OpenWorld
Oracle OpenWorld Unconference Session

Session Title : Developing a Global Community Culture
Time : 3pm
Date :Monday 12th
Location : Moscone West 3rd Floor Overlooks
Room Openlook 3 ?
Host: Mark Finnern
Chief Community Evangelist
SAP Developer Network and
Business Process Expert Community

Session Description:
We are participating in online communities available everywhere in the world. The physical space that used to separate the different cultures has shrunk. Time zones are seperating you from others, but that has only a very limited influence on your online exchange.

Different cultures have different ways to interact:. In some you only talk when you are asked, in others it is O.K. to interrupt half way through the sentence.

Many misunderstandings and missed opportunities come from the lack of sensibilities for the consequences of the culture differences.

During this session we will share experiences, talk about the consequences of these and find solutions to improve understanding and encourage the more silent folks to communicate and collaborate in your community.

With SDN and BPX we went from zero to 950K members within 4 years having quite the lively collaboration and experiencing the different styles of interaction on a daily basis.

My believe is that we are shaping a global online community culture and the question is how to do that most effectively.

Related OpenWorld Content: (insert session description)
Non that I am aware of. Let me know if there is.

Session notes

Mark:
Joined four years ago with the SAP Developer Network Team.Grew into community guy. Job: Goal is to bring passion into the community.

Net Promotor Score: The one question that will predict success: ask your community if they would recommend your product to their friends. 0-6 detractors, 8-10 promotors, subtract detractros from promoters. average in US is 16 percent (some go negative).

Half a year ago, SAP scores 65%, this time around 72%.
SDN and BPX grew from zero to 950.000 members in 4 years, 6,000+ forum posts daily.
Realization: SDN is a globalcommunity. Differentiator is less country, but time zone.

Strong believer in face-to-face interaction. Favorite quote from Matthias Zeller (Adobe): "It used to be you go to TechEd for the educational sessions and meet your colleagues, but now it's like a family reunion."

Unconference-style community day happened for the third time this year. Some sessions provided by SAP, some by the community. Happens a day before the event. Unconference format works great in the US, as well as Europe (though a little more tacit).

Doesn't seem to work as well in India, probably due to differences in culture. Expectiations are different.

Example: In Italian culture (sorry for using stereotypes), it is almost required to interrupt someone (otherwise, you'd never get a word in). However, that's considered very rude behavior in other countries. Some countries, people need to learn to have their own opinions as
individuals (Asia).

Challenge: how to bring every voice up in the community if people were brought up differently (so as to not always voice their opinions)?

Ralf:
Actually, finds that India is actually quite easy to work with (self-confidence among younger IT folks, lack of language barrier), as opposed to China.

Marius:
Let's take a step back. What's the value in engaging everybody?
Mark:
Value: one very active participant will draw in9active ones and they draw 100 lurkers. More important: some people not voicing their opinion would lead wrong/misguided developments (only the squeaky wheel gets the oil). For SAP, voice in Bangladesh is equally important as voice in Waldorf. So looking at it less from a value perspective, more from a community angle.

Realizing that we're headed towards a more global culture. What are the parameters we can use to improve this development?

Regarding China: strong language barrier.
Regarding India: From what I've heard, India has more of a follower culture also.

Tim: Check out the various barcamps (Barcamp Bangalore?). Looks like they were very successful (and big). So there must be some sense of self-organization and initiative somewhere. ;-)

Mark: From feedback, India more hierarchical in general.

Marius: From my experience in working with India, sometimes you can't expect "critical thinking" (don't question instructions etc.).Hard to ask for "iterative approach". As manager, expected to know more. Was able to instill empowerment/ownership, though that
took over a year to bear fruit.

Mark:What can be done in online communities to empower people?
Marius: Fairly easy to reward people in the US (points, titles etc.).
Mark: Reward systems come with challenges, too. Can be gamed (points don't always go to the ones who deserve it, made the most valuable contribution). Would like to have the entire community working on a common solution how to address this.

Tim:
Do you think a global "one size fits all" community culture can be achieved? Or would you rather build local "cultures" that cater to regional cultures?

Mark: Countries like Japan will always be insolated in some ways (language, geography etc.) so you must cater to those hubs, too.

What's needed is a better understanding of these differences so that everybody involved is sensitized to the fact that what they are saying might come across differently from how it was meant.
Tim: So more of a training issue, rather than a technological issue?

Mark: Every community is callibrating towards their comfort level. There are a few things you can do that help change how people interact (e.g. allow emoticons, allow pseudonyms or enforce real names). Not sure if training will actually help much (just like
the opening paragraph in every forum that you should search before you post if stuff already exists).
Marius: Our approach has been to separate communities, mainly due to language barriers. No special sites for Germany (it is assumed theyall are comfortabel with English), but for e.g. Korean (where feedback says English is not readily available).
Mark: Problem with that is that it can be self re-inforcing. Solution would be the "bablefish", but right now technology is still very limited.

SAP TechEd in Bangalore late November. Community day.

Ralf
OTN announced 6m members today.
Marius:
OTN has 9k posts, 6k threads daily. 60k visitor daily.

SAP and Oracle both use Jive forum software.

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Reflections after the session:
Mark:
Really liked the exchange withfolksthat are working on the same problems. It is no surprise that not more people showed up. I think that companies only slowly wake up to the power of communtities and how to engage your whole world of members isn't even on their radar yet. Let's just wait a couple of years ;-)

I talked a lot, much more than usual. It provided me with additional clarity regarding the issues and I would like to thank everyone for being part of it.