Sometimes I'm wearing an SAP Mentors hat, sometimes an SCN blogger hat, sometimes an ASUG volunteer hat, and occasionally I can be found wearing an SDN Moderator hat. You know, the one with the little blue "M" on the front? I'm not nearly the workhorse that many Moderators are, hanging around the very low volume Sustainability forum.
What I volunteered to do at SAP TechEd in Berlin was to host a "Meet the SCN Moderator" expert lounge session. We thought instead of the Mentors getting a lot of spotlight, that the Moderators deserve publicity as well.
Meet us in session EXP509, Wednesday October 13th, 2010, from 1:00 p.m.-1:30 p.m.
Link in the Agenda Builder:
http://www.sapteched.com/emea/activities/session.htm?id=509
Why should you give up a valuable 30 minutes of your lunch time, when you could be standing in line trying to win a giveaway at a vendor booth?
- Chance to meet a guru. This reminds me of the Simpsons episode where Homer and Apu climb a mountain to meet a famous corporate insider. Homer wastes his three questions in a toss-away manner ("you?"). Don't be that Homer! Think of a good, non-interview, non copy-pasted question for the moderator.
- Not only could you meet a guru in person, you could meet your guru in person. I can't promise or predict who will be in Berlin or who will be in Las Vegas, though I have some hints. I'm fairly confident that you'll see Julius Bussche in Berlin, servant of the Security Forum, wielder of the flame of Anor. Julius is hosting an Expert Lounge session, number EXP343, just prior to the Meet the Moderator session. He's also hosting the same Security Hacker Lunch on Tuesday, session EXP341.
- Who else might you meet? I can't tell, as the expert lounge sign-up tool only tells me how many have put this event on their agenda, not who, and even if it did that is not a guarantee of attendance. That reminds me of the line about "sticklers for the truth", paraphrasing one of the four disclaimers read by Michael Feldman's audience members on the "Whad'ya Know show", should "get their own forum."
Other reasons you might want to drop by include the opportunity to understand how the Moderator program works, whether you have what it takes to earn your "[M]" and to pay a bit of thanks to the unceasing volunteer efforts of your local forum sheriffs.
What the Moderators might be looking for you is feedback on what bugs you, whether that be the signal to noise ratio, searching techniques, or that one question you just can't see to phrase in a way to get the answer you need. And the Moderators are interested in what you (top contributor, expert, or just a lurker) look like and sound like as much as you're interested in them.
You can also visit the aptly named "Forum Moderators" wiki page to find links to Moderators lists by category, such as "Business Process Expert Moderators." Or one or all of these:
"Be Seeing You!"
