It's not too often we get to meet members in the community who are have contributed so much in such a short time after joining SCN. But quantity of contribution doesn't necessarily turn members into "Top Contributors." Members are looking for quality to award recognition points.
Continuing with the CommunityPROFILES blog series, I would like to introduce you to one of our local experts from Vancouver, Canada, ludek.uher/blog, SCN Top Contributor for 2 categories: BusinessObjects and Crystal Reports.
Ludek is a Senior Support Engineer with SAP BusinessObjects who has transformed how he supports customers by making Community part of his job. See for yourself some of Ludek's quality contributions as a forum moderator.
I had a chance to ask Ludek a few questions to let others learn a bit more about him - why he contributes to SCN, what he learns from the community, and what advice he has for those new to discussion forums.
Q: How long have you been a SAP BusinessObjects Community member?
- Since June 2008
Q: What is your area of expertise?
- Crystal Reports, Report Application Server, BO Enterprise VS .NET SDK
Q: How did you get started with SAP BusinessObjects?
- A natural progression. I've worked with Crystal Reports since 1994
Q: How do you manage to make the time to fit a full time job and active community participation into your schedule?
- I have made community participation a part of my job.
Q: What are some things you've done well in your career and/or professional strengths?
- I always strive to do my best in anything I do. My strengths: stubbornness and passion for providing help to anyone, particularly the small guy / developer on the block
Q: How has being a contributor to SCN benefited your career?
- I've met some incredible people. Most are 100 times smarter than me, so I've learned tons and tons. But for the most part, it has been a journey of self satisfaction; The knowledge that I am making a difference is something I love to take away every day when I go home.
Q: What are some of your recent contributions to the community?
- Along with much help from others, created a Twitter feed for the CR / BOE .NET support group. See my blog post Follow the SAP BusinessObjects .NET Developer support team on Twitter.
- I've also been active with forum posts, publish articles, blogs, wikis and notes
Q: What is your favorite feature of SCN? Where do you spend most of your time?
- Discussion forums. I spend most of my time creating Support Notes.
Q: What are some topics you'd like to learn from others on SCN?
- I look for any coding tips, be they CR [Crystal Reports] related or not.
Q: What are your favorite sources for information to do your job (blogs, magazines, etc)?
- Google and from there the various .NET developer websites; experts-Exchange, c-sharpcorner, tek-tips, ittillobox, etc.
Q: Have you turned to the community for help yourself?
- The richness of the community has allowed me to grow as never before and I now regularly search the community for possible answers.
Q: What is some of the feedback you have received from the community? Do you find out about the business impact of your support?
- The feedback is overwhelmingly positive. But I do feel the frustration and pain that a lot of our customers go through to get their apps going. The business impact is plain to see from some of the feedback, both positive and negative. Everyone has timelines. It is rewarding to get a feedback where it is obvious that someone was able to complete a project on time. At the same time, it is disturbing to see how many people fail and the impact this has on them...especially the small guy that counts every penny to keep his basement home office going.
Q: What piece of advice would you give a new SCN member if you could name one thing?
- Read the rules of engagement for the forums. Read the header at the top of each forum to make sure you are posting to the correct forum. Search for answers before posting a question, and don't pay for an answer when it's already available in the forum for free.
Q: Tell us a little bit about yourself, what do you do outside of work?
- Taxi drive my kids to their activities. I love to ski, play table tennis and chess (sometimes laser master with my daughter). Summers we spend boating and we travel to Argentina almost every year.
Q: Another question to help us get to know you better... If you were an animal, what would you be? Why?
- Never gave this one much thought... Dolphin(?). Why? Their social make up, their intelligence, their ability to care, not only for each other, but even humans in need. And the ability to move in three dimensions - what a blast that would be...
Thanks for your time and for your ongoing contributions, Ludek!
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