SharePoint: The User Group Phenomena
Guest Author: Chris Geier
Metalogix
Technical user groups are a very interesting phenomena, it seems that many user groups take on a personality of their own. Each one takes on a different format, some groups have a strong base of members that attend without fail, and some have a revolving door attendance where you never know how many will show up.
You would think that each user group would take on the personality of its members and become what they make it. Sadly this is not always the case. Many user groups take on the personality of its leadership and they move the group in the direction they want, even if this is not necessarily in the best interest and benefit of those who attend.
With that in mind and speaking in generalities, why do people go to user groups? In my experience and research there are a variety of reasons why people seek out and attend a user group.
- Networking
- Building relationships
- Job seeking
- Education
- User groups can sometimes be seen as some level of free training
- Everyone wants to learn and grow, get better at what they do, build more skills be a more valuable technical asset to their organization and or add skills to their resume. Attendance at user groups can sometimes help this.
- Desire to be part of a community.
Reasons will vary widely as to why people take the time to go to user groups, however the people I have talked to usually state one of the reasons above.
So where did these user groups come from?
I see humble origins where people meet in someone’s house or garage and talk about some technology topic. Each one made up of a small group of guys in a garage or a basement, possibly building the some of the first computers and or computer programs. Each group member would go home and start experiments, trying different approaches in hardware and software. The group would get back together to as a group share their own experiences so that each can leverage the others experiences and successes, including learning from failures of what did not work. They gathered to share a passion for technology, to get better, to build relationships to build a community amongst themselves.
A lot of these groups were informal, did not have “leadership” they did not have formal presenters, or sponsors. It was just people meeting to share a passion. They wanted to get together and be around similar people with similar passions. They helped each other, they coded together, and they built computers together, to help each other learn to help each other grow.
Move on to today’s typical user group. They have formal sponsors, formal presenters, not much in the way of Sharing. You generally have a hard time getting members to stand up in front of the group and talk about their experiences. From what I have seen there isn’t enough networking and direct interaction. This has been replaced with presentations and experts.
To better illustrate the potential effects of this think of how this evolution would manifest itself in something a little more non-technical. That of the typical “book club” As I understand it the book club has similar objectives to our typical user groups. In the case of a book club, it has people getting together to get more out of a specific topic, to learn more to bond, in the case of a book club, a chosen specific book.
There happens to be a book club that meets in the Starbucks I frequent. I have been struck by the free flow of ideas that goes on between the members. Each person adding a unique view point that adds to the reading experience for others. Some have mentioned that after someone brought up a unique point of view they were inspired to go back and read that chapter to experience that in a new way. These book club members get together to share experiences in hopes of gaining additional insight but also to share experiences so that everyone learns from everyone.
Think if the book club evolved to the point of how some of our user groups have evolved. If a book club operated like a typical technical user group, instead of getting together for everyone to share their thoughts on specific chapters and happenings in the book, they brought in someone who has read the book before to give their interpretation. Instead of a good group discussion where each person could share, ask questions and interact, a literary expert is invited in to read and give his or her interpretation of the book. After the speaker finishes he/she takes a few questions and after everyone eats the session is over people say good bye and leave.
In which case do the attendees really get more value? Which of these two situations would you rather be in? In both I am sure in any case people do get some level of value. If they did not, I would think they would stop going. So that brings me to my question.
- Why do you go to user groups?
- What brings you back?
- What do you like about your user group?
- What do you wish was different?
- What stops you from getting more involved?
Guest Author: Chris Geier
Metalogix
Chris Geier is a 15-year veteran of the technology industry and specializes in all things Microsoft. He was introduced to SharePoint in 2001 while working for Microsoft services. Currently Chris is the a product manager for Metalogix on the StoragePoint product. Chris is a participant in, and advocate for, the SharePoint community, as well as a regular participant/speaker at SharePoint Saturday and other grass roots events. When he’s not twiddling with the latest gadgets, software and technology, you’ll probably find Chris on a bleacher cheering his budding baseball and gymnastics stars. Chris and his wife Sara have four kids and live in the suburban Chicago area.
Follow Chris Geier on Twitter @ChrisGeier
That’s a really interesting take Chris. I wonder how much of it is driven by the style of the leadership and how much by the engagement of the attendees/members (and how much is a complex interaction of both)?
When someone joins a book club, they make a commitment to read the book ahead of the meeting and think about what points they want to make. When a UG meets at the end of a busy work-day, it often appears that people are simply waiting to be “served” with useful information.
Here in Toronto, Eli works pretty hard at getting people to discuss their issues, ask questions, and talk about what they’d like to learn about in future sessions. Even with an open and encouraging atmosphere, it’s rare to get more than a question or two, and it’s even rarer to get a real discussion involving more than the 2 – 3 who always contribute.
Have you seen user groups that have that free-flowing discussion? Any secrets to what you think makes it work? Does anyone else reading this have ideas to offer about what works at their UG’s?
-Ruven
Interesting post. (Not wanting to get into a flame war) I will say that the informal discussions sparked by cold beverages in dimly lit bars have been an amazing experience for me. These discussions have taught me more about SharePoint (and other technologies) than any user group has. There are times that the subject matter is a topic that I haven’t touched on, but I learn anyway by just listening. Also, the ability to share a SharePoint experience with others and receive input on different approaches (or even validation) is absolutely priceless to me. With that said, do I still go to user groups? Yes (especially if I can meet people like Ben Curry). However, I am more open to clearing out my schedule if a couple of people want to meet me out and talk SharePoint at a watering hole.
Great post Chris. I live in an area where there are no user groups short of a 2 hour drive, so I’ve taken the concept internal. I’m building Super-User groups within the organization, with a ‘book club’ mentality. I think this style of training/education/support will be much more beneficial than a more formal classroom style training we have typically attempted. Showing examples of what others are doing is a much better learning experience than basic instruction of “Here’s the tool… now figure out how to apply it to your problem” instead we are looking at “Look at this solution, here’s how we used the tool..” much easier for staff to visualize.
The group atmosphere of expecting people to contribute also puts added responsibility on the user in some manner, which in the case of Sharepoint user adoption is a good thing. You don’t join a bookclub and then not read the book – I am hoping we get the same ‘call to action’ from our end-users, and they are compelled to embrace the technology since they are repeatedly exposed to cool solutions their collegues are presenting.
+1 on the “informal discussions sparked by cold beverages.” Our User Group always follows our meeting with a SharePint-and often i’ve learned much as these informal parts of the User Group meeting. It also forms a bond with the regular members- the ones who go to our SharePint gatherings are most likely the regular attendees of our user group. Though, we always make it a point to invite everyone!!
A user group definitely needs a great leadership team. It is this team that will make the group successful. The revolving membership will be a result of the leadership’s in-ability to make everyone at home and feel like they are getting something from the experience.
Our SanSpug.org group is a formal executive team (Pres, Vice-Pres, Sec) and we have a steering commitee (made of execs and members) that makes decisions on what events the group will do and what the presentations will be every month.
Our group is unique in that I allow internal Architecting Connected Systems content to be presented by the members (they don’t have to build the slides, just talk). It makes everyone feel like they can do anything!
We do see that people find it hard to dedicate time to make the meetings, we also see that we can’t cater to just a single topic (Dev, IT Pro, End User, Governance, Search, etc), and when topics are presented that don’t apply, these people don’t show up. We have started down the path of generating content call “Brown Bags” that will allow User Group related companies to download pre-packaged one-hour lunch series to have “internal” user groups. Although the content is not complete yet, it will really help a lot of companies in the “adoption” phase of sharepoint.
Might need to ask a few attendees informally in order to check this idea, but I feel that the majority of people attending our SharePoint User Group meetings in Christchurch are not enthusiasts of the technology. Rather they have chosen (or been told!) to use SharePoint in their organisation, and they attend the meeings to pick up a few hints and tips that can improve their application of the platform.
Our latest meeting, a presentation by Chandima Kulathilake on Upgrading to SharePoint 2010 had a large attendance – mainly because this is a subject that plenty of organisations are considering or planning, and so IT managers and administrators want to hear about what is involved from an expert in the field.
A popular sessiont that we may repeat sometime was called “Show Us Your Intranet” – we invited members of three local companies to talk and demonstrate some use of SharePoint in their intranet. Each talked for 20 minutes (any longer may discourage potential speakers) using screenshots in PowerPoint slides to illustrate their discussions. It proved a great way of getting some of our members to present, and of triggering dicussions
We would love to encourage debates and discussions in our meetings, so (to mirror Ruven’s remarks), if anyone has suggestions on nurturing that type of atmosphere, let us know!
The “informal” discussions topic is an interesting one. Let’s take it a little farther.
What if you had a conference where each session was at a different “watering hole”. No formal presentations, just a moderator to lead the discussion over a beer, keeping things focused for an hour. Then have the groups meet up at a central location and give a 5 minute overview of the results of the discussion.
Thumbs up… or down?
Am I interpreting this correctly? This sounds like a SharePint Pub Crawl! :-D
Yes, you’ve got it right. An A-Z crawl in NYC. That’s 26 sessions of 1 hour each with bio breaks between each session. Should take us about 48 hours to complete the entire process.
Who’s in?
!!!! I don’t know if my liver could take it!
Many people in Germany are bored from mainstream sessions and presentations. Everytime the same commercial events, same presentation, same sessions, same speakers. This is the reason why we (German SharePoint Community) had realized last april the first barcamp (unconference) about SharePoint called ShareCamp http://sharecamp.de. Our slogan is born2share. (spoken: born to share point) And it was just great! No fixed agenda, many new speakers, discussions, slides, deep dives, demos, live coding and last but not least a great party. The location of our ShareCamp was the headquarter of Microsoft Germany and Microsoft has supported us very well – thanks guys. We’ve got 200 attendees, this is a lot for a Germany SharePoint event, and got very good feedback. In May 2011 we will organize the next ShareCamp at Berlin. Hope to see you! Informal, unstructured, unconvential, unorganized and chaos are the attributes of innovation!
http://iLoveSharePoint.com
My response is on my blog at http://www.thorprojects.com/blog/archive/2010/08/10/running-users-groups.aspx
I manage a large Sharepoint UG, and in the past 4 years, we’ve seen alot of change – some of it is a learning experience, but mostly due to member comments. Even after 4 years, we have steady membership growth which includes everyone from end users to developers, even people from other countries, hoping to learn and share ideas. Our leadership team has several members who volunteer as group liaisons, which eases communication. We also conduct regular surveys to ask members what they want, and we strongly encourage participation, although many prefer to speak up in the smaller breakout groups rather than in front of all attendees. We too, have started holding SharePint after meetings, which helps members relax and get to know each other, which in turn, increases participation.
Why User Groups? I started TSPUG to help uncover or develop great people to work with. They were out there, but usually disguised as great ASP.NET people and we had to dust them off a little first.
On Leadership – It’s been said that the best leaders always try to build at least two replacements for themselves. Being in that role I’ve learned a lot and met great people, and have learned to delegate better, and probably the group could thrive without me but it’s a tough point to get to. I’d love nothing more than to just be able to show up.
On Old School User Groups / Gatherings – Conversations are great, it’s how we learn. Participation seems to depend on the city and some places you get more than others. Generally whenever you bring developers together no one wants to talk first or ask questions in public, and I do my best to encourage people by asking (what you’d otherwise interpret as) stupid questions of my own. So presentations still have their place to focus the discussion, and depending on group size it’s great when presentations turn into facilitations. Ruven is the best I’ve seen at this by the way (and thanks for pulling me into this thread), go see him speak (or really, facilitate) whenever you can.
On SharePint-style Gatherings – It’s hard to get people out in summertime, and somehow easier the worse the weather gets. I like them because again, it’s about the conversations. It’s good to seed the crowd with a few influencers though to keep people engaged, otherwise you end up with presentations minus demos, and maybe it’s just me but soapbox diatribes tend to grow stale. Even more personally, I”ll always try to make it, if only for a couple drinks, to catch up with old friends and to dig out the stories I haven’t yet heard.
Cheers,
-Eli.
(Toronto SharePoint User Group)
User groups are a hard beast to nail down. Thanks, Chris, for bringing this topic up. It’s useful, as a user group that I am involved with has recently been having discussions about it’s role and purpose. Just as Chris and Rob have described, it can be hard to motivate users to participate. We seem to see a core of 25 people who attend every month and another 25 new or returning folks each month, so attendance is relatively constant, but the membership list continues to grow.
I think that the typical user group has outgrown the book club concept, and the needs that a book club approach meet is best met through more casual meetings. There is a need for that, and I know that some of those groups have formed as a result of acquaintances generated by the Puget Sound SPUG.
I always struggle with the mix of sponsor-provided content and the mix of patron-provided content. It’s clear that there is higher attendance and participation when we advertise that a visiting sponsor or MVP will be speaking. I currently believe that regular surveys of UG patrons is the best way to go to walk this fine line.
I think that as long as the UG can keep alert to what is desired by their membership, they can successfully lead. When a UG leadership starts to worry about a specific agenda, or when business or marketing conflicts arise, the UG patrons will be the first to identify that and stay away.
I can’t think of a better way to build the energy and collective strength of a SharePoint community, though, than a well run UG. User groups can find amazing ways to give back to their membership, and can draw on a large bank of support when the effort is understood. SPSaturdays are an example of this. Service to the UG patrons is the key.
Interesting question… I started attending our Christchurch SharePoint user group a couple of years ago so I could associate with and hear from other people that were involved with SharePoint in NZ.
Now along with Gary (above) I am involved in organising the C-SPUG & still love seeing/hearing what people are doing with SharePoint. ‘Organise’ for us involves providing food/drinks for the attendees, finding a speaker that is keen to talk to the group, and generally publicise the meeting. Although this level of organisation isn’t essential for the group to function I don’t think we would have the regular attendees and monthly meetings without it.
I’m keen (like everyone else it seems :)) to hear more about what attendees get out of coming along and what format/topics work well. Also I started a SharePoint Overflow question [http://www.sharepointoverflow.com/questions/2250/what-is-a-sharepoint-user-group] a wee while back to get opinions on what the UGs do.
Cheers
Nick