Me, I've been doing online communities for something like 20+ years now (longer than I've been officially working) and started with a 300 Baud modem and a Telgard BBS system. So I've see the ups, downs and evolutions that communities tend to go through on both the positive and negative sides and I have to say being on the inside of the SAP Community Network and helping to shape it's future has been a thrilling experience but also a hard road to tow as well.

Fellow Irregulars Susan Scrupski started the 2.0 Adoption Council which I've started to find to be a great place – it's mainly for internal evangelists around the introduction of 2.0 concepts into the enterprise but I've managed to find a ton of folks sharing their own experiences some of which have helped recently with planning for our up coming events. 2 years ago I felt alone, now as more and more companies are starting to understand the power of listening and giving their customers and partners a place to speak without barriers – well I'm not alone anymore and this space is really starting to show some excitement and cool things taking place. Who knows maybe next year there will be an event just for "community evangelists" from around the world and we can start working on better integration across communities and ecosystems.

I definitely agree with you and the smartest vendors I work with in the SAP ecosystem are all contemplating how to build their own communities around their products – while maintaining a presence on SAP's own community network (SCN) and not duplicating what has already been built.

In my view. SCN is not cited enough by analysts as one of SAP's true competitive advantages amongst its enterprise competitors. SCN and the Mentor Initiative you and I are a part of have boosted SAP's competitive advantage in any number of ways, from reaching a better understanding of key issues (such as the problem of the individual SAP developer and their license needs, something still being discussed/addressed obviously), rolling out new policies such as the new SCN terms of use, and creating tight feedback loops with customers and partners on product rollouts – not to mention Mentors having input on SAP projects ranging from certification course content to new online rollouts like SAP Learning on Demand. The list goes on and on but that gives some idea of the specific benefits.

The problem I see, however, is that too many vendors with the happy notion of "let's build an online community" see it as yet another promotional channel. It may very well be that, but if it's framed that way, it is sure to fail. The thing about such communities, as I know you are aware since you often push this envelope yourself, is that vendors must be willing to embrace vigorous dissent. "Listening to criticism" sounds good in theory but some of those who offer the most invaluable feedback to vendors do it a way that is unsparing and can lack, shall we say, a certain tact. There is then the strong temptation on the vendors' part to censor such discussions, but once censoring starts to happen, that vendor community becomes muffled and insular and people go elsewhere (like Twitter even) to have a free place to sound off.

So it takes quite a bit of backbone to listen to feedback that can be unfairly harsh but still incredibly useful. SAP I know has struggled with this also but to their credit I have yet to see a sign of censorship on SCN, though moderation certainly occurs and the difference can be debated. Moderation can be challenging also, figuring out to how to address issues of civility and also making sure that the new community platform is not abused for the purposes of shilling product. Sounds easy enough till a valued partner starts doing it and it has to be nipped in the bud without harming that relationship. And of course what happens if there is an apparent double standard where the vendor's own employees are shilling in their blogs but others are not allowed to?

Basically "community" is some messy shit and it's not for the weak-willed nor a phrase to be thrown around lightly. Perhaps because of all these challenges, I believe those IT vendors that sort through this messiness as SAP has done and come out the other side with a popular platform will have a serious, serious edge.

- Jon