This document provides guidance on how to write development posts and talks in order to build an online reputation and contribute to open source communities. It recommends choosing a topic that adds value, such as a how-to, tricks, or introduction. The content should be outlined with context, main sections, and an invitation for others to contribute. Posts and slides should be published, shared widely, and continually improved through practice presentations. Networking opportunities can help get experience speaking at events.

1. How to Write Dev Posts & Talks

2. Why should I care?
two reasons.

3. Build your reputation.
To work remotely, you need a trusted
online reputation. Posts/talks also
prove that you can speak clearly and
confidently.

4. Contributing starts here.
Writing posts & talks is a ‘gateway
drug’ into open source communities,
which all contributors always call
“life-changing.”

5. Step One.
build the courage.

6. The real reason you’re
afraid to contribute.
It’s not your ‘lack of ideas.’ It’s
because you believe no one wants to
hear your ideas.

7. “Fear is the mind killer.”
At the end of the day, no one really
cares if you say something they don’t
want to hear about.

8. Inspiring one person is all
that matters.
Don’t let the possibility of not
inspiring others hold you back.

9. Step Two.
decide what to write/talk about.

10. “I don’t have anything to talk
about” isn’t an excuse
Every day you come up with ideas,
you’re just not writing them down.

11. When in doubt,
ask yourself this question...

12. “
Will what I have to say add value to
the community?

13. Rants don’t add value.

14. Add Value
here are some value-adding approaches.

15. How-to
Most popular & flexible. Stay simple,
don’t try to how-to PHP from
scratch. Focus on one small thing.

16. Trick(s)
Similar to How-to, but more about
advice for very specific situations.

17. Experiment
Performance comparisons,
alternative ways of doing things, etc.

18. Introduction to ______.
Bigger than a how-to. Every intro to
anything that already exists can be
done better (and more up to date).

19. It’s time for change.
A community, framework or
industry needs to change to move
forward and you have the positive,
collaborative answer to get there.

20. One more thing...
try out your topics on forums/Twitter

21. Fail fast
Get feedback on the core of your idea
and either move forward or trash it.

22. Step Three.
outline your structure.

23. Context.
The Meat.
Your Turn.

24. Context
Give them enough context to
understand why you have something
worth hearing. No more, no less.

25. The Meat
The majority of the content. Break it
into sections and sub-sections so
people can more easily digest it.

26. The Meat
For posts: Give each section an
image to break up text more.

27. Your Turn
Invite the audience to contribute to
the conversation. For a project,
invite them to submit issues/PRs. For
a trick, invite them to add their
tricks.

28. Be unique
Google your topic first. See what you
can do differently than what’s
already been done.

29. Step Four.
publish your masterpiece.

30. Publish.
Start up a simple Tumblr. Then re-post
to Facebook, Twitter (@ people you
know for retweets), reddit,
LinkedIn (full post)

31. Do an English version
Native language is good for a local
community, but don’t forget about
publishing it to the world in English.

32. Review what you’ve done.
Re-read your post again. Wait a couple
days and read it again. You’ll notice
something every time you read it that
will help you improve.

33. Step Five
take your show on the road.

34. Apply to speak
Once you have a successful post, you
can link to it in a “Call for Papers” for
an event you want to speak at.

35. Build your slides.
Google Slides (free) is all you need.

36. Be simple.
...but not too simple. Keep it to 1
point per slide, but make sure the
slide makes sense when someone
sees it after your talk.

37. The Meat
Give each section its own slide to
introduce it and make it easy to
digest the whole talk.

38. This is a section.
helps make it easier to digest, right?

39. Design is important
But you don’t need much design skill.
Just focus on consistency - fonts,
colors, layout.

40. Design is important
Limit your slides to 3 fonts (1 serif) &
3 colors at most. Use Google Fonts
and ColourLovers for a color palette.

41. Design is important
Use Unsplash.com for great Creative
Commons photos.

42. Humor is good.
It’s OK to use memes or something
funny to explain your point. Just don’
t flood your slides with them.

43. Go easy with code
Ibf yloouc shkosw. code examples, only
explain 1 small snippet per slide.

44. Give a refresher
For a how-to, include a few slides in
your “Context” section that quickly
gets newcomers up to speed and
refreshes intermediate devs.

45. Get inspired
Check out SpeakerDeck’s programming
section for (occasionally) beautiful,
entertaining talks.

46. Practice. A lot.
Present to yourself. And again. Tweak
it. Practice. Practice with a mirror.
Sick of it yet? Perfect, you’re ready.

47. Practice. A lot.
The beginning and end are the most
crucial, so nail those in your practice
above all.

48. Practice. A lot.
Track how long it takes to present each
slide. Makes it easier to cut slides out
to meet a time limit.

49. Network.
Don’t forget the after party where you
give your talk, it’s a great place to meet
people who will love to talk to you
more.

50. Review.
Have someone record your talk so you
can watch it back. It will be eye-opening
and help you improve.

51. Review.
Look for: avoiding eye contact, talking
too fast, never pausing, too many
“uhh” moments, etc.

52. Let’s do this.
three things you can do tomorrow.

53. 1. Start tracking your ideas.
At the end of each week, save a
separate list of which ideas could turn
into 4-5 paragraphs or more.

54. 2. Work through 1 topic.
Take that topic into a Google doc,
unleash 4-5 paragraphs and fail fast. If
after 4-5 paragraphs you don’t think it
will add value, trash it and move on.

55. Don’t overwhelm yourself.
Don’t try to handle too many topics at
one time. Focus on one at a time, trash
the ones that don’t work and move on.
Fail fast, period.

56. 3. Get on Tumblr/Meetup
Get a simple Tumblr to publish to.
Get on Meetup.com and start finding a
local meetup group that you can set as
a goal to one day speak at.

57. And never forget...

58. Inspiring one person is all
that matters.
Be inspired. Create. Inspire the world.

59. For more: http://x-team.com/unleash
Contributors: Ryan Chartrand, Wojtek Zając