Welcome to the Community Dojo

About the Community Dojo

A public resource to help anyone build and maintain healthy and strong community groups (read more about the name below).

• It was created for and by group leaders in the Autodesk Group Network.

• It contains...

  • Knowledge on community-building topics like starting groups and hosting events

  • People to connect with for peer advice from other group leaders

  • Tools & resources you can access as part of the network

• It is built to evolve through use and community contributions.

The Community Dojo is a project by the Autodesk Group Network.

Aligned with our mission to underpin the community of Autodesk group leaders with tools and resources.

It is a collaborative and open source project.

Enter the Dojo

Best Practice Guides

There are six quick reference guides on this website on community building: Starting a Community Group, Running a Group, Hosting Events, Tools for Groups, Online Groups, and Company Practice Groups. Each guide contains some deeper-dive information and advice in sub-pages.

Best Practice Guides

Get support, contribute, and engage

Connect with a peer advisor to help with your community-building project or upcoming event: This is a directory of experienced people willing to be contacted and help you out (access codes listed here for Autodesk Group Network members).

There's a Slack workspace as a conversation channel for the Community Dojo. We use it to connect among contributors, support people, and improve this resource. We may also use it for more cross-group shared projects.

Leave Feedback! We will use questions, feedback, and suggestions to improve this resource. You can access a short survey from the bottom of most pages.

Learn more on the contributor page.

Contact Autodesk at [email protected] for any additional inquiries.

What's Happening Now

• Groups During COVID: The COVID pandemic has changed how we gather. The Autodesk Group Network is working to support the network by subsidizing meeting technology, and supporting online groups and virtual meetings.

More on the name Community Dojo

A dojo is a space where people work together to gain mastery at a skill through practice, interaction, and relationship with peers, mentors, and teachers.

A dōjō is a place for immersive learning.

The term literally means "place of the Way" in Japanese, phrasing that is rooted in Taoism.

• A dojo is considered special, and is well cared for by its users

• Dojo are supposed to be supported and managed by the student body

Adapted from Wikipedia

• The term is traditionally used in a Japanese martial arts context.

• In recent years the term is also being used by:

  • Software development communities

  • Companies creating spaces for training, peer-learning, and accountability in their continuous-improvement and quality-assurance programs

We chose this term because it was the best concept we could find to represent the spirit and intention of this project.

We were concerned about harmful cultural appropriation in using this term. We took pro-active steps to be careful, considerate, and respectful in using the term dojo in this community context: including checking with more than 15 Japanese people who work for and with Autodesk Japan.

We hope that this resource, and the learning and interaction that people experience here, will honor the term and concept of a dojo.

If you are offended or harmed by our use of this term, please let us know in the survey. We will improve through engagement, together.

Feedback?