Community?

I dearly wish to post a follow up comment over at the Forrester blog, but I can't.  Even with an account it thinks I am SPAM, which usually is true.

Stephen's post with very unfriendly comment capabiiltiy can be found here.

You would think the same people who brought you Groundswell and Empowered could at least invest in disqus, but that's another blog topic.

My reply:

Mr. Mann,

Congrats on your first blog.  Secondly a bigger congrats to Forrester for allowing you to continue to play a part in the audio space that is ITSM Weekly Podcasts!

I have long included activity in the ITSM community on every RFP/RFI that I have written for customers.

Most vendors have some alignment but you would not know it by looking at the vendor sites.

I think it is a testament to the shape of the ITSM tool community health and future prosperity that organizations do not actively promote community functions on their sites.

Software, Training, Consulting organizations all play a role in our community.

1.  It is not that difficult to just create a blog roll or calendar that showcases an organizations commitment.

(for example) Servicesphere - events-and-shows

2.  As members of different organizations, HDI, SDI, itSMF, ISACA, ASQ we frequently complain about "vendor" webinars and SPAM.  This would not be the case if we as PAID members of these communities were to take a more active role by volunteering.

The next 36 months will show that:

1.   PAID membership to ANY community is not important.

2.   Credentials are becoming irrelevant.

3.  Communities are something you wait to see, not something YOU BUILD FOR.

Thomas Friedman in 2005 said the world is flat, six years later we have found out so are our communities and personas.