What is...

created by Tal Magen-Goldstein on Mar 14, 2012 1:15 PM, last modified by Helen Zemlerub on May 7, 2012 2:49 PM

The Business Process Expert Community (BPX) and SAP Developer Network (SDN), offer a variety of ways to collaborate, share, and learn. All of these have unique features that make each one of them the perfect vehicle to meet your needs.

Over the next paragraphs, we will introduce the different media types, technologies, and collaboration resource to you.

What is a Forum?

Forums or message boards on the Internet allow users to post questions or discussion topics and invite the respective community to react. One such discussion is a forum thread. In this thread, people reply to the original message or reply to previous answers, so oftentimes – regardless of whether the original post was aiming at getting an answer or starting a discussion – the thread ends in a discussion.Forums can be public or restricted to members of a certain community. In most cases, replying or posting new forum threads requires you to be logged in. This applies to BPX and SDN too: The form threads can be read by anybody, posting your own messages requires login. Usually, forums are moderated by an administrator who watches over guideline and policy violations and tries to keep the discussion reasonable.Click here to learn how to post and answering forum questions.

What are a Blog, a Podcast, and a Video Blog?

Originally, a blog is a kind of online diary where writers (bloggers) talk about their lives and share their views and opinions on everything that’s going on with or around them – from food to politics. On BPX and SDN, blogs can be used for short, unofficial announcements, to share experiences, thoughts, and opinions, or to point to other publications, like a new demo or article. A very important feature of a blog is that it allows for reader comments.Today, new technologies not only allow for traditional written blogging but also oral blogging (podcasting) and even "shown" blogging (video blogging)Learn how to post your own blogs.

Traditional Blogs

The “traditional” blog is ultimately a web site with text and/or links and/or graphics on it. Its purpose usually is to quickly share individually relevant information, concerns, opinions, thoughts… This forum thread makes an attempt to define blogs: They're "small articles about lots of things".PodcastsPodcast is the term used to describe an audio version of a weblog, the thoughts, ideas, theories, strategy or otherwise conversation of a person or persons done in audio format (typically MP3) format and then made available for playback on a webpage or for download into a MP3 player.More information:
Contributor Corner - PodcastingVideo Blogs“Video Blog” is the term used to describe an visual diary or log of a person or persons using a webcam or other video camera equipmentwhich is then made available for playback on a webpage or for download.More information:
Contributor Corner - Video Blogging
Community TV

What is a Wiki?

Generally, the term Wiki refers to a collaborative website that allows visitors to change or add contents. Most of you have already visited Wikipedia for information on just about anything. This online encyclopedia has been created – and is still being expanded – by the help of a large community of people where each person had his or her special area of expertise, so they wrote about it. If someone knew more, he or she added it. If someone was able to translate an entry, they translated it. This is an example of a great Wiki. Technically, the Wiki lets you do everything you can do with any website, i.e. add links and graphics or attach files.For a simple introduction to Wikis, see this Commoncraft videoClick here to learn collaborating on the Wiki

What is a Round Table on BPX and SDN?

Round Tables provide each BPX member with an opportunity to join forces with others in a group to discuss and work on a topic of joint interest. The participants of a Round Table use the available community tools such as Wiki, blogs, forums etc. in combination to build out a virtual environment for their collaboration. The Round Tables themselves can have different objectives; e.g. you can use them in order to discuss innovation and thought leadership topics, build out business commodities, or to learn from each other.Irrespective of what the goals of a Round Table are, all of them have the same characteristics:

Focused: Each Round Table has a defined topic
Coached: Each Round Table has a host and a facilitator
Result driven: Each Round Table has specified deliverables
Temporary: Each Round Table has a limited life span
Committed: Participants commit their contribution to the round table

What is an Article on BPX and SDN?

Articles on the BPX or SDN community are document publications which explain their topic in great detail and are a reliable source of information because not only do they usually state their creation date and – if applicable – product release, but they also go through an editorial approval process. The term “articles” incorporates whitepapers, how-to guides, case studies, best practices, transcribed interviews, , and documentations - basically everything that can be published in PDF format.Click here to learn how to publish articles on BPX and SDN.

What is an eLearning on BPX and SDN?

The term “eLearning” on BPX and SDN refers to all kinds of educational material that is available online and can be consumed at your computer. These e-learnings can appear in a variety of formats, some of which require you to download special viewing software. SeeeLearning Techical Requirements for details.Here are some examples of e-learnings:

Demos or e-books usually comprise of a screencam presentation, i.e. a video of what is happening on a computer screen, and audio explanations that illustrate step by step what a person is doing with a computer mouse on the screen. These demos or e-books are useful to introduce a user interface or to guide you through the detailed process of working with a solution. Most demos or e-books are created as a flash file and don’t require you to download any special software apart from the browser plug-in.
A SAP Tutor file is in some ways similar to a demo, but it most often is an interactive demo that needs you to actively click in an indicated area or perform other little tasks to continue. It’s an interactive way of getting to know an interface, program, or solution. Where demos are explained verbally, the SAP Tutor communicates with you through speech bubbles or even a little wizard who reads these out to you. To view SAP Tutor files, you need to download a little player program.
Virtual classroom and WebEx e-learnings are recordings from an online training event. These training events are held by a person or organization who usually shows a set of slides and/or a screen demonstration to a group of people. Therefore, these sessions sometimes contain sollcalls, interposed questions or discussions. To view them player software is required.
Click here to learn about sharing e-learnings

If you would like to share an eLearning, click here.

What is an Industry Value Network (IVN)?

The IVN initiative is an integral part of SAP’s ecosystem and industry strategy, bringing customers, independent software vendors, technology vendors, and systems integrators together with SAP to form industry networks focused on co-innovation and the delivery of seamlessly integrated, multivendor solutions that address priority industry needs.

The objective of the IVN initiative is to deliver enhanced customer value through an unparalleled industry offering. IVNs deliver customers a complete portfolio that integrates SAP and partner software and technology solutions, as well as consulting, implementation, and best practice–based services. Because the solutions are preintegrated and based on the SAP NetWeaver platform, they enable interoperability across solutions and supply chain networks, increase business process transparency and productivity, and lower total cost of ownership. At the same time, IT partners participating in the IVN benefit from support across the entire SAP value chain to create high-quality, integrated software and service offerings around the SAP industry portfolio – and then roll them out to the market.