On her blog today Anna Filina takes a look at developer communities (the first part of a series) - what they are, seeking them out and how you can make your own contributions.

So you have never been involved with a developer community before. What is a community? How do you find one? What can the community do for you? There are as many answers as there are communities. Everybody runs it in his own way.

She talks about communities that share passions, ones that are based on a certain area (city, state, etc.) as well as the different sort of events they might have, both social and educational. She also notes that, because of the way that several developer groups work, there's really not that much expected of the members. This doesn't mean you shouldn't want to help out, but there shouldn't be pressure about it. Her next article will talk more about the last point - starting a community if you can't find something near you.