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Author's profile photo Richard Hirsch

“Request-A-Blog” from a SAP Mentor

I recently wrote a Mapping one corner of the world – Two Patterns: Consumption vs. Integration about the new focus on lightweight consumption in SAP products and DJ Adams commented on this blog about a particular aspect of this change. I was intrigued about the topic and I thought “Wouldn’t it be cool to ask DJ to write a blog about a topic that was of special interest to me.”


[SOURCE] 

When this thought came to me, I started to think about it in more general terms.  The SAP Mentor Initiative all have specialties (listed here and here) in which they are experts. Wouldn’t it be great if users could request blogs from these individuals?  Note that I said blogs rather than forum posts. Forum posts allow people to examine particular technical problems. A blog post usually focuses more on someone’s opinion about an issue.   Thorsten’s infamous “Kiss of Death” Kiss of Death for Web Dynpro Java – The Follow-Up Questions is one excellent example of one blog that would fit this category.  

A new analyst firm “Constellation Research” has just emerged in which bloggers play a major role. One blog commented about this firm and said that “These bloggers are now the new analysts”.  Inasmuch as most SAP Mentors are bloggers, SAP Mentors could also become more like analysts who examine a particular issue based on an external request.

Many Mentors already have prolific blogging histories. What would be different is that other community members could request that a SAP Mentor blog on a particular topic.  These community members could be SAP employees or other users.  This idea also might increase the interaction between SAP Mentors and the community at large.

Of course, particular SAP Mentors could refuse to blog about a particular topic or if they are busy, might blog about it later.

Ideal would be a wiki page in the SAP Mentors section where such requests could be created.  Of course, this wiki page should have such rights so that everyone can add their requests.

I’ve created a wiki page where users can add their requests.  I’m hoping that mentors will also look at this page. I’ve added my first request for DJ Adams to blog about the difference between resource and service orientation enterprise software.

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      17 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Matthias Steiner
      Matthias Steiner
      brilliant idea! 🙂
      Author's profile photo Jim Spath
      Jim Spath
      Richard - great idea.  However, as the wiki has restricted access how will we entertain suggestions from those unable to edit there?
      Author's profile photo Marilyn Pratt
      Marilyn Pratt
      I believe I have resolved the restricted access 🙂
      I also took the liberty of changing the url in the blog and put in a permalink rather than the explicit link so that the move works.
      It is now here: http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/x/VQPDD
      Author's profile photo Richard Hirsch
      Richard Hirsch
      Blog Post Author
      @Marilyn

      Thanks

      Author's profile photo Alvaro Tejada Galindo
      Alvaro Tejada Galindo
      Dick:

      Brilliant! Love the idea and support it 100% -:D I'm somehow running out of ideas for new blogs...so this would help me to boost up -:) (Well...actually I have a lot of ideas, but are more suitable for my personal blog than for SCN, as they should fall on Wiki or Forums)...

      Greetings,
      Blag.

      Author's profile photo Dennis Howlett
      Dennis Howlett
      As one of the Board of Advisory people at Constellation I'd say that is a BRILLIANT idea.
      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      There is also an initiative to "lift" particularly interesting content on SDN to other social tools, such as Twitter etc.

      If there is something particularly interesting and tricky which the community would like a Mentor to look into and blog about then this would be a great "food for thought" sourcing and a feather in the cap of the community (who no doubt would need to help research the topic).

      I enjoy these types of questions in the forums very much and they add a lot of value.

      I guess it is going to depend on the quality of the question here as well... (hopefully no one loads their interview questions into the wiki... 🙂

      Cheers,
      Julius

      Author's profile photo Richard Hirsch
      Richard Hirsch
      Blog Post Author
      I agree completely.

      Some questions are better answered in the forums. As we know most Mentors have very strange emotions / opinions. I think a blog often provides a better setting for expressing such opinions. A blog is better suited for longer responses with more diverse content (audio, graphic, etc).

      D.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Natascha
      Author's profile photo Witalij Rudnicki
      Witalij Rudnicki
      ... than mentor calling another mentor 😉
      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Would it perhaps make more sense to request a blog from *any* mentor in a nominated topic area rather than a specific mentor?
      Author's profile photo Richard Hirsch
      Richard Hirsch
      Blog Post Author
      That is also a good idea - especially since there is often an overlap on expertise in a particular area and mentors may be busy

      D.

      Author's profile photo Zal Parchem
      Zal Parchem
      Suggestion - Maybe change the URL in your blog to point to the one Marilyn set up?  I tried several times with the URL in the beginning and thought it was discounted or taken off until I read further into the details...

      Regards - Zal

      Author's profile photo Richard Hirsch
      Richard Hirsch
      Blog Post Author
      Thanks for the tip. I changed the URL. 

      D.

      Author's profile photo Kirby Leong
      Kirby Leong
      Hi,

      We're doing something similar on the BusinessObjects Community with the "Dear aBI" advice column. Members are encouraged to submit their questions to a wiki and our panel of BI experts weigh in via blogs:

      http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/display/BOBJ/SAP+BusinessObjects+BI+Expert+Advice+%28Dear+aBI%29

      The list of Dear aBI blogs are available here:

      http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/weblogs?blog=/pub/t/142

      Author's profile photo Mark Finnern
      Mark Finnern
      Hi Richard,

      I like the idea and expanded it a bit, as some themes are even better covered by having an SAP Mentor Monday around them, to get other folks input too.

      Added one request for Thomas Jung 😉
      Changed the requester column header to Interested SCNers, so that others can put their name down for if they would like to have that too.

      Sounds a bit like Idea Place. Should we use a section in idea place to handle these?

      Just an idea, Mark.

      Author's profile photo Shabarish Nair
      Shabarish Nair
      this is a great initiative.
      I am putting up my request right now 🙂