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SCN Contribution - What now
29 Jun 2012I hope at least some of you have been following my posts of the last week about contributing to SCN. In this my final post in the series I thought I’d just wrap things up with a bit of a summary of what’s come before, some background to the series and something a little special that I hope all of you will take the opportunity to join in.
Summary
The series has discussed across four separate posts various points around the topic of contributing to SCN.
- Should I contribute to SCN?
- How can I contribute to SCN?
- How much should I contribute to SCN?
- Improving contributions to SCN.
In the first post I took a look at the initial hurdle of making the decision to contribute content to SCN. I balanced the factors and walked through the sorts of things that might sway your decision one way or the other. In the end the decision is one only the individual can make, but I think that for many people the option to contribute to SCN is one that can bring great rewards and opportunities.
In the second post I examined what actually constitutes a contribution and took a look at various mediums (discussions, blogs, documents, etc.) and their suitability for publishing different types of content. I also touched on some general ideas for things contributors might like to write about. A document was created so that the community could capture a whole range of inspirational ideas that could benefit both new and experienced contributors. If you haven’t already taken a look, please do and add an idea or two if you can.
In the third post I questioned the amount of content it is appropriate to contribute. Too much and you might put yourself, your peers and your employer at a disadvantage. However I offered up an approach which I think many people have perhaps unknowingly already adopted and tried to clarify what considerations should be made before establishing just how generous you might be with your content.
In the penultimate post of the series I offered up some ideas for ways in which the contributions to SCN could be improved. This covered not only ideas for improving the quality of contributions, but also ideas for how you can raise the profile of content, generate larger readerships and generally encourage the creation of more content.
Writing the series
SCN is an amazing resource and coming into the sphere of SAP I’m often staggered at how much content there is and how great the community spirit is. At the same time I can see vast reservoirs of untapped potential; the largest of which is surely the community itself. I truly believe that everyone has something really valuable to offer if they can just take the first step. It was that first step that I saw as the point where people most often falter and so never commit. That’s why I wrote these blogs.
I’ve tried to lead the reader through evaluating the situation and showing them just how much there is to gain by being more active. I’ve highlighted the things to be wary of as well as the things to embrace. I’ve set out the tools available and their uses along with some ideas for what to write. Finally I’ve offered some ideas for how to help make contributions better.
So I think I’ve laid some pretty solid foundations. Now the real challenge begins and that’s where I want your help.
The Challenge
Come Monday morning, the start of the next working week, it will be July 2012 the start of the Olympics - the world’s greatest set of sporting challenges. Today I’d like to lay down an SCN challenge to you:
During July contribute new content in at least three of the following ways:
- Create a blog post.
- Start a discussion topic.
- Provide an answer to a question on a discussion.
- Provide an opinion on a discussion.
- Post a status update.
- Add an idea to Idea Place.
- Create a poll.
- Create a wiki page.
- Update an existing wiki page.
- Create a document.
- Update a document.
- Convince someone else to add an item of content.
As a bonus challenge every day you logon to SCN try and find at least one piece of content to like and/or rate.
When you reach (or even exceed) the goal please come back and add a comment to this post with a link to the piece of content your proudest of (it could even be someone else’s).
Please do everything you can to encourage your colleagues to take part (especially if they’ve never done so before) in this challenge and let’s see what we can achieve.
And finally…
I hope you’ve enjoyed the series and that in some way it has made a difference for you. If you want to keep up with other posts I write or just see what I do, why not follow me on SCN, Twitter (@SAP_Stephen) and/or Google+?
