What a fun topic!!! I've been reading all of the various blogs. It's amazing to me that a lot of people are thinking about the same type of things.
I also enjoy the point system. I've noticed that most of the people who have blogged on this topic enjoy the point system. I can't tell you why. It's just fun to watch the points add up. ( It's a good thing they don't subtract points. )
I'm very motivated to post information by all the things that I learn from SCN. I get so much from this site / community. I've solved problems, learned new information, and even gotten some "free" training. The only reason all the information is available is because someone else put it out there. I feel like I'm doing my part by adding to the content. So instead of saving information on my hard drive, I try to put it on SCN.
Another motivator is reading the comments to my blog posts. That motivates me to write more blogs. ( Hint, Hint - there is a comment section here.) I love reading the comments. It means at least one person has read my blog.
I started very slowly with SCN. I was intimidated at first. I searched and was a "watcher" in the forums.
My slow start with SCN:
- Started by searching google and finding information in the forums.
- I searched for information in the forums.
- I would read and follow others.
- I read blogs.
- GASP!!! I got brave, and posted a question. Amazingly, no one said I was stupid to ask the question. Are you kidding? This is a great group of people. I doubt anyone would have written that I was stupid. Not that I didn't worry about posting a STUPID question.
- Next - a while later. (A year or so.) I was really brave and posted an answer to a question. I learned not to be discouraged. There are always several ways of doing something. When others posted a different answer, I would learn different ways to do the same thing. Sometimes I would learn a better way of doing something.
- Then I started blogging and updating WIKIs. Sometimes the blogs I write sit in my draft folder for a long time before being posted.
Collaboration. This is the best motivation for contributing on SCN. I've "met" some great people on SCN. Basically I've used the forums and blogs for collaborating. However, I've also attended SAPTeched. I've met a lot of people there. In fact, I've talked with people I'd been e-mailing on the SCN forum.
The distinct communities and audiences do help. When I'm searching for something it helps me to look in the right place. However, I never hesitate to look in all the different audiences and/or communities.
Now for the improvement part of the blog. I think the most FRUSTRATING thing about SCN is trying to find the correct words to search on. Sometimes it is like trying to find something in a hay stack. You know the haystack is there, but you don't know what you are looking for. Everyone labels questions differently. That makes it easy to start more than one thread in a forum. Everyone labels WIKIs and blogs differently. Sometimes I'm looking for generic information, and sometimes I have a specific question. Sometimes it's just one search and I have it. Sometimes it is several searches. And sometimes, I just start a thread. I really have no idea how to improve the issue. No one wants the drill down features like in OSS. And don't get me started on searching OSS.
Back to the good stuff. I start each morning by glancing through the blogs posted the previous day(s). It only takes a short amount of time to read the topics and find out what is interesting to me. Then I can bookmark or save the link in a word document for later use. It's amazing how much time that has saved me when starting something new. It save me time when trying to figure out a problem. ( And I don't always leave comments. )
My next projects in 2010. Does anyone know what they are working on for next year? I sure don't. I do know some things. I'm finishing up an implementation for project portfolio management and Cprojects. I'm probably doing a consolidation. I am working on an MII project with automated guided vehicles. It is a very cool project. There is lots of new stuff for me to learn.
The community is already helping me on my "future" projects. I've started on some this year. I've learned about RPM - Project Portfolio Management. I had never written a web dynpro. I learned via the e-learning on SCN. Thank you Thomas Jung. Then I asked questions in the forums. (Also searched for answers.) At some point I may get to a class on Web Dynpro, but for now, I've written one based off of the things I've learned here. Today, I'm searching for information on the Text_edit box. I have been reading about RPM, cprojects, and have been watching that forum. I am 100% sure that I'll be looking more information up in the future.
