We all know the saying "the grass is always greener on the other side," but we believe it doesn't relate to the Alokai community. What do we mean by that?
Plants need love and attention. In exchange for that, they will produce oxygen you breathe or the food you eat. Being in nature by itself has a very positive impact on your mental health and creativity.
We believe that we can say a similar thing about our community. We offer our software, resources, and knowledge. In exchange, we receive your engagement, contribution, ideas, and positivity (unfortunately, no food 😂).
So... did we make our side greener?
2021 retrospective
We strived to do more. Since Q1 of 2021, we were exploring new ways to engage with our community — to engage with you.
Alokai conference
We had our first Alokai conference, where we officially released Alokai 2. With this new version, we wanted to boost creating new eCommerce integrations and modules for CMSs and payment gateways. Our goal was to ensure that Headless eCommerce could reach new extremes in the coming years. Building on top of the Nuxt framework allowed us to leverage the powerful nature of all existing modules and plugins to move forward even faster.
VSF Discord server
At the conference, we also introduced our Discord server as a new primary communication platform with the community. It grew enormously (like 500%+) in the last six months. We were helping you daily — answering questions, supporting with development needs, and creating new connections each day. Thanks to Discord we removed the gap between the community, our core team, and partners.
Alokai GitHub repositories
We made massive changes to our GitHub repositories. We broke the barriers for newcomers to the OpenSource world. We defined repository rules and practices across our ( vuestorefront ) and community-owned ( vuestorefront-community ) repositories, making it easier for everyone to contribute.
VSF GitHub organization
At the end of 2021, the community got its own GitHub organization ( vuestorefront-community ), making it easier for everyone to join the Alokai community projects.
At the same time, we felt that even more could be done and our community could benefit greatly.
Alokai’s community plans for 2022
We have some Big Plans for 2022. Yet, we don't want to spoil the surprise, so we will reveal them little by little. Maybe we will stun you once or twice. 😊
First, our motto for this year is "Closer to the Community!" This year has just begun, and we already have some accomplishments to share.
We started by introducing our first Developer Advocate - Marc Backes , who will bring a new voice, energy, and creativity to our projects.
For the Alokai developers, we announced a Sponsorship program to support the further development of FOSS and create a great ecosystem around Alokai.
Still, this is only the beginning of this year, and much more is on the way!
Ambassador Program 🏅
We will create an entirely new Alokai Ambassador program. We are committed to making headless commerce even more powerful and agile. We believe that the development of Alokai can bring further benefits to the developer and business world.
Developer/Community Portal 📚
We know that documentation is only part of education, sharing knowledge requires larger initiatives. We will create a new developer/community portal. We want to set a full focus on bringing the e-commerce and Alokai knowledge together. This will be a dedicated space for the top developers. The idea is to keep this portal 100% OpenSource so you can participate in its development.
Alokai SWAG 🛍
Who doesn't like a new notebook sticker or an awesome hoodie? We will have our very own SWAG store that will be 100% Open Source with branded unique Alokai products.
BOTs 🤖
We will create new ways to showcase Alokai projects. We want to help recognize our contributors in Discord and other social media. There is no better way than to create unique BOTs to assist us in this process.
New Developer Experiences ✨
We have already taken actions to enhance the Alokai Developer Experience this year. We are talking about new CLIs, integrations experiences, better workflows for integrators and templates.
Events 🗓
Yeah! We will be present at all Vue events this year, and we will host a lot of our own meetups, summits, and conferences. Whether online, on-site, or hybrid, we'll be there, sharing our knowledge and making good friends along the way.
Hackathons 🧑💻
Get your brains ready because the Alokai hackathons are about to begin! We have many of those prepared in our calendar and fantastic prize pools! Join us in this incredible journey, and let's make the world green! 💚
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