During a recent XCast podcast Tim Tripcony said some very powerful stuff about how in the Lotus ( or whatever we are called ) community we all benefit from each others contributions via blogs, forums, LUGs etc..
Heres a short clip, I hope the guys don’t mind. clip.mp3
I started this blog in 2009 because I felt that I needed to give back to the community for the great help that I have received in building my Notes skills, my company and providing for my family.
A large part of my less frequent blogging has been due to how successful XPages has been for myself and my colleagues. It has allowed us to take on new customers, to reinvigorate existing customers and to enjoy the excitement of learning a new skill and sharing the vibe in the community that new challenges create. It has been hectic and blogging had, until now, dropped off the list.
None of this success would have been possible without the tremendous contributions that the community has made in terms of showing each other what can be done with XPages – the Custom Controls competition has been a great example of that.
Tim ( and Paul’s ) comments have reminded me of how much I have gained from the community blogs and how important it is that I continue to blog.
Another thing that has re-invigorated my energy to blog is IBMs decision to share the presentations form LS11. IBM do a great deal to support the community though OpenNTF but withholding very useful enabling information from their own developer community just rubbed me up the wrong way – I am not sure if that was a common or justified reaction but it was how I felt.
So going forward I will endeavour to ensure that our success with XPages does not get in the way of repaying my debt to the community by sharing what I have learnt along the way.