What have I missed in the last 3 months?

[Former Member]

Hi SDN and BPX Insiders,

You are an insider if you are frequenting this forum. The more I think about it the more I like our Coffee Corner.

If you only drive by this site you would never know or find out about this forum. You have to be in here for a while or stumble upon it while digging deeper trying to find out what else is going on.

This is why it is the right place to ask: "What happened in the last 3 months" that I was on <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/finnern/487715554/">family leave</a>?

It is my first day back. O.K. I didn't totally unplug. I checked email on my crackberry just so it is manageable now that I am back.

These are some of the things that I know happened:

- Shai left SAP to bring his talents to renewable energy. It is unfortunate, he was a big proponent of this site and our events. One of the positive outcomes is that he showed is loyalty by posting a lot here and we are really grateful for that.

- Justin Kestelyn, Oracle Technology Network's editor-in-chief wrote: "I find SDN to be a rather pale imitation of OTN (but hey, I'm biased)." I am biased too, may write a blog about that statement. What I would like to see is how many users are on their site right now. Our record with 1697 users and 857 guests is really good and I wonder why they are not sharing that for everyone to see as we do.

- In three of the Sapphire keynotes Community was an important topic. Excellent. Someone told me that Hasso mentioned that there will be <i>no new SAP product without community</i>.

- Hasso playing a more active role again. Would be great if he found time to post his thoughts here too. One can hope.

- I in part moderated the SAP Research Summit, where all of SAP's researchers came together for a couple of days of networking. I would extend Hasso's notion to research projects. If you are not able to create a small passionate community around your topic, you may have to adjust your focus. Of course the problems are in the details like IP sharing ...

- We now have 10 industries in the BPX area. Wow. Lots of blog posts that I have to check out. From a community perspective they have arrived once they have active wiki spaces as well as forums.

- Talking about the wiki, I hear it really took off and may have even surpassed the blog area regarding page views.

- Some rumbling about us moderators being to harsh or not harsh enough?

What else happened that I am missing? Eager to find out and get back into the groove.

Have missed you all a bit, or at least being active in here, Mark.

[thomas_jung]

The biggest event is that thanks to its proliferation on Twitter, we now have the latest drink sensation for the ubergeek elite - Rum Dew. This tasty treat combines Mountain Dew with Cuban Bacardi Rum (except in the USA where we get the non-Cuban stuff - honest we wouldn't have brought any back from from that bar in Amsterdam at TechEd last year). I predict that this drink will become the official beverage of TechEd 07.

On a more serious note, it sure is good to have you back. I'm sure you enjoyed your time off with your family - but your SDN family missed you.

I bet you have already seen the cool stuff Craig has done in Second Life. I'm looking forward to the future day when I can attend virtual TechEd inside Second Life in my bunny slippers and avoid sore feet altogether. Now if we could only get Craig to sponsor a World of Warcraft SDN clan.

You've also obviously noticed the Coffee Corner has taken off as well. I agree with you that it is really nice to have a place to unwind and share thoughts that are a bit on the lighter side (certainly this response falls in that category). When I finally get my head above water with everything I have going on, I want to spend more time participating in the Coffee Corner as well.

[Former Member]

Not to mention Jaeger Night.

You also missed the "outing" of the SDN and BPX Advisory Boards although no names will be named.

Second Life I told you about last night

"Profiles" you know as well

and that other thing...

I think the rest is either blogged or someone here as or will mention it shortly.

Oh and yesterday I launched SDN TV "LIVE"

[suresh_datti]

There is always so much action on SDN that you never really have to worry about what you 'missed'.. & yes I like the Cofee Corner..

anyway, two things you probably missed were the World Cup Cricket discussions and the Gareth Ellem impersonation episodes..

Welcome back..

~Suresh

[Former Member]

May I add that both are over.