Node.js Nigeria: We & Our Environment

There are two words that are sometimes erroneously used interchangeably within the technology industry and some other industries as well. They are community and ecosystem. This article is about those two words, and how defining them correctly helps us define our role as Node.js Nigeria within our country, and outside her geographical borders.
Definitions
To get a holistic meaning of a word, one must take the summation of the various definitions of that word, their contexts and the emotions that they covey when they are used in these contexts. This is why it can be difficult to capture the complete meaning of some words in one statement. “love” is a perfect example of such.
Community

If we look closely at this dictionary definition of “community”, we can come to a conclusion that:
- It involves a group of people.
- It usually involves a shared location: Although, these days, with the adoption of the internet, the significance of geographical boundaries has largely faded away. We now have communities on social media that cut across various countries and continents.
- These people in these locations should be united by a sense of common goal or purpose. Basically, they have a sense of identity or belonging.
- If these people meet the standards in the above points, then they definitely must genuinely care about each other. That is just natural consequence, and it is also the only way the community can be sustained.
Drawing from the above definitions, we can say that:
Node.js Nigeria is a group of Node.js developers in Nigeria that feel they belong together, and care for one another.
While this is great, it is at best incomplete as it does not capture the full volume of what we should be about.
Ecosystem

Looking at this dictionary definition of “ecosystem”, we can again, deduce that:
- It involves organisms; in our case, people.
- It involves people (or communities) that interact with one another.
- It takes cognizance of the interaction between people or communities and their environment.
This definition more clearly captures who we are as Node.js Nigeria.
We are an ecosystem of Node.js developers.
Node.js Nigeria is a group of Node.js developers in Nigeria that feel they belong together, care for one another and consider important their interaction with all the components that constitute their experience as members of the ecosystem.
Our mission
Our objective is to build an ecosystem of Software Engineers in Nigeria who use Node.js, are globally competent (and competitive), and actively contribute to the development of the Open Source ecosystem at large. Everything the we do must take us a step closer to accomplishing our mission.
To achieve our goal, we’ll be engaged in the following from time to time:
- Meetings: conferences, meetups, hackathons, e.t.c
- Content creation: blog posts, tutorials, webinars, screencasts, podcasts e.t.c
- Mentorship
- Job search and talent recruitment aid (will be announced soon)
- Helping with applications for CFPs for meetups and conferences within and outside the country.
- Other things we discover would be necessary to keep our ecosystem healthy and growing.
Governance
Node.js Nigeria is currently overseen by:
- Adebayo Opesanya (Country Director)
- Oluwasegun Adeleye (Chair)
- Peter Mbanugo (Co-chair)
We need you
It definitely takes the effort of everyone to make this work. If you are an individual, please follow this guide. If you are a company that is interested in what we are about and would love to partner with us, please send us an email. We’ll love to hear your ideas and work together to implement them.
This blog post comes from Adebayo Opesanya, the Country Director of Node.js Nigeria. You can follow what is happening with Node.js Nigeria by following Node.js Nigeria on Twitter.