On the Zend Developer Zone there's a new post from Cal Evans about five ways to get involved in the PHP community that take about five minutes each (and can both help you and the community).

ome developers develop because it pays the bills. They don't want to be part of the community, they have other passions. I am ok with that, I don't want anyone involved who doesn't want to be. Other developers however tell me they didn't know the community existed, they don't know how to get involved or they are just too shy to step up. It is to this second group (and anyone who is already involved but wants more) that I want to talk to. If you want to get involved in the PHP community here are 5 quick ideas to get you going.

His five things are simple and cover a lot of different media, from blogs to twitter:

• Email your local PHP User Group and offer to speak.
• Setup a PHP tag on your blog.
• Submit something to DevZone!
• Re-tweet something about PHP.
• Find at least one other PHP developer that is not involved in the PHP community and convince them to read this list and take action.

He equates this last one to a "chain letter" but it's key to helping th community grow. It's all about people getting together around a language they love and sharing that with more and more people.