I joined SAP Labs India in 2003. That was almost 4 long years back. After I got settled in the company, one of the most intersting things I started doing was checking out SDN. Initially, it was just the curiosity which led me to SDN. What do the SAP Developers around the world indulge in? Do they do anything other than coding, coding and some more coding in ABAP? The forums were loaded with questions - some very intelligent, some very brief, some very descriptive - questions in all shapes and sizes. It gave me a feel of the issues faced by developers. And also of the limitation of any software application - you just cannot develop an application which is bug free and satisfies every user in this wide beautiful world. I was also able to answer some questions with my limited knowledge then which gave me a lot of self confidence. I earned enough points to get a nice little gift. The points system was not so great then (I have seen some people just answer "This is a great question" in the forum and get a considerable number of points for that), but getting points was always a good feeling.
There was a slight lull in my ativities in SDN during the year 2005 because of some other assignments which gobbled up a lot of time. But my interest was rekindled when the competition for "Mobile FAQ" was announced by Kathleen Clemens (have a look at her blog on SAP Mobile Contributor Challenge: Rewards for FAQ on Mobile Applications and Mobile Infrastructure). I submitted a whole document full of questions and answers and this got me the first prize. Her Announcing the Long-awaited Results of the SAP Mobile Contributor Challenge announcing the results made me a little famous. This started off my second life with SDN.
Soon after this I applied to become a Blogger in SDN. I was rejected first and then accepted on my second attempt. I have been blogging about Mobile Applications for Laptop since then. You can check out my blogs santosh.v/blog. Any feedback is most welcome and I am trying hard to make the blogs useful to as many people as possible.
I was invited to attend SDN Day at Amsterdam last year because of the points I had in SDN. It was an wonderful experience. I also got a chance to attend SDN Day Bangalore. During these events, I had the oppotunity to meet Mark Yolton, Mark Finnern, Craig Cmehil and Marilyn Pratt. You can read more about it my blogs.
My association with SDN has been fruitful and very enriching (not to mention that it has helped in my Performance Review 😉 ). But there are lots and lots of areas which I am yet to explore. One example is the Wiki pages. I am yet to venture into them. And of course, the forum on CRM Mobile Applications is very active and I have decided to spend a lot more time there and contribute to the effort going on there. The BPX pages are also overflowing with information. And lots and lots more to do till I retire!!!
