SDL Tridion-related Online Information. A 30 Second Snapshot.

There's a lot of Tridion info online now, follow Weekly Community Review on TridionWorld to keep up or just Google what you're looking for.

I'm researching for a speech on blogging for Tridion consultants. I'm aware of the new Area 51 Stack Exchange proposal, old and new blogs, and open source projects. But the number of pages, posts, and "Google-able" Tridion-related information was a surprise.

SDL Tridion Resource Dynamics

The SDL Tridion technical community is small (but growing). What happens when you bring Tridion resources together? Let's start with one or two Tridion techies and then poke fun of the MVPs.

One

A technical resource outside of work might surprise you. Several of my current and past peers are chefs, musicians, dancers, or martial artists. On his or her own, a so-called geek might be more creative than you would have thought. But bring two geeks together...

Two

Two things happen when you bring technical resources together. Let me explain the first thing with some Calculus humor. Where number of techies is "x" and "f of x" is the probability of Happy Hour:

The limit of f of x, as x approaches 3, is 100%. I won't translate to avoid scrutiny.

The second thing is talk eventually turns to life, philosophy, and software (mainly Tridion), in no particular order. At some point, one of us will walk away saying, "_guys_, I'm hungry. If you care to eat, see you at ..."

More

One of the "benefits" of winning an SDL Tridion MVP or CB (for SDL internals) award is access to other (all current and past MVP) Tridion resources. Here's a synopsis. These aren't actual quotes, but more of a flavor of what a typical online Tridion chat (currently Skype) looks like.

Jeremy: I released that extension I was working on. Time for a vacation!
Jaime: You get breaks?
Puf: More code. Less talk.
Dom: Talk is cheap. Let me tell you about my Tridion 5.2 project.
John: Help! I broke Tridion.
Jeff: Did you perform maintenance? What's the error?
Vin: @John did you get my PDF called, "So you broke Tridion?"
Alvin: I blogged, tweeted, and made a wiki update today!
Chris: You guys talk a lot. Anyone going to see my Gartner-Forrester symposium presentation?
Peter: I checked in a new PowerTools base class, an installer, and automated troubleshooting tool.
Albert: I just extended it.
Jules: It's not the length that matters. Hey are we doing that new thing online?
Nick: @Albert that was cool. I just blogged about it.
John: @Jules, should we get permission?
Bart: Sure, let me ask myself... "Self, can we?" Yes, we can.
Nuno: I posted on the new thing. _Yes_ to more sharing.

[100 messages later on a random Tridion-related topic, X]

Nuno: Guys, why don't you _do something_ about X?

I tease the group, but despite the sometime unending stream-of-consciousness-type sharing, the same people have done the following:

• Members of the group answer sincere newbie questions. Sometimes they don't have a choice, I keep asking questions.
• It helps to bring a stack trace if you have a technical issue (it's community building, not support, though the group can't help but "talk shop").
• The same people asking questions will turn around and help on your problem, question, or scenario (e.g. Content Bloom owner, John Winters took some time to explain some JavaScript + CSS class magic to me recently). Yes, I contradict the last bullet. It's a complex group dynamic. 
• When possible, to help each other we'll open virtual machines, confirm a solution, and get the answer back to a customer, support, or the community (via the Forum, Twitter, a blog, Google Code).

The best part IMHO is validation that no one can know everything. The group will debate and joke but still share their perspective and offer practical help. They're paradoxically modest, freely and humbly admitting they're not even the best resources (most of the time).

The MVPs are however, by definition, the most vocal.

SDL Tridion Community on the Horizon

Thoughts on the past and future of the Tridion community in terms of...

• Content Delivery Installation
• Questions & Answers
• Blogging 

Content Delivery Round-Up

If you haven't set up content delivery lately, check out the simplified "roles" description on SDL Live Content. If you're a customer or partner looking for access to TridionWorld be sure to visit the site and contact support for access. After you log on, see the documentation page for SDL Tridion 2011.

RTM is all you really need (plus time and experience), but for more installation background, see:

More SiteEdit Insight

I had a chance to fly the 11 plus hours to the SDL Web Content Management mothership (Tridion for the veterans) for a sneak peak at SDL Tridion's next version of inline editing. You may have read Nuno's debriefing on the upcoming sweet features, here's my functional take on the next version.

R&D has done an impressive job at simplifying "SiteEdit" for multiple roles.

• Infrastructure consultants (IC) can focus on the install and content delivery setup
• Technicals and functionals have access to settings within the CME for content types, page types, and even color settings
• Authors will get a smoother experience, with terms and a process that fits their model of the content management system (CMS)