Last year I participated in SIT India at Bangalore. I was gratified with an opportunity to take a session as Mentor dipankar.saha3 had enough faith on my talents. I prepared my topic well, certainly with the help of my Mentor. The session was supposedly good and was tweeted by tom.cenens and fred.verheul. In my session I had said, I would try exploring different areas of SCN and not just blogs. Fortunately I find myself on the track although its happening unconsciously.
I was not an ardent user of old SCN and hence can't comment much on the difference between old and new SCN. However, one thing that comes handy in new SCN is once I click on Browse and then Discussion link under Contents, I can see all the ongoing discussions and hence can participate easily, in contrast to going to a particular space to participate in forums. Moreover one can participate in multiple forums based on discussion topic and need not search them at specific places e.g. I can participate in ABAP, ABAP Objects, Workflows, HCM etc. easily based on my area of working. As soon as I find a discussion wherein I can contribute my views, I can do it under discussion section. Thanks to the new design of SCN. Participating in forums has given me a lot of confidence on my skills. There had been many blogs wherein I used to ask the author how do I measure my skills, what are the benchmarks etc. In fact, me and michelle.crapo2 had a big discussion on this. I think I have found out the answer myself. Participating in forums is the best way to measure and rate my skills. I have realized after seeing various discussions that there are many areas which I have worked on but have not kept myself updated with e.g. Workflows, CJ20N, functional aspects of HCM etc.
Not only that but also it propels me to discover new areas e.g Web-Dynpros so that I can contribute in that space as well. It makes me happy that participating in Online HANA Innojam makes me answer few questions in HANA space as well. Had it not been for the new design of SCN I would never have participated in discussions! I have also realized few strange facts in forums that might me my personal observation. There are many times wherein a thread is moved to although it should not have been. I see similar or even simpler threads still been retained at appropriate spaces. On top of this, the question gets moved after getting answered. Not sure why this happens!
Participating in forums gives me a chance to compete with the best in that area. When we contribute we not only help the one who ask the question but also ourselves. The enthusiasm to participate in discussions makes me more efficient at work so that I finish my work perfectly within my working hours and then participate in discussions. Different answers from other contributors give ideas to solve the same problem in another way.
Another fact that I really find interesting is the people whom we interact while answering their questions. There are two threads which are my favourites. See them and you would get the reason. They themselves found the answers and shared back with us!
1. http://scn.sap.com/thread/3187388
2. http://scn.sap.com/thread/3173062
No amount of points can ever match the feeling I get when someone says Thank You or likes my answer.
In my session at SIT, I said I would contribute in Wiki space as well and again I find myself doing that unconsciously but good that I have realized them now and hence writing this blog. I have participated in wikis with as much authorizations as provided :neutral:
I have lately realized that documentation of anything that we learn is must else we loose our experience. As a result I have documented my recent learnings in HCM area as wiki and document and I feel very very happy and satisfied, although I am yet to complete the wiki :wink: . Looks like the blog finally contains everything that I have recently done in SCN but that’s not the crux of this blog rather I want to share the feeling of participating in new SCN. If anyone is having a different opinion, feel free to comment.
