SAP Community Cares
We talk here in the SAP Developer Network and in the Business Process Expert community about the power of communities to influence the direction of development, to guide conversations, to be vigilant against empty marketing promises, to identify false IT prophets and profitless content. Indeed there are many who enjoy engaging in conversations "that matter". A month ago I posted a blog Conversations About Questions That Matter called: "Conversations About Questions That Matter". It was modeled on the tagline of an inventive and inspiring website: The World Café which, by no coincidence was highlighted recently for me by the creator of those great TechEd Las Vegas Mural images we all enjoyed: Nancy Marguiles. The premise of that website, to reiterate for those who missed the blog, was to "create a hospitable space in which to explore questions that matter, encourage everyone to contribute, connect diverse people and ideas, listen together for insights, patterns, and deeper questions and make collective knowledge visible."
Today, quietly and relatively unobtrusively marks the launch of a new SAP blog which, from my perspective, has shaken not a little my own world, has the potential to shake yours and makes me appreciative of being part of the SAP community network. SAP Feeding Knowledge is an invitation to join, or rather own, the debate around corporate social responsibility and sustainability. To some of us who were privileged to first hear of its impending creation, we received this message early this morning which I would like to share with you, our community members:
"The site is now open and live. The start of a journey into the virtual unknown has begun. I do hope we can sincerely engage the broader SAP community in CSR in meaningful ways. We have in orbit around SAP some of the smartest people on the planet, now we have to be clever enough to engage them effectively for good purpose. Community engagement to help shape SAP's own CSR strategy, positioning and response is also greatly appreciated. Wide stakeholder engagement is an important aspect of good CSR management"
Community as a Powerful Change Agent. That's the title of an entry made today in a personal blog I launched nearly 2 years ago under the moniker: A time to mourn, a time to rejoice. While we can be deeply saddened by the sights you will see in the video under SAP Feeding Knowledge it's heartening to think there are very practical thing we can do, here, in our community, on this platform. Join the conversation. The one that matters.
