Care In The Community

Sorry about the title…i couldn’t resist (it’s probably a UK only joke though i’d imagine?)

I was on my home computer late last night and it was nearly midnight so before i shut down for the night i randomly thought to myself

“I wonder if Vlad’s posted anything tonight”

I have no idea why, of all the webpages i could have visited i thought of Vlad’s specific blog…..bit spooky but anyway

He had a post called Why are we losing these great community resources?. It’s well worth a read and he makes some very honest and valid points (as always!) about people taking lots out of the SBS community and then wondering where it’s gone when they haven’t put anything back

I’ll be completly honest i’m still all pretty new to the community concept. The community was something i picked up on when we first started the business. I found blogs, wikis, podcasts, videocasts, events, groups and most important of all great people who have a lot of knowledge and want to help other people. I decided i’d quite like to get involved in something like that which was what inspired me to create this blog in the first place. My aim was to get the business SBSC accredited and become more involved in person as opposed to just online. I passed the exam last week (though i’m still waiting for it to show up on my Live ID so i can actually sign up!) and i’ve been really pleased with some of the feedback i get from the my little bit of the internet (here!)

But after reading Vlad’s post it made me think, “what have I put back?”

Now i’m not keeping score, and it was late but the list in my head was something like this

• I write this blog (small contribution)
• I comment on other people’s blogs (get me a MVP! quick!)
• I paid for Jeff Middleton’s Swing Migration (granted i got a lot out of that!)
• I paid for Harry Brelsford’s SMB Consulting Best Practices (again i also got a lot out of that)
• I replied to the survey that’s been put out this week (1 reply to a generic survey that helps MS more than the community as such)

It’s not a very long list…..and even if i could think of some more i get far more out than i put back in

So i was thinking “what can i do straight away”

What was even more spooky was Vlad’s next post, SBS Chat, and it seemed to answer that question straight away. The chat was due to start virtually as i was reading it which was even more spooky (SBS Karma catching up with me?)

So i thought i’d lose my SBS chat virginity and show my virtual face.

I was a little apprehensive as i’m just little old me and i wasn’t sure if i’d be able to contribute anything but at least i’d be able to see how it all works (getting more out again!!)

So i logged in and straight away i see lots of names i recognise (they were lots more people there and i saved a list….but i left my pen drive at home!!!)

Vlad, Jeff, Dana, Susan, Andy (Goodman) to name but a few

This was a big deal to me….they are SBS-blogging celebrities and i was like some star stuck 13-year old scared to speak in case i said anything stupid

So after i said hello they all thought i was after the free t-shirt Vlad has promised for the 20th person to login  (congratulations Mark!)   This didn’t inspire me with confidence!

It’s been a long time since i used a chat room with tons of different conversations going on at the same and in combination with the latenss of the hour i struggled to follow it in parts. I did eventually keep up and tried to join in where i could and hopefully i wasn’t the annoying newb

I did enjoy it even though some of the conversation i was completly lost on as it was more US focussed (the weather in Florida/price of laptops & tablet pcs) i was sad when i finally had to log off (the fact it was 2:30am made it a bit easier though) and i left with lots to reflect on (which meant i didn’t get to sleep till about 3:30am!)

I’m hoping that isn’t my first foray into the monthly sbs chat but the lateness probably means i wont to all of them. Does anyone know if there is a UK equivalent?

There is one thing i’m working on for the blog i hope will be a useful contribution…but thats all i’m saying for now

Thanks to everyone who made the effort to speak to me last night and hope to catch again