Last week, at the kickoff event for the COMMON Fall Conference and Expo in Miami, several organizations joined hands to unveil a new online community for System i professionals. The community, known as iSociety, aims to become a focal point for educating current and future users of the System i about the capabilities and benefits of IBM's premier midrange platform. While the iSociety site currently resides on a COMMON Web server at isociety.common.org, it will eventually switch over to its own domain at www.isociety.org.
Unlike previous efforts to build community among iSeries loyalists, iSociety is not the brainchild of a single organization, nor is it meant to be run by a single entity. While IBM is providing content and support to the Web site, it will not dictate the site's direction as it did with the now-defunct iSeries Nation. From an administrative standpoint, COMMON is managing many of the core elements of iSociety. These include a social networking site that resembles the highly popular MySpace, discussion forums, special interest groups, and file libraries. COMMON has also stated that it will include a job board and training resources.
Besides offering these components, iSociety will connect with a growing number of System i resources across the Web. The fledgling community already has relationships with the following sites:
- The Truth site, an IBM-sponsored resource where System i loyalists can tell their peers about the benefits of their server.
- System iPortal, a new offering from Penton Media that aggregates news, blogs, wikis, and other content from Penton and other sources.
- Grassroots System i marketing sites such as the cult favorite Angus the iT Chap. The aim of these resources is to help users create and disseminate graphics, videos, and products that can be used in viral marketing campaigns for the System i.
In addition, the iSociety founders are quite open to having other System i sites participate in building the new community. Indeed, MC Press—the publisher of these articles—is exploring ways that it can provide content to iSociety. It is also possible for practically any site that is dedicated to the System i to register itself and display the iSociety logo and navigation bar on its home page.
While iSociety is not being run by IBM, the new site got much of its impetus from IBM employees who want to harness the passion and creativity of System i loyalists. Many of these employees are driving an internal IBM effort known as Project Prometheus, an endeavor to promote the System i using innovative marketing techniques. The Prometheus team is not only helping to launch iSociety, but is also influencing traditional IBM marketing. For instance, it played a key role in creating the "three-beat phrase" viral marketing campaign where every slogan ends with the statement "i want an i." (You can learn more about the campaign and download cool "i want an i" stuff by clicking here.) It also played a role in placing "Easter eggs"—eye-catching objects that can generate "buzz"—in IBM's System i print ads. One of the Easter eggs recently launched a discussion on Diggnation, a popular Web hangout for young techies with little to no knowledge of the System i. While Project Prometheus won't single-handedly make the world flock to the System i, it is a promising effort to reach potential converts using methods that IBM has seldom explored.
A Prescription for Community
Because iSociety is still in its infancy, it is still too early to say just how promising the new Web site will turn out to be. It is never entirely clear why some community-building sites become overnight successes like MySpace while others suffer quiet deaths from neglect. However, one clear success factor is engaging content...and lots of it. If System i professionals, IBM employees, and midrange Web sites get excited about generating content for iSociety, chances are good that it will be a hit. As the popular saying goes, "If you build it, they will come."
That said, community projects like iSociety often face significant challenges. Such efforts frequently draw upon multiple organizations that have different or even competing objectives. If the organizations try to advance their individual objectives through their community efforts, failure is almost certain. I hope that all iSociety contributors will strive to avoid this pitfall.
If I were on the iSociety steering committee, I would also recommend an all-out effort to make the site a robust portal that aggregates the vast array of System i content that is already on the Web. In its current form, iSociety has many links to external sites that have more content and member interaction than iSociety itself. Frankly, I have never seen a site that allows such a state of affairs to continue and succeeds in becoming a hub for community. As such, I would encourage all contributors to let their content be "surfaced" within iSociety rather than require visitors to hyperlink to their own sites. Besides helping iSociety to succeed, such a community-minded gesture would also reduce the dangerous use of the site for the advancement of personal agendas.
In short, iSociety could become a great resource for the System i community, but only if we contribute enthusiastically to it for the good of the entire community. If you second that motion, you can join iSociety by clicking here. Just so you know, yours truly has already signed up. I look forward to seeing you there.
Lee Kroon is a Senior Industry Analyst for Andrews Consulting Group, a firm that helps mid-sized companies manage business transformation through technology. You can reach him at
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