I was just reading this post from Anne and it got me thinking about myself and who I am.
Many probably don't know but since July 2005 when I started at SAP I became a virtual worker, I actually have a desk and I think there's even a phone on it in the halls of Walldorf but I am hardly ever there. The reason is because I work together with a community on SDN (that's the SAP Developer Network) of over 700,000 people from all over the world. Being the primary Community Evangelist for the developer side of the community it's hard work and it's strange hours.
Often I am up at 4 in the morning to talk with people in Asia or up late at night talking to people on the West coast in the US so my days are often long and tiring. I even started an experiment of keeping track of my chats, calls and emails and in the last half a year or so I averaged 150 emails a day where I had to respond or do something, 7 calls and 12 chats - when I do make it to Walldorf most of the time I am speaking with so many people I never actually turn my laptop on.
I still have an easier answer than Anne does, you can hear in my podcasts and videocasts "Hi, I'm Craig Cmehil from SDN the land of the ÜberGeek" and for the most part people are quite OK with that answer however occasionally I come across people who don't know me or don't know SDN and those are times where I find it was easier as a project lead or developer, things that seem more tangible than "Community Evangelist". I mean trying to explain "Evangelist" to a German and often they think you are with some funky church.
So in the effort to redefine myself I decided in those cases I would grab one aspect of my job and explain that to them.
Each year we bring our virtual community together into different areas of the world during the SAP TechEd, and we give them what we call the SDN Clubhouse it's the physical manifestation of the community and in the evening there is also a "Demo Jam" event the photo above is from that event. I've done the 5 minute warm-up several times over the last two years and hosted the entire thing last year in Bangalore.
So I do have something tangible there to tell people but it doesn't always hold water with the more techie types - but I've also decided I did not really have to present myself to them that after talking and discussing it's my knowledge that will show through in the end but it does slow the process I think. So I can definitely relate to Anne there on that one.
When the first question is “where do you come from” and “what’s your title” instead of “what’s your story” and “what’s important to you” I know that I’ll have a hard time fitting in. Eventually we get to your story and my story and your values and my values… but if the clothes and title and previous professional accomplishments come first, it’s artifice first and authenticity later (or not at all).
So what do I think about being a virtual worker? Well I love it, my home is the web true and true and the fact that I can turn around at anytime and see my family or I can take a break in the day and go to town out for coffee, well that's just amazing! I still put in way too much time at work and I let things get to me about it, sometimes too much but I still love what I do and for that reason I stick with it. After all an Evangelist is only good if they have passion. Speaking of passion another little tidbit people might not know is related to this photo.
December 2006, SAP Arena in Mannheim, Germany, I was called on stage along with 13 other folks to receive a reward. The reward was "Employee of the Year" there were 3 people from my division chosen, this was a total surprise and a huge thing for me it was sort of that official "hey I know it's hard to put a tangible number onto community work but we know you've been working hard and we appreciate it!" I received the award for my passion, dedication and integrity to the community.
The really funny part was how Shai called me on stage, the exact words I'd have to go and find the video from it to get but it was basically, this next person really does exist the most virtual man at SAP but he does really exist - everyone probably knows who he is but just have never seen him, now you get your chance to see him again that's more of paraphrase than quote...
Being virtual is a tough deal and it's not for everyone, friends of mine have often said they don't think they would have the resolve to do it nor would they be able to balance it all. So no it's not for everyone and as you can see from Anne and me both that it's sometimes not the easiest thing either but it has a zillion positives for me and so I will stick with it!
Link to Anne 2.0 » Blog Archive » Making the Virtual Self Real
