I participate in both facebook and twitter, although not as much as I could I suppose, and those communities are great for reaching out to others or planning events… for those of you who are on twitter, I am a regular at the #bbhill tweetups held on alternating Fridays.

Wherever you find them, communities are essential.  Knowing where to go to find help with any number of issues, in this case more technical than not, but any issues really at all can be quite a relief.  Being busy with projects and family and keeping up with the Kardashians (so to speak) has left me little time to consider community.  For quite a while I spent a good deal of my time at Experts-Exchange, a site built to provide points for answers to questions.  The site has evolved a great deal since I first signed on (January of 2003 with a paid account).  In the years I have been a member, I paid for my account, earned my account, and now have been awarded my account access.  Just looking at the transgression from paying 10$/month to where I am today shows something about community involvement.

I like to help people with technical issues.  Sure I may not know do not know all the answers to all the questions, but there are a good amount of people in that community who know where to look for certain things.  It has been quite a fulfilling experience and I am looking forward to getting back into the swing of things.  I had stepped away for a while as some of the procedures on the site for new features were a bit confusing, but when I get into it for its core, the community, and jump into help others… it is a great place to be.

There are other communities I am involved in (and hope to increase involvement in) over at TechNet and TechRepublic, both built on getting help for those members who ask questions, but the community that really sort of sucked me in was Experts-Exchange.  I will hopefully grow in all three of these communities as well as those on twitter and facebook as effort to help those around you grow (either physically or at the other end of the data connection) will allow you to grow.

My participation in these types of activities has also helped, to some degree at least, to keep my skills sharp.  Sure helping others is a good boost for me and might cause me to remember that I once fixed problem x for someone, but it isn’t going to get me through the certification learning I need to do.  There is still room for other types of growth and learning, but community participation can boost your happiness in what you are working on or act as a type of skills test.  Not to mention, the feeling that I get from helping someone, even if it is just to explain a bit about hoe licensing works (I understand it, but am not sure I am an expert there… I think there could be a masters degree offered in licensing) is very rewarding.

Who knows, you might just help someone so much that they seek you out for other projects or even a new career.