As we say goodbye to this summer’s crop of interns it reminds me that it has been over three years since my own internship here began. When I started as an intern back in 2007 Sunlight Labs consisted of less than half a dozen developers, our blog had 20 subscribers, and we had two open source projects on Google Code.

Obviously, a lot has changed. Sunlight Labs now has approximately as many employees as all of the foundation did three years ago, and between our website and mailing list we’ve grown into a community of thousands. Our github account now features almost 100 projects written in Ruby, Python, Javascript, Java and even a bit of ActionScript and C.

Even more impressively, you all have contributed another hundred or so open source projects, from libraries to help people use various Open Government APIs to those dreamt up entirely on your own.

One thing hasn’t changed, everyone here views the community as an essential component of what we’re trying to do. (“If you build an API and nobody is there to use it does it open the government at all?”) In light of the important role that all of you play in defining and building this community it seems time for us to take a step back and look at what is and isn’t working. We want to find out what our community wants and needs from us to keep doing the important work that we’re all invested in.

We’ve put together a short survey that we’d greatly appreciate your responses on. It shouldn’t take more than ten minutes. By answering you’ll be a part of this re-evaluation of where we focus our efforts so that we can help ensure that this community stays focused and energized. Tell us what you like about the community and where we’re slacking, but most importantly tell us what you need.

Take the Survey

The survey is open until August 27th and as a special thank you for participation we’re going to have a random drawing for a $50 MakerShed gift certificate. If you want to be entered into the drawing be sure to complete the survey and include your email address and check the box indicating you wish to be considered in the drawing.