As you probably know, we have a sister LinkedIn group to this site called the SharePoint Community Group. Paul C suggested a while ago that we should find ways to perhaps bring the discussions into here. (We already do the other way with blogs). There are many discussions started in that group, but not many responses. However, on here we have fewer discussions, but more comments. It’d be nice to bring them together to get the best of both worlds.
LinkedIn has a developer API and I am the group manager, so theoretically, anything is possible! Any ideas of cool ways to join the two up ? There are several potential areas to integrate, namely, members, discussions, blogs, events …
Suggest away and if you want to help, even better!
To view the LinkedIn group :
http://www.linkedin.com/groups/SharePoint-Community-Group-43166?trk=my_groups-b-grp-v
I would first ask why LinkedIn has so many more topics posted and why so few are answered. If it’s an issue of visibility, then perhaps we can have LinkedIn auto-post “summary” posts to Discussion on this site. Lock the comments so you still have to participate on the LinkedIn group (necessary so OP can see replies if they aren’t SPCom member.)
Just because it’s available, does it mean that we should use it? From what I can see, quite a few Linked in groups are created with good intention and then forgotten about, only to then be filled up with recruiter spam or topics that aren’t remotely relevant. You’d be adding a lot of overhead for not much gain I think.
At least here, you have a community that’s actively participated on. Maybe the mods / reps should use their profiles to push traffic here but I’d not want to look for my content in two different places.
Mark, Â I’m riding the fence on this one. Â
I can agree with Theresa’s concern. Â While this site as we know is specifically dedicated toward those with some remote interest in SharePoint, LinkedIn is broader and more public facing. Â Therefore the comments and discussions take on a more public aspect. Â
For example, I saw a post from a guy in the SharePoint group about a job. I know a friend who is looking for a BA job related to SharePoint. Â Without thinking, I just commented on the job discussion and asked temp or perm and if remote was an option. Â The next day, I noticed my boss had a new connection three updates from my comment and thought, “Oh boy, that doesn’t look good”. Â So while it was harmless, they may be some that feel the need to keep things separate.
Integration would be really nice, because I’ve seen post in one or more groups within the big community group that are duplicates and then come here seeing people ask the exact same question. Â Thought that in and of itself may be an educational aspect, it would be nice to know I can go to one location and gather information. Â I must say I like this site better than LinkedIn for that aspect. Â
Just my thoughts…
I don’t know.
I would prefer a comfortable place where I can ask questions, provide answers, make mistakes and not have them publicly visible. I understand there is a desire to give the group more visibility and credibility but at some point, I would like to see that only authenticated users can read or comment on posts. Will the LinkedIn group provide that? Would people need to be members of either the LinkedIn or Ning .net group to view entire discussions?
Thanks.
Sounds great!! So would it be like two way discussions? You can post either or LinkedIn or at SharePoint-Community site, it will appear at both places, and so with the comments?Â
And yes, even better, I would definitely like to help.
