Moderator Spotlight – Lars Breddemann

Today I’m happy to feature Lars Breddemann in our SCN Moderator Spotlight, which is our way on SCN to thank a significant moderator.

Lars is a distinguished moderator for the SAP HANA and In-Memory Computing space. In the interview below Lars will tell us about himself: his SCN experience, insights and career and personal aspirations.

Tell us a bit about yourself.

I am origninally from Wuppertal in Germany.  I later moved to Vienna, Austria where I lived  for 13 years. While there  I joined SAP in 2003. In 2013 I returned to Germany for two years. Last October I moved to Melbourne, Australia.

While this is a lot of moving around, I wouldn’t call ‘moving places’ a particular hobby of mine.

When did you join the SCN community?

The profile page shows that I joined in May 2004,  just about 7 months after I joined SAP. However, I just checked and I saw that I first contributed in December, 2008.

What motivates you? Why did you join?

I guess back then it was mainly out of curiosity. At the time I was still with SAP Support for SAP MaxDB & Oracle. I believe that by answering questions in the forums I will help reduce SAP customers’ support messages.

From then on, I found that sharing information and being able to openly listen to customers’ questions outside of the officially supported boundaries can be very interesting and provide lots of opportunities to learn more about the technology.

Why do you moderate? Which spaces do you moderate?

I am a moderator for the SAP HANA and In-Memory space.

When I started moderating this space I was already an active contributor and thought that this would be an additional way to suppport community growth.

What do you think is most important in your moderation?

I don’t believe in “Gatekeeping” but instead try to follow the “Gardener” approach.

This means I don’t want to moderate content ‘out’ that I don’t agree with or where I personally think it’s bad. Instead I try to guide users into the borders of the RoE and provide feedback to content.

What are the differences between moderating a small vs. large community?

Good question – I guess the volume of posts that need to be moderated increases.

That’s one of the reasons why I think every space should have at least two moderators.

In fact, I think the best approach would be to have a whole lot of moderators; similar to what they do over at Stackoverflow.

If you could offer one bit of advice to new members or new moderators what would it be and why?

My advice would be to read a lot. Other blogs, websites, books, papers – “whatever tickles your fancy”. See what you like and why and maybe try to write something you’d like to read.

How has the SCN community helped you?

Obviously I got a lot of very nice feedback and kudos from the community.

That’s really a nice thing. And the community is a really good playground to practice writing.

Have you ever attended TechEd?

Yes, I have been to several TechEds and usually was there to present different topics.

I think these events are a good opportunity to get exposed to a lot of SAP technology and the people behind it in a very short time frame.

What is your favorite food?

I really like sushi in general and have a hard time refusing chocolate.

Is there another moderator or community member that you’ve found incredibly helpful? 

There are a couple of people in SCN that I think do an awesome job and moved the community forward big time.

If I would have to drop names these would be the one that come into my mind first:Jim Spath and  Lucas Oliveira

How do you think the way you were raised affected your Career?

As a boy I was with the boy scouts. Helping others and trying to make things better are big topics there.

I think I still try to do that and it definitively did not have a negative effect on my career.

Name the person who affected you most in your career/ way of thinking and why?

A colleague from a former company, Frank. I worked with him in Vienna and he really adjusted my perspective on how to be a professional employee.

What do you most enjoy on SCN?

When people share actual experiences and insights in an entertaining and intriguing way.