The journey started on the very first day when I joined SAP BU of my first organization. The manager suggested creating an account on SDN and exploring it until we get any work further. I quickly followed the instruction and completed the signing requirements. Then for the next few days I tried a lot but couldn’t find SDN much interesting (due to lack of motivation I guess). And gradually it got converted into a place to download the required documents and nothing more. (Still 0 points).
In the same year, few of our seniors were sharing their Tech Ed experiences. And one of them repeatedly admired the SDN contributors and their influence in Tech Ed. This was the initial motivational point or you may call an initial greed that inspired me for the contribution. I tried to explore SDN deeply and then for the first time I came across something called as Forums. Forums seemed to be promising for a small start. But there was no one to guide exactly how to proceed with it. At first I thought about reading the existing threads and I did it for 2-3 pages but then I realized that that they were not as less as I anticipated (actually thousands of threads). So now what!! I decided to reply to a post but was very naïve in the field as compared to anyone at that moment of time. So now when it is sure that you are not knowledgeable enough, the only other option was to act intelligent. 🙂 I started searching for problems on SDN itself (that’s what I suggest the beginners these days). And with a little of search, I was able to reply to first thread. Unexpectedly no points were awarded for it :). Even then, I continued replying to few more posts posts and finally I got the reward in the form of two points. My first earning :).
The journey went on and I used to spare a lot of my post-office timings exploring things on SDN, trying to resolve issues of people across the world and with that sharpening my skills too. With my project experience on Marketplace Adapter, I published my first article on SDN. I got a little appreciation for my work too. In the meantime my score was getting improved and I became eligible for many T-shirts (1/4k, 1/2k, 1k and 2k). Only 2k one fits well today 🙂
Then came an important moment when I managed to get into the Top Contributor list in 2007-2008 and I was invited for the Community day. I was well prepared for getting recognized but just before the Tech-Ed Bangalore, unfortunately or fortunately I had to travel outside India for a project assignment. I missed the Community day as well as the certification :(. Never mind, there would be another one next year, I thought. Next year again I achieved the Top Contributor position for 2008-2009 but guess what, in the meantime I made a job shift and was not eligible for attending certification. With this I missed the second opportunity too. And with this I made my November resolution that I will attend the next Tech-Ed (and Community Day if eligible) whether I am in India or any other part of the world.
Along with SAP PI/XI, I started contributing to BPX Community in form of blogs, wikis, and forums. Then on 7th Jan’09 came the magical moment when all of sudden the 10k mark was reached. “All of sudden” because that was the day when suddenly points were awarded for all my wiki contribution since few months. Out of the blue, a question aroused in my mind (that can’t be answered on SDN :)) about who was helping whom? Whatever I contributed till date to SDN was in some way or other derived from the knowledge I extracted from SDN. It helped not only to sharpen my technical knowledge but also to widen my horizon of thought process. And with that I never hesitate calling myself an SDN/BPX addict. 🙂
