Regional Chapters

Hyperledger Regional Chapters are organized groups of community members in different parts of the world that are working together to address contribution barriers in their regions. For example, contributors from South America working together to translate material into Spanish to help people who don't speak English contribute to the project.

Official Regional Chapters

There are Hyperledger Regional Chapters in the following parts of the world:

Proposed Regional Chapters

These regions have proposed creating a new Hyperledger chapter:

Starting A Chapter

If you are interested in starting a regional chapter, take a look through the following criteria and then reach out to dboswell at linuxfoundation dot org:

The region represents a distinct language or geography of over 50 million people
There is a clearly defined vision for what the community in that region wants to do to contribute to Hyperledger
There is at least one official Hyperledger meetup that is active in that region
There are more than 50 people in the region communicating together about the Hyperledger community
There are 2-3 people in the area who are interested in acting as leaders for the chapter and are willing to recruit new members, organize regular meetings (both online and in person) and make sure that the group is working toward the goals that are set in the chapter's vision

The timing of when we go live with a new region will depend on finding the right people to take on the leadership role and having local communities that meet these requirements, so there is no roadmap about when we will launch a particular new chapter.

See below for more information about types of activities a regional chapter could do and how the Hyperledger project can support them.

What activities can regional chapters get involved with?

Possible activities for regional chapters to work on include the following, although it should be noted that this will change over time as community members suggest new ways to contribute:

Support local events and organize regional events
- In order to scale our meetup efforts which are currently being supported by one Hyperledger staff member, we can delegate authority to Regional Leads to support meetups in an area. They would be empowered to approve new city leaders, but would send requests to remove city leaders (based on some bad behavior) upwards to Hyperledger staff. This additional bandwidth to support meetups will be critical in an effort to ensure a positive experience for all meetup attendees and for raising the expectations we set for meetup organizers.
- They would also focus on doing things across cities in their region: for example, if there are special guests in the region they can notify the city leaders there and coordinate a "tour". Or they could run other types of regional events, including bootcamps, work sprints, localization drives, hackathons, etc.
Address region-specific contribution barriers
- Tools: There are examples where tools that are used in the Hyperledger project aren't accessible or used in a region. For example, community members in China don't use Google Docs so information that is posted there is not available to them. Identifying these hurdles and working with Hyperledger staff is a very important function.
- Time zones: Many aspects of the Hyperledger community are time-specific and are not equally accessible to everyone. For instance, the TSC call happens in the middle of the night for many contributors. Regional Leads can help address this issue – some ideas have already been floated, such as nominating a rotating list of local community members to stay up late to attend an important meeting and acting as a bridge to give input in that meeting and to take notes back to the local community.
- Language: Many regions of the world do not use English and this becomes a contribution barrier. Regional Leads can work with Hyperledger staff to address this. For instance, we may decide to translate technical and marketing material into different languages so this information becomes more accessible in a region and can be placed in region-appropriate channels. Learn more about available Translation Opportunities.
Other contribution opportunities
- Collecting local Hyperledger use cases (collected from local press, local presentations, local networks etc) to share with the wider community through blogs posts, the Blockchain Showcase and other appropriate channels.
- Working with local universities to help them learn more about Hyperledger and to help get students and professors connected to the community
- Please add suggestions and ideas for other ways Regional Leads could contribute...

What support is available to regional communities?

Support for Regional Chapters include:

Infrastructure: We can create a mailing list and chat channel (following the community-NAME convention), meetings and space on the wiki for each region.
Official community title: "Hyperledger Chapter Lead" is an official community role that someone can place on their LinkedIn profile.
Staff time: When Hyperledger staff members travel, they may be available to work with Regional Leads on activities, such as speaking at events.
Training: We can provide discounted access to the Hyperledger certifications that the Linux Foundation offers (details to come soon). This will help make sure that the Regional Leads are knowledgeable and can act as on the ground mentors for the local community.
Swag: We can provide Regional Leads with swag as needed to support their activities.

Note that support will be based on the activity of a Regional Lead. People who take this role who are not active, or are not representing Hyperledger in an appropriate way, would not be eligible for support and could be removed from this role.