I encountered the concept of "Community" when I started working with Magento 1 and found myself completely stuck. At that time, I needed other people who had faced the same problem or perhaps already had a solution. In return, I also shared my knowledge. I had never before encountered such a selfless group of people. That completely fascinated me at the time, and THAT was community for me. That's why I got actively involved in the community, organized meetups and conferences, wrote many blog articles, and gave presentations—continuously passing on my knowledge. Additionally, being a freelancer and often working alone, community, to me, means exchanging ideas with like-minded individuals.
It is primarily about exchange, but of course, it also involves traditional networking. Knowing people who can help you or being the one who can help others is valuable. For example, if I'm looking for someone to assist my client with SEO, I prefer knowing someone who has given a great presentation and whom I've spoken to rather than searching blindly on the internet.
I get the impression that the Magento community had to come together almost out of necessity because there was no help from "above." This is different with Shopware. Here, at least, there is documentation, learning videos, and affordable training. For the meetups, of which there are several, someone knowledgeable from Shopware usually participates. Last year's Hackathon was fantastic, with core team developers present. The Shopware team also feels always approachable for questions, and the Slack forum is very active. So, it's all more controlled from "above." I haven't felt that there are many independent initiatives from the community, apart from the meetups. But wait - there's the Unconference :-)
The Shopware Community Unconference is exclusively organized by the community, by Claudia, Fabian, Rico, and me. We also organize the Unconference for Magento and eventually offered it for Shopware. It operates like a Barcamp, with no pre-set presentations; everything is suggested and decided on-site through voting. It's about talking with each other, lots of coffee, incredible amounts of food - and great parties :-) You can find all the information at scuc.blue.
I would like to see many more smaller events or initiatives. Or actions. I feel like blog posts disappear because so much is posted on LinkedIn. It would be great to have much more help for beginners or more visibility for women. Let's see, maybe I'll come up with something for that...
