[Tobi]

Hey everybody, during the 17th OpenFOAM Workshop there was a discussion about the Future of the OpenFOAM community. Unfortunately, as I am already been FOAMing for almost 12 years, I have an overview of the scattered places we have in the community. E.g.,

• cfd-online.com
• facebook group
• linkedin group
• xing group
• cad.de (german openfoam forum)
• Youtube channels
• openfoamwiki.net
• wiki.openfoam.com
• All stuff from chalmers university
• Github repositories
• Different websites (including mine)
• Discord groups

Some are even not accessible via Search-Engines (I don't like that as information spread and discussed there is lost to the "community") - such as the Discord group.



Hence, my personal question to you:
What would you have in mind for the future of the community? One unique place? If so, how would/should it look like?

Unfortunately, during the last decade, I saw engaged people leaving the community after they finished Ph.D., changing job positions, and so on. Hence, I am aware that (maybe) a lot of answers are "wishes" from people who will not be available for the community in the mid and long term nor want to participate in general to the community.

Nevertheless, lets see if we can get some interesting ideas here. Furthermore, I am reaching out to you which places you already know to get OpenFOAM related information/tutorials/documents/support/help.

By the way, looking back when we had the discussion for setting up a new forum for the OpenFOAM community (including vote systems such as stackexchange) was simply waste of time. We never got the critical amount of people to start the second Phase of the new Forum. Hence, I see everything a bit skeptical and maybe I should not waste my time for that topic.

I would love to have also people involved such as:

• Joszef Nagy
• Bernhard Gscheider
• People from ESI
• People from universities (Zagreb, Chalmers, Cambridge, Milano,...)
• Jasak
• Tessa
• And so many more

Main problem is (in my opinion) - the ridiculous amount of work for e.g., unifying all (or most) resources into on. A topic that makes me sad actually.

[nhowlett]

Thanks for your work Tobi!

Originally Posted by Tobi

By the way, looking back when we had the discussion for setting up a new forum for the OpenFOAM community (including vote systems such as stackexchange) was simply waste of time. We never got the critical amount of people to start the second Phase of the new Forum. Hence, I see everything a bit skeptical and maybe I should not waste my time for that topic.

I've read some 'crowdfunding 101' that might apply in this instance - OF needs to target it's 'core' supporters willing to do the work, then other people will hop onboard after the (smaller) inertia has been established. How does that theory sit with your experience, Tobi?

I'm happy to help, as my R&D uses OF. But maybe it should be mission-led, not software-driven? Given I believe the cause (reason) contributes quite a lot to people's motivation & willingness to contribute, IMO. Basically I'm saying most commercially-oriented projects would lack sufficient inertia (as compared to applications in health & medicine, for example). I'm thinking this would be especially the case if asking for volunteers to contribute (without being paid).