News Omeka developers are all over the map (in more ways than one)

We recently put out an unscientific survey to get to know who our Omeka developers are and what we can do to help them. All the responses are greatly appreciated. We’re just starting to look through the information, but here’s some things that stand out immediately.

14 Countries, 4 Continents

omekaDevMap

This map only reflects the responses from the developer survey – we know from forum conversations, the dev list, and conferences that people in more countries are using and developing with Omeka. We are very gratified to know that Omeka is helping people in so many different places.

CTOs, Librarians, Archaeologists, and more

We asked about the job titles of people who are doing Omeka development work. Consultants, part- and full-time developers, and managers of different kinds are also in the mix. This is both gratifying and challenging. Gratifying, because such a diversity of people creating with Omeka is very much in the spirit and goals of RRCHNM and the Omeka team. Challenging, because there are many different audiences that we need to speak to, probably in different ways. Similarly, we asked how people came to develop with Omeka. Many of you are self-taught, while some are coming from professional training in some form or another.

Strongest message: Give us examples

We were not surprised to see a desire for more example code, but we were surprised to see how prominent that desire was. We’ll want to figure out what kinds of examples are most helpful – examples of using a specific function? combining functions toward a more general outcome? something else? The ‘recipes’ that we had for Omeka 1.5 were surprisingly popular, so that will be a starting point.

We’ll be posting more thoughts based on the survey results, and inviting willing developers to create some guest posts in this space about their work in the coming weeks and months.

We very much appreciate the responses, and all your work.

Patrick Murray-John Omeka Director of Developer Outreach

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