One of the really great things I get to do with my job is "read", huge fan of reading with a nice size collection of books. I actually have an even larger collection of Blogs that I read as well and I do this on a daily basis, sometimes two or three times a day.
Well just recently while monitoring for blogs related to sapteched07, the tag many used to to bookmark things in del.icio.us I saw this one from Prashanth pop up, now Prashanth is also a fellow Irregular so to see him pondering away means that we must have hit on something this time around...
It might also have been him getting beat down in Wii Tennis as well ;-) OK, his blog goes into details about reaching the next level and the increased value that can bring.
One could actually apply this to any area be it region, land, city, neighborhood or group really. In fact I had a most humbling experience this week when helping my wife. She belongs to a online forum called "Februar Babies 2006", it's a forum for mothers of children born in or around February of 2006. The admin of the forum posted to say they could no longer continue and would have to shut it down, my wife seeing the forum as a lifeline for help and support with our son did not like this at all. She liked the "replacement" forum even less. It's a very targeted and specialized community with 72 active members (103 or so in total) and having over 1.7 million posts in it's short lifespan of about 2 years. This group of ladies actually gets together on regulars basis, exchange Christmas presents and birthday presents - one could say they have achieved exactly what it is that Prashanth is suggesting. Including as well the fact that my server will soon be hosting this little community as my wife decided she would rather learn how to be the admin than lose the forum.
** Side note, I jokingly refer to this as proof that women are chatter boxes but that's another story!
Community though is not an easy task, but the key to success is being able to scale. The "Community Day" which Prashanth states, "I think SAP has done the click part of the community really well, but I think now its time to leverage the "Personal" or "physical" dimension" is both our bottleneck as well as our salvation. It was back in April that I throw out into our wiki the idea of "sapcamp", the basic concept of a barcamp or Community Day combined together to give the community the "excuse" to get together. It wasn't until just recently though that members of the community raised their hands and said "we want to do that" and we've now 4 (2008) in addition to the TechEd events that are being planned by the community - for the community. Is this what Prashanth is referring to? I think yes but I also think no.
He actually hits on several other great points but I'd like to keep the focus on the event and physical aspect, which might seem a bit hypocritical as I am also a proponent of the use of virtual worlds for events but let me explain a bit.
I see a few factors that contribute to the success of a community but mainly face to face contact and personal communication I feel are the main ones. Initially and one reason I enjoy the SAP TechEd events is that I can travel from one to the next and meet about 15,000 folks a year add in SAP Sapphire and that increases to around 50,000 a year and this then sets the stage for the rest of the year where I can then meet all of these folks again virtually. The initial face to face is a way of forming a bond, a connection which then grows and is made stronger over time. I typically spend about 3 hours a day on the phone, IM and various chats with various different community members working to understand their needs and desires and then of course each week working to achieve what is possible, I hardly ever ask them for anything other than honesty and real feedback.
Seeing the "sapcamp" idea now taking off I think we have hope of achieving what Prashanth is referring to but is "community driven" enough or does it require intervention from the corporate side? I think 2008 will be a deciding year for us...
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Well just recently while monitoring for blogs related to sapteched07, the tag many used to to bookmark things in del.icio.us I saw this one from Prashanth pop up, now Prashanth is also a fellow Irregular so to see him pondering away means that we must have hit on something this time around...
"The magnitude of success of the SDN and BPX initiates really hit me (as usual late) like a truck because of the following instances"
It might also have been him getting beat down in Wii Tennis as well ;-) OK, his blog goes into details about reaching the next level and the increased value that can bring.
"I strong believe that the "India" based community can play a very important role in the community as we look into the future. Today their contribution is most felt in the sheer numbers , As I understand currently close to 30% of the SDN community is based out of India.But I would think a significant % of these are probably more "consumers" of information. This will change over a period of time that is a given certainty. But the important thing is to focus on facilitating it and accelerating the same."
One could actually apply this to any area be it region, land, city, neighborhood or group really. In fact I had a most humbling experience this week when helping my wife. She belongs to a online forum called "Februar Babies 2006", it's a forum for mothers of children born in or around February of 2006. The admin of the forum posted to say they could no longer continue and would have to shut it down, my wife seeing the forum as a lifeline for help and support with our son did not like this at all. She liked the "replacement" forum even less. It's a very targeted and specialized community with 72 active members (103 or so in total) and having over 1.7 million posts in it's short lifespan of about 2 years. This group of ladies actually gets together on regulars basis, exchange Christmas presents and birthday presents - one could say they have achieved exactly what it is that Prashanth is suggesting. Including as well the fact that my server will soon be hosting this little community as my wife decided she would rather learn how to be the admin than lose the forum.
** Side note, I jokingly refer to this as proof that women are chatter boxes but that's another story!
Community though is not an easy task, but the key to success is being able to scale. The "Community Day" which Prashanth states, "I think SAP has done the click part of the community really well, but I think now its time to leverage the "Personal" or "physical" dimension" is both our bottleneck as well as our salvation. It was back in April that I throw out into our wiki the idea of "sapcamp", the basic concept of a barcamp or Community Day combined together to give the community the "excuse" to get together. It wasn't until just recently though that members of the community raised their hands and said "we want to do that" and we've now 4 (2008) in addition to the TechEd events that are being planned by the community - for the community. Is this what Prashanth is referring to? I think yes but I also think no.
"Meet the people more often- Community day once a year isn't sufficient.Will need to organize other such events, people will meet each other etc. For these session bring in innovative ideas/concepts happening in different part of the community or in the customer base."
He actually hits on several other great points but I'd like to keep the focus on the event and physical aspect, which might seem a bit hypocritical as I am also a proponent of the use of virtual worlds for events but let me explain a bit.
I see a few factors that contribute to the success of a community but mainly face to face contact and personal communication I feel are the main ones. Initially and one reason I enjoy the SAP TechEd events is that I can travel from one to the next and meet about 15,000 folks a year add in SAP Sapphire and that increases to around 50,000 a year and this then sets the stage for the rest of the year where I can then meet all of these folks again virtually. The initial face to face is a way of forming a bond, a connection which then grows and is made stronger over time. I typically spend about 3 hours a day on the phone, IM and various chats with various different community members working to understand their needs and desires and then of course each week working to achieve what is possible, I hardly ever ask them for anything other than honesty and real feedback.
Seeing the "sapcamp" idea now taking off I think we have hope of achieving what Prashanth is referring to but is "community driven" enough or does it require intervention from the corporate side? I think 2008 will be a deciding year for us...
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community, sap, sapcamp, social
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