown to a vibrant community of more than 370 contributors and enthusiasts within just over a year. Through deliberate marketing strategies and authentic community engagement, the group has revived dormant projects and led continental-scale initiatives, including UbuCon Asia 2025, which successfully attracted over 450 participants. The session will be non-technical and primarily focused on community building, outreach, and strategy rather than coding. It will provide a practical case study of how GNOME Nepal applied marketing methods—such as social media storytelling, offline outreach in schools and universities, leveraging corporate partnerships, student involvement, and consistent branding—to engage thousands in a region where open source has often been overlooked. Outline of the talk: Introduction – The starting point: GNOME Nepal’s small beginnings. Why Marketing Matters in Open Source Case Study: GNOME Nepal – From 5 to 370+ members, leading UbuCon Asia 2025. Strategies that Worked (and Those That Didn’t) – Social media, offline outreach, partnerships, student involvement, branding. Challenges and Lessons Learned – Resource limitations, skepticism about marketing, and balancing authenticity. Key Takeaways for Other Communities – Practical strategies for replication and scaling. Audience Takeaways: A better understanding of why marketing is critical for the GNOME and FLOSS communities. Practical strategies for outreach and engagement that they can apply in their own regions. Insights into balancing aggressive promotion with authenticity and inclusivity. Inspiration from a real-world story of growing an open source community in an emerging ecosystem. This talk will be most relevant to community organizers, FLOSS contributors, GNOME engagement teams, and anyone interested in building sustainable local or regional open source communities. |
| Author(s) Bio | I am Aaditya Singh, community lead of GNOME Nepal and Ubuntu Nepal. I am a GNOME Foundation Member and I was the Local Team Lead for GNOME Asia Summit 2023 Nepal. I was involved in making GNOME Asia Summit 2024 successful as a part of the Global Organizing team. I recently lead the local team for organizing UbuCon Asia 2025 through GNOME Nepal and Ubuntu Nepal. I am a Python Developer who has been working with open-source software in my workplace. |
| Pronouns | He/Him |
| Where are you located? | Kathmandu, Nepal |
| Do you need travel sponsorship from GNOME Foundation in order to join our event? | Yes |
