Sap Community is sinking
It isn't sunk but it's slowly sinking. But something needs to happen. I can't change the platform - but what can I do?
The experiment
Cross-post the same blog into SAP Community and Linkedin. The results approximately 4500 views on Linkedin and approximately 900 views on SAP Community. Oh boy - bad result. And there were a lot more comments on Linkedin.
And some great numbers Robert Russell's blog on the answers in the community.
BTW - I intend to read how to move around easier veselina.peykova has some great blogs.
SO I received a suggestion for a Linkedin Connection:
I was asked questions:
Why should I join the SAP Community and Partner with SAP?
It will be one of the best places to find answers, new technology, open courses, and it will only get better with each person that logs on. It is hard to find things, but dig enough and it is there. And if you want the marketing - that's here as well.
Why do YOU like SAP?
I've loved SAP since I started working on it back in 1997. It is a platform that is constantly and consistently evolving nothing stays the same. How cool is that? From a pure technical view it is, well it is FUN! I've gotten to play in the functional and technical areas. There is new cloud things coming our way. Fiori and Personas sound so cool. I am a fan girl. What about you? (Not why a should my company buy it, why do you like it?)
That made me kind of dance around. OK - yes I'm strange. But I get really excited talking about all the technology. Where we were, where we can go. So as he made me more happy, and less grumpy about the SAP community. He asked so more questions.
How would I bring new people with new ideas to SAP Community?
Such a hard question. Such an easy answer. I'm going to tell everyone I talk with in SAP land about how the community is getting better and can only be better if more people are here.
How much I would benefit from them stopping in. Then explain that they would like the NEW community that included them.
In other words, simply I'm going to bring a friend.
What is in it for me?
Knowledge is free. Sharing it is free. The community was a strong place to get the information. Come here - you get free courses. Come here - you get open discussions. Come here - it is getting better. As you come back think about all the other people you talk to in SAP land. Send them back.
As they come back keep giving ideas not only about SAP itself but about how you can strengthen the community by bringing one more person back.
The comments
A large amount of you are right, or I totally agree with you. That's good for the ego, but bad for our community. The big comment that helped me the most is "don't give up". I had given up. Now I'm going to try to help.
Here are some comments:
- Paid platform - that one wasn't well liked.
- The following needs to change: The technology, the Strategy, and Engagement. That one covered it all.
- It would be good if everyone who cares about it, we are a seriously large team if we go for it, starts looking at how can we get this right and we can channel our energy to push SAP in the right direction.
- TechEd, the SAP Community team showed the roadmap and some ideas how it's going to be changed. From what I have seen, I am very much looking forward to that changes because that will bring the community spirit back. One of the "big" things for me is that they want to group tags into spaces so that one can follow a space. Also, Brian Bernard is working on reducing tags since there are definitely too many. Give them a few more months to implement the desired changes and we will see a turnaround in the number of users, questions, blogs, etc.
- Use stackoverflow - a different site
- Paul flagged your post for me, Michelle. I read it. It's very fair. I've heard this from many others, as well. There is no lack of consensus within SAP that we broke this. I used to post on the old SCN myself. I liked the brutal truth I got in the comments. I liked the knowledge transfer between professionals. We should never have made this feel like a marketing vehicle. More broadly, I believe SAP has an obligation to get out and participate wherever the conversations are taking place - including here, on Dennis's site, etc. The "fake thought leadership" has to end. This is an industry problem - too much noise, not enough genuine perspective!!! In short - please stay on us about restoring this community. I don't expect my words to satisfy you. Insist on action. Hold me personally accountable. My appreciation to all who have commented here for your honesty and openness. We WILL earn back your trust!!! Empowering the voice of the community WILL galvanize SAP!!
- I want to reinforce Bill's commitment here; we are absolutely committed to restoring the Community program to deliver the value you expect. First and foremost it needs to represent our commitment to a connection with our customers, partners and developers and that will always be our foundation. I just returned with my team from TechEd where we got a lot of "tough love" just as you are offering here, Michelle. All fair. We did share our new user experience at TechEd and got some early optimism about that direction both there and in this post. We're optimistic but we know we have much to do to deliver the platform you need and to draw the people and content back. As many have mentioned here the world is very different than when SCN was built and we have a much larger landscape of users, platforms, and business use cases to consider. But we believe the foundation of rebuilding the experiences SCN offered is core to our success and a solid starting point for us. As Bill said, don't let us relax or lower our sights on this. We will get this right.
- True, there are multiple issues. 1) All experienced people are not contributing to it anymore. I see only very few experts who are contributing. 2) SAP community - search capability is pretty bad. 3) Lot of Articles have been archived and the links does not work( as you mentioned). 4) Even the google search brings in more marketing stuff than the actual technical results. 5) Filters are not used very effectively in the postings.
- I used to be top contributor in SDN, back in 2005 I even got a free registration award to attend TechED for being a top contributor. Nowadays I don’t even go there as The community page has been made so complicated to find what u need. We abide by Run Simple and yet make our community page complicated and often used lot of marketing contents. We need this platform though where the purpose is we share our knowledge and help each other, educate yourself.
Picture From: https://www.flickr.com/photos/10159247@N04/14422484860/
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