What Is Your Take on the State of the SharePoint Community?

I have been an active part of the SharePoint community for over 12 years now, and have noticed quite a few changes. Like any personal or professional network, there is a natural ebb and flow as excitement and interest in new products, features, and companies rise and fall. Having run user groups since 2002 across various technologies and ecosystems, I recognize that there is a need to constantly review and refine your community approach to ensure you are delivering what your constituencies want and need, and to do the occasional sanity check as to your own interests and passions.

For this month’s CollabTalk tweetjam taking place on Monday, October 31st at 9am PDT, we will once again convene and discuss the “State of the SharePoint Community” with a huge panel of experts and community organizers (I always giggle at the political overtones of that phrase) from around the world. Many of these folks have run or are currently running SharePoint and Office 365 user groups, or many of the SharePoint Saturdays and other events that this great community is known for.

These tweetjams are open to the public, so please join in the live discussion by following along using the Twitter tool of your choice and the #CollabTalk hashtag, or use our dedicated site at http://twubs.com/collabtalk 

If you’ve never participated in one of these tweetjams, it's pretty simple: anyone can jump in and share their thoughts, or just lurk in the wings and absorb the wisdom of the crowd. Either way, it’ll be a TON of content to consume in a single hour. The tweetjam is being sponsored by Beezy and TyGraph, with the latter providing statistics of the tweetjam throughout the event, which you can access here.

How it works is that I’ll post a series of questions every few minutes, and people will respond to Q1, Q2, Q3 and so forth with A1, A2, A3, always including the #CollabTalk hashtag with their answers. Feel free to reply as often (or as little) as you’d like, ask your own follow up questions, share relevant links, retweet others, and engage with the audience.

The questions we will discuss will include:

1. What has been your experience with the #SharePoint community?
2. What have been the biggest hits/misses with the #SharePoint community?
3. How has the rate of change and new innovation impacted the #SharePoint community?
4. Why are some #SharePoint Saturday events (SPSevents.org) struggling to find sponsors, while others are thriving?
5. Is your local #SharePoint user group (SPUG) meeting your expectations? Why, or why not?
6. What should be Microsoft’s role in supporting the #SharePoint community?
7. How can people learn more & get more involved in the #SharePoint community?

Undoubtedly, there will be side-questions, side-conversations, and wise-cracking throughout. The dialog is usually thought-provoking but also fun. Participating on this panel are a number of MVPs and experts on SharePoint and Office 365. The tweetjam is open to the public, so please join in the discussion!

• Jeff Teper (@jeffteper), cvp of SharePoint and OneDrive at Microsoft
• Bob German (@bob1german), principal architect at BlueMetal Architects
• Mark Kashman (@mkashman), senior product manager at Microsoft
• Maarten Visser (@mvisser),  chief storyteller at Meetroo
• Tom Resing (@resing), senior content developer, modern assistance and support experience at Microsoft
• Wictor Wilen (@wictor), SharePoint MCA, MCSM, MCM, and MVP, and Nordic digital workplace lead at Avanade
• Fabian Williams (@fabianwilliams), SharePoint MVP and all-around ninja at K2 
• Erica Toelle (@ericatoelle), portals and content manager at Valorem Consulting
• Sherman Woo (@SPsherm), SharePoint consultant and specialist at Ledcor, co-founder SPS Vancouver
• Shadeed Eleazer (@mrshadeed), founder and principal consultant at Managed Path Solutions
• Paul Stork (@pstork), SharePoint MVP and MCM, principal architect at BlueChip
• Chakkaradeep Chandran (@chakkaradeep), program manager on the SharePoint dev platform at Microsoft
• J. Dan Attis (@jdattis), SharePoint MVP and sr. solution architect at B&R Business Solutions
• Antonio Maio (@antoniomaio2),  SharePoint MVP, sr. manager, and sr. architect at Protiviti 
• Rob Windsor (@robwindsor), .NET/SharePoint developer and MVP, trainer, and author
• Wes Preston (@idubbs), SharePoint MVP, evangelist,  and owner at TrecStone
• Kelvin Hoyle (@kelvin_hoyle), VanSPUG president, SPS Vancouver board member, systems specialist at WorkSafeBC
• Jeff Fried (@jefffried), cto and vp of engineering at BA Insight
• Jeffrey Schwartz (@jeffreyschwartz), editor of Redmond Magazine and editor-at-large for Redmond Channel Partner magazine
• Gavin Barron (@gavinbarron), SharePoint MVP, developer and solution architect at Intergen
• Martina Grom (@magrom), co-founder of atwork.at, Office 365 MVP
• Adis Jugo (@adisjugo), SharePoint MVP and director of product technology at skybow
• Bill Ayers (@SPdoctor), SharePoint MCMC/MCSM, solution architect and developer
• Rob Windsor (@robwindsor), .NET/SharePoint developer and MVP, trainer, and author
• Mark Jones (@markqjones), founder of SharePoint-Community.Net and Collaboris
• Brian Culver (@SPbrianculver), SharePoint MCM and founder, president of Expert Point Solution
• Eli Robillard (@erobillard), SharePoint MVP, musician, fly-fisher, collaboration technology guy
• Mike Watson (@jmikewatson), founder SeriousLabz
• Bradley Geldenhuys (@bradgcoza), founder and ceo of GTconsult, unrepentant ginger
• Jeff Willinger (@jwillie), Office 365 MVP and director of collaboration and social business at Rightpoint
• Tamara Bredemus (@TamaraBred), collaboration director at City of Minneapolis
• Mike Oryszak (@next_connect),  senior solution architect at B&R Business Solutions
• Edin Kapic (@ekapic), SharePoint MVP, senior SharePoint architect and practice lead at Sogeti
• Patrick Curran (@pcfromdc), director, federal group at Planet Technologies
• Seb Matthews (@sebmatthews), entrepreneur, consultant, investor, ceo for ExtaCloud, part-time male model
• Roberto Yglesias (@robertoy), business technology director at Buildingi
• Nikkia Carter (@carterMcGServ), ceo at CMW LLC and tech speaker
• and your host, Christian Buckley (@buckleyplanet), Office Server and Services MVP and cmo for Beezy

And these are just the folks who have confirmed! We have quite a few tentative acceptances, and we expect many lurkers (especially from Microsoft!) and drop-ins.

I have often heard that there is nothing like the SharePoint community as far as passion and sharing of time and resources. This is the second technical community that I have been a member of in my almost 25+ year career, and while my prior experiences were good, it just doesn’t compare to what I have experienced inside this ecosystem. Looking forward to what comes next! See you online!