So, taking a digital page out of mcollinge's book, I want to start giving regular "status updates" regarding the community and what I've been up to. Realistically some of things will be less concrete or exciting than a Dev Update, but if any of are curious as to what I've been working on (and some of my plans for the future) read on.
Fair Warning: This one might be a bit long as it's part introduction, part re-cap, and part future planning. Future updates will likely be much more concise. (... Likely. Only a Sith deals in absolutes).
Personal Update
I will be out of the office from Friday, May 12th until Monday, May 20th attending a friend's wedding in Japan(!!!). I hope to have some cool content for the community, as well as to fulfill a few souvenir requests from the team (such as a robot for tariq.ahmad).
What's new on element14?
This is a section of the community that is cross-referenced in numerous places, but unfortunately took a back seat while I was ramping up into this position. I was able to work with our Design Team to get it updated for April, and the May update is currently in progress. My plan is to adhere to at least a monthly cadence. If you have any feedback on how we could make this area more useful to everyone, please let me know.
Gamification
A couple of new badges have been added to the system. Here's a quick look:
| Badge | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
 | Global Spotlight: Germany | Score 100% on the Global Spotlight: Germany Quiz. |
 | Exterminator! | A badge for whenever a community member helps to identify or troubleshoot a bug. This badge can only be awarded by members of our Dev Team. |
 | Sith Badge | Awarded to members who voted/commented on our "Revenge of the 5th" Poll. |
The "Exterminator" badge was implemented based on a suggestion from a community member (though I'm awful and I forget where...) If you happen to be that person, please let me know so I can give proper kudos.
Now onto some of the "background noise".
Documentation
I'm a huge fan of documentation. Perhaps it's due to some deep-seated fear of failure, but I like having things I can reference to make sure I'm doing everything correctly. Self-depreciation aside, getting certain aspects of our community and the community properly documented has been a major priority for me and a large part of what I've been working on. While I've been doing Community/Social Media management for a few years now, element14 is unique to me in a few aspects, from the platform we use (Jive), to specific aspects of my job (gamification, community newsletter) and other internal tools that we use to assist with project management.
I like having things I can cross-check to confirm that I'm not forgetting anything, and I like providing tools on the off chance I meet some kind of untimely demise (or you know... take a vacation or something). Some of the things I've been documenting include:
- Community Newsletter
- Gamification System
- Updating "what's new on element14".
This isn't to say that some of this documentation didn't already exist, but as software and systems change most of them needed updated, and others I've created to suite my personal work ethic. (Fun Fact: I'm a huge fan of checklists as a kind of 'writing therapy'. Above is a page from my 'handy dandy notebook' that I use to track my current tasks via my checklists).
Stepping Away from the Keyboard
I've also been sitting down fairly regularly with other employees/departments for things that intersect with the Community (such as with our Workflow Specialist and Direct Marketing Campaign Manager) to learn about our tools and get myself nice and situated using them for the things I'm responsible for. While informative, it can be very time consuming and there are days when I spend more time collaborating with other stakeholders than I do at my desk. (Exhibit A: This was my Monday).
I also had the privilege to attend JiveWorld17 with ChristyZ last week, to learn more about the Jive platform and best practices for using it. While our instance of Jive is fairly unique due to it's extensive customization, it did give a few ideas for improvements...
Future Vision
Before I go into any specific detail, I feel morally obligated to post a little disclaimer that everything and anything in the following section is subject to change at our discretion. As of now, there are no expected time lines, and realistically, it's a musing of all the things I have planned for the Community around some of my day-to-day tasks. So, what's next for the community?
- Audit of current Communities and Groups. Currently, we hundreds and hundreds of Communities and Groups, and I want to do some clean-up work to make the site a little more streamlined and certain places easier to find.
- Events. Improve visibility for some of our "time sensitive" events, such as Webinars, RoadTests, Design Challenges, etc. There's always something going on in the Community, and I want to foster and promote a central location that people can refer to.
- Update Community Docs. This goes hand in hand with my desire for in-depth documentation. I want to do a pass on all of our public facing documents/threads (i.e. "Welcome New Members!") to make sure they're up-to-date.
- Revamp Member Awards. We used to do a "Member of the Month", but that too has fallen by the wayside. I'd like to revamp this in some fashion, either with "Member of the Month", "Member Spotlight", etc. Any thoughts or feedback would be greatly appreciated!
- Gamification. Which also plays into this. I listed a couple of the new badges available, and I fully intend to make this a more regular process. I'm a tad bit sentimental, and I like recognition of certain hallmarks, achievements, or 'moments in time'. For example, the element14 birthday is coming up, and I want to make sure we have some sort of badge that members can have in remembrance for being a part of this community, on this date.
Other Important Notes
Be sure to welcome e14phil and danzima to the element14 team!
Whew, okay. I think that's all for now. Thank you for your time!
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