Last year we introduced the Popular Content Widget in SCN to help expose some great content that is getting positive feedback from the community with views, likes, shares, ratings, etc.  After some experience with the widget, we’re not so happy with the performance of how that’s working.  In practice, the widget is not showing the best content.

So… we’re trying something new.  We are piloting the use of the “Top Liked Content” widget.  And so far we “like” how it works.

• It’s been showing some great content that has lots of views, social shares, and lots of comments / discussion on the topic. 
• It seems to also be showing some of the fresher content in the community and in spaces – bringing to light some of the interesting recent topics.
• We also expect that , as members become more aware that likes drive content to these widgets, we’ll start to see more use of the SCN Like button (right) to help promote content that members think is really valuable and worth showing to the community.

We’re piloting the widget in the following spaces:

• SCN Homepage (likes for the last week)
• ABAP Development
• About SCN
• SAP ERP Human Capital Management
• HANA In Memory
• Enterprise Asset Management

There are some parameters that are adjustable, so we currently are using these parameters for the pilot:

• Duration:  Options are Today, Last Week, and Last Month.  On the homepage, because it’s covering such a wide range of content, we are showing only the content that has received the most SCN Likes over the last week.  However, in all the subspaces, we are showing content with the most likes for the last month.
• Number of Items:  We’re currently showing 6 items for most widgets.  10 in the About SCN space.
• Content types:  For the most part we’re showing only blogs and documents and not showing discussions, polls, etc.

We started piloting last week and then will soon deploy to all spaces.  Let us know your thoughts and input!

Chip

A few weeks ago Gali handed over the responsibility for the "Moderator spotlight" since she is now managing the "Ignite" project. I was really pleased as the moderator Spotlight is the way the SCN community team thanks an individual moderator for his exemplary work he is doing on SCN.

I'm proud to present my first "Moderator Spotlight", Juergen Lins, who many of you know as Juergen L. We decided to nominate Juergen for his community spirit and endless efforts in moderation (especially in SAP MM and ILM spaces) and helping other community members. We would like also to thank him for his support in the gamification project. In the interview below you can read about Juergen's SCN insights, special hobbies and good advice. I'm sure you will enjoy reading this as much I enjoyed his Blog It forward post.

Please share with the Community a little about yourself

I am from Germany and live in a village, 30 km east of Frankfurt together with my wife and my daughter.

In my neighborhood you can find representatives from all the European Countries, however the main reason we chose to live here (of course influenced by my wife) is that the biggest comprehensive school of Germany is located nearby. One of its attractive features is that the school allows children to learn a large variety of languages. I'm proud to say that my company, Evonik Industries AG, sponsored a Cyber-Classroom with 3D equipment for chemistry teaching.

I live actually only 10 minutes from one of Evoniks' major plants, but unfortunately I have to pass it and drive another hour to the plant in Darmstadt, where I work.

This long drive gives me a lot of time to enjoy my hobby which is listening to audio books, which I also do when I have to do my other hobby that I get assigned to by my wife: ironing. I mostly like to listen to Science Fiction (Eschbach, Crichton) and Thrillers (Grangé, Deaver, Forsyth).

When did you join the SCN community? 

I joined the SCN community on Sept. 1st  2005, but I am certain that I browsed the site earlier. I was probably after information about ALE because it was my first migration project where we started to extract the data using ALE instead of downloading table by table to Excel and Access. I am sure I found the answer in existing content, even though SDN was less than 2 years online. It always takes me a longer time until I sign up anywhere in the web, and it took another 2 years until I asked the first question. It is still open. In 2007 I started as well to answer questions. It is just a habit of mine, that I help others as I get helped by others in my issues.

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

There is not much difference in moderation; it is just less work in a small community. If every 10th question is a basic question, then you may see 3 per day in a large community and maybe only one per month in a small community. You may even have a blind eye to keep the community alive. A community with no activity doesn't attract the audience.

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

I can just repeat what was already said by Rob Burbank and Kesavads Thekkillath : Take care about what you post. It will be visible forever in the Internet. Take some effort to formulate your question and do a Spell check. I am sure that employers will investigate your history in social networks. I also recommend reading the SCN rules of engagement and following what Rob has written in Asking Good Questions in the SCN Discussion Spaces will help you get Good Answers will help you get good answers.

How has the SCN community helped you?

It is one of my preferred sources of information. It also helped me a lot as I've only needed to ask 11 questions since I am here. I have my personal search cascade: SAP Marketplace for SAP notes, help.sap.com, SCN as well as additional sites via Google search. The sequence of the first 3 may vary depending in the issue I need to solve.

How are you finding the new SCN?

It is already more than year since the change was made. In the beginning it was quite different from the old forum and I missed one or more functions that I had used for moderation. However the forum is made for people, not for few moderators. I think that our job as IT folks, is to deal with changes every day. We constantly build new applications and new solutions for our customers so I could never understand all the people who complained about that change.

How are you finding the new gamification platform?

Contrary to the SCN change, it looks like gamification gets much more positive feedback. I am personally undecided yet. I have never been a gamer and it does not give me any extra motivation. However, I assume it is anyway not meant to encourage highly motivated people. My daughter asks every day if I got a new badge and how many points I have made. She sat next to me during the tests and was really fascinated. Time changes, the new generation is the people who grew up with computer games. If they can be attracted to the gamification, then it is a good thing. I will get used to it.

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

I have to name Jyoti Parkash who helps to keep MM clean. And certainly Thomas Zloch and Rob Burbank (who may not even know that I am a real fan of his blog: Asking Good Questions in the SCN Discussion Spaces will help you get Good Answers.

Not to forget the whole SAP SCN team that is really incredible in their communication and interaction.

Share a fun fact/story about yourself that people don't know

Last year a colleague who sat 2 desks from me, was looking for a solution in a question related to Intrastat and third-party orders. She searched SCN and found a related discussion and was really happy. She printed it and showed it to others. I just asked her if she trusts everything she reads on the Internet. She looked for the identity of the author to see how knowledgeable he was and discovered it was meJ

What is your favorite food?

Pizza is the No 1, followed by Chinese, Mexican and Indian food. I like it hot.

What is the best lesson your parents taught you?

Listen to people before you speak.

If you were given by your work a full day every week to do whatever you feel like, what would it be?

I actually have a full day off every week to reduce my overtime. I use it to relax, reading a book, going shopping, watching a movie and answering questions in SCN

If you were not in your current position, what/where would you be and why?

I guess I would be a tourist guide, as I really love to stay in foreign countries and work together with different cultures. I had done it once in India. I didn't guide people through touristic places but I did help them at the border, in the hotel check-in, and organizing day trips.

Moshe: Thanks a lot to Juergen for participating in my first "Moderator Spotlight". Click here if you wish to read previous "Moderator Spotlight" issues. Please feel free to use the comments section to ask him more questions.

It was a great honour to be tagged by Jyoti Prakash in Blog it Forward which was originally initiated by Moshe Naveh and really, this is quite interesting to know about each others in the SCN community.

Place of my Birth

Among four religions Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism & Sikhism which were originated in India, I belong to Hinduism. Born and brought up in Chennai which is a shortened form of Chennaipattanam (formerly known as Madras), capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and Coromandal Coast of Bay of Bengal.

Some of the entertaintments in Chennai are

Beach

National Park

Zoo

About Family

Father is a retired teacher and Mother is a home maker.  I have two younger brothers and one sister who are all well settled.  I have one son Kaushal, aged 11 years and I regret at this stage that I lost many memorable days when he was a kid doing many naughty things which I never seen him doing those and my wife had to update me once I returned from office late night.  I was not giving much importance to personal life till few years back.

In the above snap, my son is carrying my sister's son Bhargav who is aged one and a half years old and also very naughty.

About Career

I started my career in 1988 as a Stenographer, worked in various industries.  Before entering into an IT industry, I worked for a famous TVS Group of Companies for 15 years and the details about this Group Company is as under:-

TVS Group - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

During my initial period here, I was a junior management staff and subsequently rose to the position of senior managerial staff, taking care of Domestic and Export Sales.  At this time only, golden opportunity knocked the door for me where the Management were planning to implement SAP and being a senior member for one of their manufacturing divisions (note - this division have some 15 plants in and around India and a few abroad), I have been identified as a Super User for SD process to implement SAP for all those plants.  Since I need to give basic training to end users / attend day today issues, I have no other choice but to learn on my own the complexities /  intricacies in SAP.  So through one of my friends, I came to know about SCN (formerly SDN) and became a member in August 2007.  I never went to any institute to learn SAP.  Whatever I learnt is from SCN and in order to reciprocate the same to SCN / community members, I share my knowledge whatever I know.

Social Service

1) Donated blood more than 30 times and continuing this

2) Contributing to few orphanages regularly as much as I can (not for Income Tax purpose but just I felt very happy when I do this)

3) Rendering free service to SCN (sorry to mention here)

Coming to the three questions which JP has raised

1. If you could be a super hero(frictional) who would you be?

I dont want to be a super hero for whatever reasons.  I just would like to be as a normal human being with lot of care on environmental and  other human beings.  In fact, it is my ultimate goal that I should never ever hurt others and I am managing quite well excepting on few occasions where I got some negative comments in SCN for the way I moderate. I never regret for that as it is part and parcel of our life.

2.  If you have spare time, what 3 activities you do (other than being on SCN)?

a)  Watching Sports / comedies / old movies in TV

b)  Listening to music

c)  Spending time with my family

3. What was the most fun project you ever participated in and why?

Since I know shorthand, during some important meetings with clients, I used to note down some important points in shorthand.  Many of my colleagues while watching this turned their face to me as if I was an alien writing some unknown language and asked me what are you doing ?  After I explained them that I know short hand, they stared at me and asked to read once again what I noted in shorthand. Once I complete the long sentence (most importantly, without omitting any word), they said "unbelievable".

Blog it Forward

Though I have many names in SCN as my all time favourites like

Marilyn Pratt

Julius von dem Bussche

to name a few, in the Blog it Forward chain, whatever I had in mind, I could see all those names are listed.   Nevertheless, I Blog It Forward Chain to

Jignesh Mehta

Shiva Ram

who are also one of the oldest members in SCN and still contributing.

My questions to them are

1)  Have you not been into IT industry, which industry you would have chosen ?

2)  What was your dream job when you were schooling ?

3)  Have you ever hurt anybody knowingly and regretted after that ?

G. Lakshmipathi

On my reputation Missions, I can see the following completely impossible to finish Badge "Ready Set Go!" (Although I have already completed it) stuck at 86%.

Made me smile

Has anyone else seen crazy badges ?

Dell Stinnett blogged forward to me. Thanks Dell for that. And serious apologies for the delay in honoring the same.

For those of you who are not familiar with Moshe Naveh's challenge, you can read about it here. Or you can follow the trend #BIF on twitter. Frankly, it’s nice tempting and innovative initiative. Thanks! Moshe.

I’m, Jyoti Prakash from a country which is seventh-largest by area with many cultures thriving among over 1.2 billion people.

Yes, that’s INDIA.

I grew up in different parts of India. All credit goes due to my father’s profession, as he being a defense personal. Due to that, every second year, we were in new place with new people. And my subsequent, even my professional life spread across India. But, this gave me an opportunity to be part of different culture, religion, tradition, food & language.

I first can in association with software in 1994 starting with DOS & BASIC along with my first personal Sony Walkman. Below timeline will brief you about my other personal milestones.

In current company, I am working with some wonderful & energetic people. My role involves working as functional consultant for Order Management, Aftermarket and Distribution

I love to

• Travelling(off course! I never traveled outside India)
• Play around with Microsoft Excel & Strategic games like Edios Interactive Commando (Green Beret) Series & Microsoft Studios' Age of Empire Series.
• Reading books both frictional and non frictional
• Listening music(Mostly bollywood)

But, most of them are activities of past. Why?

As, now, my most of the time at home is spend with and around my son, Nathan. His energy level & stamina is inspiration for me. I really love the way this 19 months old boy explores & play around with things.

In result, I’m trying to shade out little weight. In fact, I lost 22 pounds in 6 months. Wish to continue the same.

Below are my answers for 3 Questions asked by Dell.

a. What 5 things do you absolutely want to achieve in life?

1. @SCN: want to don role as SAP Mentor
2. As part SAP career, definitely want to be Manager for end to end SAP implementation.
3. From family point view, I would like to encourage, aspire & providing foundation to my child/children to be Global Citizen.
4. Socially want to take greater initiative and be part of global movement for Global Warming.
5. I would want to write, direct & produce an animation documentary.

b. If you could be a super hero (or are in your spare time) who would you be?

Hmm… Interesting!!! This made me think really hard…As there many real life heroes to follow. But comic super hero?

So what I did is I took an online superhero questionnaire to know to which Super Hero my personally matches. In that process I get this:

What I
understood form above that u want to do lot of thing also u want write a
lot…but if u  focus on one thing then it
will be better means if u want to wr4ite about ur relationship with ur father
or how ur father job impacted in your life…..(If you could be a super hero (or
are in your spare time) who would you be?)
lets do it in simple way…

U write both
of the story ..then we will make which one is better…

And I will go with it. So,

In brightest day, in blackest night,
Despite our shape, our size, our height,
We're birds who walk, which isn't right,
But starting now, we will take flight!

c. What was the most fun project you ever participated in and why?

I'm fortunate to be associated with some good people and project.

But, nearest to my heart is my assignment & association @SAP India during 2008-09,where I was member pre-sales SAP consulting team for public sector.

• Privileged to work along with some renowned name’s in SAP, (but, unsung on SCN) like, Srinivas Kolluru, Yogesh Seth, Anupam Garg, Ripu Daman Singh, Santunu Chatterjee & Rajiv Jain.
• Got real expose to cross functional role.
• Continuous hunger to learn more and every day.
• Mindset & work attitude for gearing & replicating to achieve something BIG.

Blog it Forward

I like to forward this to:

G Lakshmipathi, who is my idol in SCN and simply genius.

Ivano Raimondi, who one best contributor in SAP SD Billing topics space. To refer to him, definitely, he would propose the best solution possible.

Questions I'd like that I Blog it Forward to answer:

1. If you could be a super hero(frictional) who would you be?
2. If you have spare time, what 3 activities you do (other than being on SCN)?
3. What was the most fun project you ever participated in and why?

A tip of the hat to Jason Cao for including me in the blog-it-forward meme here on SCN.

Inspiration? Accomplishment? Super-powers?

Grab a cup of tea and share a moment...

Inspiration

Right there, on August 31^st, 2010, on page eighteen of “Thomas Jefferson Education for Teens” by Oliver Demille and Shannon Brooks, was the moment of inspiration. I’ll share with you from the text: Level One is to read the book and take notes in it. Yes, write in the book! Well, of course.  What an epiphany.  It’s my book; why shouldn’t I write in it?  Where else will I capture my thoughts of the moment and have debates with the author and figure things out.  What else am I going to do, remember all these things?  No! Act now!  Write it down.  Reading with a pen in my hand turns it into a conversation.  Oh, and the things I’ve said to and asked of some important people. Malcom Gladwell wouldn’t be pleased with my rebuttals; Walker Percy is taking his time getting back to me.

And then again, in Montreal, February 2012, in a workshop on how to be creative (doesn’t that sound like an oxymoron?), during an exercise with post-it notes used to brainstorm: lightning! This is me, this is what I am! I’m a creative! And all this time I’ve been good at the analytic, the technical, the computational, all floating on top of an undercurrent of creative expression trying to get out. Inspiration is in these little discoveries, these Seth Godin-esque insights from just a bit off-center that open the floodgates.

Accomplishment

Have you ever truly finished a project?  Some people specialize at that final ten percent that takes as much effort (and perhaps more skill) as the heavy lifting accomplished in the first ninety percent.  Paint a room? Don’t forget to do the trim; wash the dishes after dinner; or, in my case, tune the guitar once it’s made.  You’re looking at a project that took me over three years of fits, starts, and effort. I built this guitar for one of my children from finding the plans, doing the woodwork, tapping in the frets, applying the veneer, painting, sanding and buffing the finish, wiring the pickups and drilling for the tuners.  It works.  I’m proud. And I doubt I’ll attempt another for a long, long time.

Super-Powers

Oh, but if I were to have a super power, it would be memory recall and the ability to make connections among what I once knew.  I’m talking beyond “where did I leave my glasses?” or “who was the 45^th president?”* or even remembering the name of the guy who walked up to me at the conference saying “Dennis!  How are you? Haven’t seen you since gave us that presentation back in February!”  No, I'm talking about instant recall of that article you read, that way you solved the problem in the past, the spiritual insight from the sermon, that economic truth, and the ability to relate whatever it was to the situation at hand.  For if knowledge is power, and past experience is a collection of knowledge, then connecting knowledge and experience is a super power, through which I could help someone, solve the challenge, connect two people together, see through the charlatans, and perhaps impress someone with the apt quip from Shakespeare, but alas, expectation is the root of all heartache.

Me? I pine for memory and my glasses.

*did I get you there? And seriously, if you come across my glasses, let me know.

Samuli Kaski is the Member of the Month for May 2013. We connected via Skype yesterday afternoon and talked for an hour and a half - another long interview that I enjoyed! As soon as Samuli and I started talking about French politics, I knew we would run over ;-)

Samuli is “fresh from the plane” if I may say (I hope he won’t mind!) – he moved to the US in September 2012 to work for a medical device company. It is always nice to chat with fellow European expatriates in the US.

He has been very helpful in the Discussions, covering many topics. He is very goal oriented and comes to SCN with a mission: help people (and he's probably going to complete one of the new SCN missions very quickly!). He focuses on discussions where he can bring value, and seems to be helping people at a cadence that many would envy, and for sure many are thankful for that. I knew before talking to Samuli that badges and points are not what drives him, but it was still good to get his feedback on SCN gamification.

In general I love talking with the Members of the Month, their dedication is inspiring and I always learn something technical, such as the concept of an SAP-provided enhancement framework as explained to me by Samuli, something I realized I already knew thanks to Amy King, Member of the Month in February 2013. Thank you guys!

Samuli, can you tell us a bit about yourself, where you live, who you work for, and other things you would like to share with the community (hobbies, fun facts)?

I am married and I live in Irvine, Orange Country, Southern California. I moved here from Finland in September 2012, my wife followed soon after. I work as a Senior SAP Portal Developer for Applied Medical, a company manufacturing medical devices right here in California. One year ago I decided to leave the SAP consulting business in which I had worked for 15 years and decided that it was time to work for a SAP customer. Actually not that much has changed, I still work with SAP technologies and create new solutions to support business needs. I started programming some 30 years ago with Basic, moved on to the 68k assembly language (Amiga forever) followed by the x86 assembly language and C and Java programming languages. In early 2000’s I got into ABAP and that is what I have been using for the past years, at least at work.

As much as I enjoy working with computers I also enjoy very primitive tasks, such as going to the cottage and cutting down trees. I love to travel, which I have done quite extensively. Recently on my visa application I listed 27 countries that I had visited in the past 5 years. Now that I live here in the United States, I will not be travelling as much but I will probably be able to visit places that would have been hard to visit had I stayed in Finland. I enjoy wine and good food (when someone else makes it), I try to work out but that is something I have neglected for the past year.

Note from Laure:

When asked about his favorite place – a tough question for someone who travels so much – Samuli replied with "Nice", a French city by the Mediterranean sea. [pronounced like “niece”] In Nice you enjoy the French Riviera atmosphere, the central location that makes it easy travel to other Mediterranean countries such as Spain, Italy, Greek islands, etc.

When did you become a member of SCN and what brought you to this community?

I joined SCN (SDN at the time) in 2005. I do not remember exactly why, I think I received an e-mail invitation from SAP after having been featured in a local edition of the SAP Info magazine, in Finland. They ran a story on my recent SAP NetWeaver certification at the time.

Ever since joining I have used SCN mainly to search information but sometimes also just to get new ideas and see what SAP has come up with. Recently, after having left the SAP consulting business behind, I have had more time to also contribute to SCN in the form of answering questions. I was quite inactive during my consulting career, mainly due to lack of time and also because sharing knowledge as a consultant has its pros and cons. [Note from Laure: read what Stephen Millard has to say about this!] During the past year I have spent more time on SCN than before.

I usually look for discussions where I can help, and I don’t spend time answering questions that don’t bring value to SCN because they’ve been discussed in the past and the answer is already out there on SCN.

Note from Laure: In a Moderator jargon, we would say that Samuli doesn’t spoon feed people ;-) Search before you post!

Your first post on SCN (under a different user ID) was in 2005 and it was you helping someone, not even asking something! That’s unusual for a “newbie”. Can you tell us if you joined SCN at that time to help, or if you were there watching before you decided to step in and help others?

To be honest I do not remember. I probably didn’t hesitate to chip in right away. I usually don’t, even if sometimes waiting and maturing an idea would be wiser.

Since then, you’ve been super active in the discussions, helping people in various areas. So many areas that I’m wondering how you do it all – but that’s for another question later in this interview. My question is: I know your expertise is SAP NetWeaver, but I’ve seen you active in Solution Manager, Business Workflow even, etc. Can you list all the spaces you’re active in on SCN and tell us why you have such broad interests?

I’m most active in the following spaces: ABAP Development, SAP NetWeaver Application Server, SAP ERP Human Capital Management, SAP NetWeaver Portal: Administration and Development, SAP NetWeaver Portal, Web Dynpro ABAP, SAP NetWeaver Administrator, SAP NetWeaver Single Sign-On, SAP Solution Manager, SAP NetWeaver Technology and Security.

I like to help in other spaces, but these are the ones where I am most active. The main reason for having such a broad interest is that they are all topics I’m familiar with, i.e. I have worked or am currently working with the solutions/technologies. The common thread between all these topics is Technology.

I have always had many hats on, developer and basis being the ones that stand out the most.  Out of the ones I listed I do not have a favorite one, maybe the Portal ones are the ones I enjoy the most.

How does SCN help you in your daily activities?

I mainly use SCN to search for information that I vaguely remember but which I need to look up to get the details. I also enjoy reading blogs and articles on subjects that interest me.

I use the activity streams to be kept up to date in my spaces of interest. I follow the most active contributors of “my” spaces, people that I select because I appreciate their content (my selection criteria is not points). Also, by nature, content from SAP employees is good and reliable.

Do you participate in events, where you may meet some of the people you know on SCN?

Yes I do. I used to attend TechEd every year when I was a consultant. Last year I didn’t make it but hopefully this year I’ll be able to go to Las Vegas. Recently, in February, I came to SAP Labs in Palo Alto to attend the User Interaction Customer Summit for SAP partners and customers, it was a one-day summit with customer success highlights, sessions about the future of the NetWeaver platform, and a part about user interface that was too short in my opinion.

I also attend ASUG meetings locally in Irvine, CA.

How do you find the time to contribute to SCN?

I usually wake up at 6am and go through my activity feed while drinking orange juice, before going to the gym to work out. Then I open SCN again when I’m in the office and I usually spend about an hour answering questions and going through my activity feed. I keep SCN open the whole day and whenever I need a break from work I have a look at my activity feed. Then, depending on the day, I might still come back in the evening at home just to check the latest activity. On a typical day I would say I spend 1-3 hours on SCN. On weekends I usually do not even logon to SCN.

What do you like most about the community in general?

I enjoy the people and quality content.

What technology recently had you most enthusiastic about?

It has to be SAP PLM 7.02 Web UI and Floorplan Manager for ABAP, because they are new. I’m also interested in SAPUI5 but since there is no business requirement for it in our company right now, it will have to wait.

You have three certifications, the most recent one is from March 2012 on SAP NetWeaver 7.0 Security. Do you have any statement or feedback about SAP certifications in general? Do you read what the community has to say about certifications, e.g. in the Career Center?

This latest certification was taken for free, a gift from SAP for being a topic leader. I do not even remember which space it was and it was with a SCN account that I do not have access to anymore. Regarding the certification process, I think it serves its purpose. The questions, at least on the professional level, are hard enough however I do think that there could be some other tests besides the multiple choice questions that anyone can memorize.

What do you think about the recent introduction of game mechanics on SCN (see Chip’s  blog)? We just went live with it last Sunday, April 28!

My initial reaction was quite pessimistic (someone may even say negative) but seeing the result it looks like it has its place. I do not plan to participate myself in the gaming part of it but I do enjoy the UI changes. If “Gamification” helps attract more contributing users to SCN I’m all for it.

If a new member came to you and asked for your advice on how to be an active and respected member of SCN, what would you say?

First of all I would advise the new member to always respect the rules of engagement. The second advice I would give would be to concentrate on the quality and not on the quantity.

Is there an SCN member you admire (OK… you can name a few)?

For years now I have enjoyed contributions from Detlev Beutner, Gregor Wolf and Dagfinn Parnas. Since then I have been following Thomas Jung who is now mostly active in HANA and UI5 areas. Currently there are about 20 people I follow on SCN for various reasons.

Easy question: Mac or Windows? Or Android?

I’m not a fan of Macs although I do enjoy other Apple products such as the iPad and the iPod. However, I do have an Android phone since I’m a sucker for the physical QWERTY keyboard. In other words I would have to say Windows although I would say Linux if I had it my way.

Note from Laure:

Here, we had to talk about Nokia since Samuli is Finnish. Nokia was a big deal of course in Finland, you had to own one, otherwise you were a “traitor”. Samuli and I agree that Nokia got too comfortable and rested on their laurels instead of investing and innovating. When asked about other well-known Finnish brands, Samuli mentioned  Marimekko, a designer brand. I have to check it out myself as I just discovered there is a store close to my place!

Are you on Twitter?

No, and I’m not on Facebook either. I try to avoid some as much as I can. My wife always teases me when I spend time on SCN or BMW forums, she says that I’m compensating for the lack of Facebook