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VMworld: 8 VMTN Community Opportunities You Don’t Want to Miss

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VMware Technology Network is fueled by customers, partners, and employees like you, who take the time to read and contribute information to our VMware ecosystem. Under the VMTN umbrella, all of community is captured – from bloggers, to vExperts, to developers in {code}, to CloudCred leaders.

To recognize VMTN Community contributors, there are going to be 8 fantastic programs running at VMworld – including some for those who cannot attend the event. Get excited and get signed up for the following:

For the Folks at Home:

  1. Beams (VMworld US only):

There will be three Beams at the VMTN Community Area. These devices can be accessed and controlled from your personal computer. They provide the freedom to roll through and explore VMvillage, interact with customers, and see the sights – allowing you to attend VMvillage and the VMTN Community area from the comfort of your own home. Sign-up sheets will be released shortly! Learn more about Beams.

  1. VMTN Homepage Takeover

For VMworld US and Europe, the VMTN homepage will feature a complete VMworld community Takeover. This page will feature livestream videos, social, podcasts, blogs, Hackathon updates, and more! If you’re not attending VMworld, but want to be a part of the action, bookmark this page to stay in the loop.

For the Show-Goers:

  1. vBrownBag TechTalks – A VMTN Member

vBrownBag – a VMware Technology Network Member has worked to make the 2017 community Tech Talk experience at VMworld US and Europe exceptional. These talks will take place in the VMTN Community area in VMvillage. In US we will have 77 deep-dive technical sessions presented throughout the week and 47 in Europe. Register to attend these talks in the US and Europe on ScheduleBuilder now!

  1. Podcast Booths

At our VMTN Community Area in VMvillage we will have podcast booths available to enable the VMware community to produce quality audio content in a quiet area. In the US, there will be 2 podcast booths, in Europe there will be 1. No qualifications needed, but it is BYOAV (bring your own AV). Reserve a slot in US or reserve a slot in Europe while you still can!

  1. Blogger Program

In the VMTN Community area, there will be several blogger tables set-up to provide a convenient space for bloggers to write, charge, and network with fellow bloggers and VMware employees. The new VMware Blogger Program Manager, Elsa Mayer, will be manning this area in the US and Europe to introduce her plans for the program and hand-out SWAG do nothing else… Don’t miss the opportunity to stop by. 😉

  1. {code}fest

VMware {code} – the official VMware program for developers – will be stationed in the VMTN Community area. Come visit VMware {code} program manager, Tim Bonnemann, at his VMware {code} pod to learn more about the program, sign-up, and get more SWAG do nothing else. Not only will {code} have a pod here, but there are {code}fest sessions available for registration for all developers. Stay tuned for further news around {code}fest, including a Monday night Hackathon!

  1. CloudCred

For the 4th consecutive year, CloudCred will support the VMware Hands-On Labs by running the CloudCred, Hands-On Labs Challenge. Each lab and workshop will have its own unique, corresponding task on the CloudCred website. Players completing the tasks at VMworld will score points. Every day, CloudCred & the Labs will award prizes to those people landing in the top spots on the CloudCred, Labs Leaderboard, as well as for additional activity. Visit CloudCred community manager, Noell Grier, in the Hands-on Labs area at VMworld US or Europe, to learn more.

  1. vExpert Party

Each year, vExpert Advocacy Manager, Corey Romero, hosts all of the vExperts for an after-hours event at a fantastic location near VMworld. Inside-scoop: this years US party will be held at the Las Vegas Pinball Hall of Fame. If you are a vExpert, watch your email for invitations to both the US and Europe parties.

And that’s a wrap! I will see you folks either virtually, or in person at the VMTN Community Area in VMvillage in just over a month.

For further information or questions around these programs, email the VMTN Community Manager, katieb@vmware.com.

VMworld Podcast Booths Available in the VMTN Community Area Booth

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This year, VMTN is making it a priority to empower podcasters. At our VMTN Community Area in VMvillage we will have podcast booths available to enable the VMware community to produce quality audio content in a quiet area. This means, when you’re sharing news and opinions, you won’t have to share the background noise of 9,999+ people walking around a convention center.

In the U.S. there will be 2 podcast booths and in Europe there will be 1. These booths will have four walls and a ceiling to optimize audio within the booth. Time within these booths will be allocated in a first come first serve basis. To reserve a time please fill out the following form:

RESERVE YOUR TIMESLOT HERE:

Europe: https://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-35674

U.S.: https://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-35644

*There will be no AV tools provided. Please bring your own recording devices if necessary.

VMTN will also promote your podcasts should you opt in. At the top of the above documents, there will be a link to a form. Should you choose to fill out the form, your podcast will be added to our featured podcasts list on VMTN.

See you at VMworld 2017!

Congratulations to #VMTN Community Warrior: @rajeevsrikant

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 Submit a nomination for the next VMTN Community Warrior. In 2017, this program will be recognizing and rewarding 25 users who commit time and energy to engaging in community discussions and capturing the values of VMware Technology Network. Learn more.

I’m happy to announce, and extend my congratulations to VMTN’s new Community Warrior @rajeevsrikant. Welcome to the Community Warrior Hall of Fame! For those that have been to the VMTN NSX page in the past three years will recognize @rajeevsrikant’s handle. What makes him special is he gives as much as he gets.

Not only does @rajeevsrikant answer customer questions, but he asks them. He leverages VMTN as a place for support, while providing support to others. He takes time every day to improve the community ecosystem for VMware customers, and that makes him a Community Warrior. Thank you and congratulations!

Let’s learn a bit more about this warrior…

K: How were you originally introduced to communities and what inspired you to stay involved?

R: Initially when I was very new to NSX technology, I was looking for open communities where I can learn, share & find answers to queries/problem. VMTN provided the exact platform which I was looking for which is helping me to learn something new every day. It helped to interact with people of multiple skill sets, share their experience & knowledge which is very useful.

K: So, you leveraged it as a platform to learn. That’s great. What have you gained through your involvement with VMTN?

R: VMTN is a knowledge warehouse & it provides easy & fastest way to address any real-time problems. It helped me in acquiring adequate knowledge about the technology & which was useful for my work. It also provided me a platform to share the experience & knowledge to other members.

K: What has your NSX journey been?

R: My NSX journey has been a fun ride. As a pure hardcore networking guy I was assigned to work in the network virtualization project using NSX with not much experience on VMware platform in the past. Completely new to this technology, HOL provided me the best platform to learn about NSX & gets hands on. Knowledge gained through VMTN & HOL gave me huge confidence during implementation NSX in an enterprise environment in large scale deployment. I am proud to say that I am VCIX-NV certified.

K: The ultimate question: would you recommend NSX to other networking professionals?

R: Yes, I do recommend NSX as this is the future of networking. The features, functionality, flexibility & ease of deployment which NSX offers makes it stand out among its competitors. NSX is the game changer for Data Center networks.

K: And finally… Tell us a fun fact about you!

R: I am a friendly character & I love reading.

Thanks for sharing @rajeevsrikant! If you are interested in making any book recommendations, learning more about his NSX experiences, or making a friend – message or follow him on VMTN. He is always posting great content like:

NSX Edge Gateway – On Demand Failover

Congratulations again and thanks for all of your community engagement!

Do you see someone frequently answering questions in your favorite forums? Did someone provide server saving support to you recently at a VMUG or over Twitter? Any community involvement counts. Head to the Community Warrior page to nominate a user, or email katieb@vmware.com.

Discover VMTN: 3 Remarkable Reasons to Come to Communities for Support

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Blog 3 – series predecessors: VMTN Global Forums, 7 Ways to Gain Points

VMware Technology Network is a communities’ platform comprised of 3.2 million members and only three, as of today, can boast that they host this badge on their profile.

What makes these 3 users remarkable? They are a part of VMware’s Global Services team – they are Knowledge Champions* – and they have integrated into the VMTN ecosystem to spread that knowledge to whoever is in need. These users are committing time to ensure that any  query that is not addressed with peer-to-peer support within a reasonable window receives the attention it needs to reach a resolution.

*At VMware, the title of Knowledge Champion is given to those responsible for coordinating with engineering and the technical support team to publish accurate internal and external knowledge base articles. Communities is a hot bed for content – as they support VMTN, VMTN inspires them!

Meet 3 of the great reasons VMTN should be your go-to site for VMware support:

Knowledge Champion: @AishR

IT experience of 10 years, where she worked as an SE on various domains – hardware and software. She is passionate about resolving customer queries and validating technical documents.

Main VMware areas of Interest:  Virtualization, Networking, Data center technology

Technical Certifications: VCA-5, VCP-5

Other Certifications: Six sigma Green belt, Certified Scrum Master

Fun fact: Dancing makes one smarter and it worked for me 😊

 

Knowledge Champion: @mhampto

Previously a TSE in the Sysops group prior to being a Knowledge Champion.

Main VMware areas of interest: certifications, and history

Technical Certifications: VCP4 and 5, six in progress. Specialize in vSphere (ESXi, vCenter Server)

Fun fact: Enjoys riding motorcycles in the Rockies

 

Knowledge Champion: @parmarr

Rahul spent 7 years in the Support Industry, working on product releases, content editing, and the VMware Licensing Support Team, before joining the Knowledge Experience team.

Main VMware areas of interest: licensing & account management

Technical Certifications: VCA-5, VSP, VTSP, Working on VCP-6

Fun fact: People friendly 😊 I like to meet and know new people.

 

 

We’re happy to welcome these folks on board as catalysts for customer success. Follow them on communities to track their progress, message them to welcome them to our thriving community ecosystem, and follow @VMTNcommunity on Twitter for updates on the program.

And don’t forget to bookmark communities in your browser: VMTN Communities.

NOTE: these additions to the ecosystem do not cannibalize our Community Warrior program, or our VMTN User Moderators, both of whom volunteer their time to make our community great.

For further information on status/badge levels, visit the Community Rewards Points System FAQ or for questions around this program, email the VMTN Community Manager, katieb@vmware.com.

Congratulations to #VMTN Community Warrior: @iiliev

*Submit a nomination for the next VMTN Community Warrior*

I’d like to extend my congratulations a full 6,500 miles to our newest Community Warrior… In Sofia, Bulgaria. Thank you @iiliev for your contributions to VMTN and to VMware as a Staff Engineer. Welcome to the Community Warrior Hall of Fame!

How did @iiliev get here? He was nominated by Hazenet, twice. Once in February when the program started, and once more this month. He was also nominated by tschoergez who said:

He is the most active member in the vRealize Orchestrator forums https://communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/vcenter/orchestrator?view=discussions, Answering questions quickly and with super high quality information.

After gaining a whopping 6,120 points in this one community, I’d have to agree. You are a vRealize Orchestrator community star @iiliev.

I would also like to take a second, before letting @iiliev speak for himself, to reflect on the current Community Warrior ratio:

  • 2 U.S. based users
  • 1 New Zealand resident
  • 6 Europeans

VMTN: Stay Connected… To other customers near and far. *pause for chills*

Moving on… The VMTN team had the privilege of talking to @iiliev about his experience on VMTN in more detail. Check it out:

K: How were you originally introduced to communities and what inspired you to stay involved?

I: I subscribed to VMTN back in 2009. Initially, I wasn’t very active, but later I started to contribute when I gained more knowledge about the product, inspired by other active contributors (cdecanini_, Burke-, and tschoergez, to name a few). I believe having a friendly and helpful forum/community is essential for every successful product.

K: I completely agree! What have you gained through your involvement with VMTN?

I: VMTN forums turned out to be a direct and fast way to get in touch with the customers, and to find out what their real problems are with the product. It is surprising how often you can learn something new while trying to answer a seemingly easy question. And it is always rewarding to see happy customers whose day has been saved by your answers.

Sometimes, it could also have more direct impact; eg. spending 10 minutes educating the customer how to troubleshoot an issue or writing a sample code snippet could prevent opening an official SR costing your team several days/weeks to resolve.

K: Interesting – what is your job at VMware? Is answering community questions a part of your job description?

I: I’m part of vRO R&D team, working on developing the future versions and supporting the current versions of the product. Answering community questions is not a strict requirement for my job, but I think all VMware engineers should be encouraged to do it. It is beneficial for both parties.

K: Why do you believe vRealize Orchestrator is an amazing product?

I: Who is saying this? 😊 vRO definitely has some rough edges, but it is also a very powerful and flexible product, and if you don’t mind getting your hands dirty, it could do almost everything related to automating/orchestrating tasks. And it is free (sort of)! Everyone loves free stuff, right?

K: Wise words! Thanks for your time and congratulations again.

If you are interested on picking @iiliev’s brain on vRealize Orchestrator, VMware, or VMTN, you can follow him here:

VMTN: @iiliev

Posting great content like:

Technical Preview version of VMware vRealize Orchestrator plug-in for vAPI

Do you see someone frequently answering questions in your favorite forums? Did someone provide server saving support to you recently at a VMUG or over Twitter? Any community involvement counts. Head to the Community Warrior page to nominate a user, or email katieb@vmware.com.

Call for Content: VMworld #vBrownBag Tech Talks – A VMware Technology Network Member

vBrownBag and VMware Technology Network have partnered to make the 2017 community Tech Talk experience at VMworld US and Europe exceptional.

The call for content for Tech Talks is officially open! Submit by JUNE 30TH for a chance to present:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdtpMS5ychaZN__1eY7rJh6eOHKfgIGSCbzDgYVVJojGo9DQ/viewform

Wait, what?

Good question Captain Jean Luc Picard. Let’s answer that, plus a few more.

  1. What is a Tech Talk?

A Tech Talk is a brief presentation by community members on subjects they believe will be of interest to other members. It is an easy entry into conference speaking. Each Tech Talk will be scheduled as 12 minutes or 27 minutes. As a content contributor, it is up to you to select as accurately as possible which time window will work best for your topic in the Google form. Tech Talks will be recorded and published later on the vBrownBag Youtube channel. For examples: 2016 #vBrownBag Tech Talks at VMworld

  1. What is the criteria for each Tech Talk?

To submit a topic for consideration, you must provide a Title and Session Summary. Depending on how many submissions are received, we may have to be selective. Please keep this information brief, interesting, and know that this content may be published publicly to promote your talk. We will do our best to select at least 1 topic per content contributor.

  1. Where will these Tech Talks take place at VMworld US and Europe? What AV will be available?

These will be hosted at the VMTN Community area in VMvillage at both VMworld US and VMworld Europe. We will have facilities to capture your slides and (Internet access willing) live demos using a Mac.

We will provide all the equipment for recording and presenting. Online, TechTalks will be live streamed for people who will not be at VMworld to watch. They will also be video recorded and published to YouTube post VMworld.

  1. What does the VMTN and vBrownBag partnership mean?

This partnership means promotion and resources for the Tech Talks. All Tech Talks will be promoted to the community through VMware social channels, VMware blogs, and vBrownBag’s channels. VMTN and vBrownBag will be working closely together to solidify a schedule based on content submissions, and feature it in ScheduleBuilder for both VMworld U.S. and Europe.

This is the first-year Tech Talks will be featured in VMworld ScheduleBuilder. This means a bigger audience, higher awareness for vBrownBag and VMTN community programs, and more promotional resources provided by VMware to optimize the Tech Talk program’s success.

VMTN has sponsored a select number of passes for Tech Talk presenters if they are unable to obtain their own. You must specify in the submission form if a pass is needed. Available passes are limited.

  1. This sounds great! Where do I sign-up?

Submit your Tech Talk content here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdtpMS5ycha-ZN__1eY7rJh6eOHKfgIGSCbzDgYVVJojGo9DQ/viewform

The call for content closes JUNE 30th. Don’t miss the opportunity to attend VMworld, stay connected with your community, and share your knowledge on-stage. Please submit ASAP We would be excited to have you!

Follow these channels on Twitter for any updates on the VMTN Tech Talks powered by vBrownBag program: @VMTNcommunity and @vBrownBag. Further questions? Reach out to communitygroup@vmware.com.

 

Congratulations to our Newest Community Warrior: @bayupw

*Submit a nomination for the next Community Warrior*

I am excited to announce, congratulate, and celebrate the newest Community Warrior, @bayupw. If you have spent time in the NSX Community on VMTN, it is likely that you have engaged with Bayu. Both of his nominators, @MikeWright1971 and @rajeevsrikant sent me not 1, but 3+ examples each of unique instances where Bayu came to their aide in this forum… Check out an example.

Bayu is an active VMware community member, having achieved master status on communities (2,000+ points). He is a valued member of the VMTN User Moderator Program, is heavily involved in VMUG, on social, and in the VMware vExpert program. Congratulations @bayupw, this badge is extremely well deserved!

As an NSX expert (currently on the journey to achieving his VCDX-NV), and someone who has truly worked on the cutting edge with this technology, I was excited to have the opportunity to pick his brain…

K: What is your history on the VMTN forums?

B: I signed up for the VMTN communities back in 2009 when I was working on Cisco, learning how VMware ESX 3.5 and VMware VDI works. VMware became more important for me when I had to help a customer deploy Cisco Nexus 1000v on VMware vSphere ESXi version 4… That’s when I started to learn and study for my first VCP. I was only a lurker, or silent reader, at first and only began to contribute in the communities after I joined VMware Professional Services in Jan 2013. I got involved on VMTN & with VMUG, writing some VMware related blog posts and became a VMware vExpert.

I can see that people in the VMTN communities have similar questions and challenges to my customers and I know the answers. Since realizing that, I’ve decided to contribute more to the communities by answering those questions during my spare time. I participate in the communities as a way of sharing knowledge and also learning from others through their questions and answers.

The following communities are currently in my browser’s bookmark bar: VMware NSX, vRNI, vSphere vNetwork, vCloud Director and vCloud Networking and Security.

K: Tell me about your experience working for VMware.

B: I am an ex-VMware Professional Services employee, where I was a Senior Consultant covering SEAK (South East Asia & Korea) region for 3 and a half years. I was focusing on vCloud Director and VMware NSX Design & Deploy, I started with small environments in the earlier version of NSX-v 6.0.x and worked up to complex multi-sites deployments on a quite recent version of NSX-v 6.2.x. I also had some chances to work on other projects such as vSphere, SRM, vCloud Director and vRealize Automation.

K: As someone with a background that has fully exposed them to VMware NSX and it’s use cases, why do you think it’s important for users to adopt NSX?

B: NSX is really a transformational technology that brings the answer for today’s networking and security challenges. NSX changes the way networks have been built and operate, it allows us to manage and provision network & security services such as virtual logical switches, routers, firewalls, load balancers and virtual private networks independently of the underlying hardware. The physical networking devices simply become the transport for forwarding packets as the underlay networks and the NSX virtual networks are overlaid.

What it means for enterprises, is that NSX helps IT organizations change their network & security operations to make them much more agile, which is what server virtualization like VMware vSphere has offered for more than a decade.

K: How can readers contact/connect with you?

B: Twitter: @bayupw https://twitter.com/bayupw

VMTN: @bayupw https://communities.vmware.com/people/bayupw

Blog: http://bayupw.blogspot.co.nz/

vExpert Slack Channel

Also, keep an eye out for him on the shelves, as Bayu and an associate from VMware’s NSBU are working on a VMware NSX book that is targeted to be completed by the end of this year.
Congratulations again @bayupw.

Do you see someone frequently answering questions in your favorite forums? Did someone provide server saving support to you recently at a VMUG or over Twitter? Any community involvement counts. Head to the Community Warrior page to nominate a user, or email katieb@vmware.com.

Community Warrior: Cheers to 10 Years

*With the below announcement, nominations are now open for the next Community Warrior*

Please join me in congratulating VMware Technology Network’s newest Community Warrior. This man is a jack-of-all-VMware products, dedicated to sharing his knowledge with others, and well known throughout the communities… @a.p.… Congratulations!!

André has several reasons to be proud of his involvement on VMTN. I will take the liberty to name a few…

  • May 18 André celebrated 10 years of membership on VMTN
  • He holds the #1 spot on the All-Time Communities Leaderboard
  • He has achieved both vExpert and User Moderator status several years in a row
  • His peers, for example @Wila who nominated him, speak of his knowledge and selflessness…

“He’s the real warrior as he is able to – and does – help out all across the board with the most advanced topics. He has an incredible amount of knowledge and is very good at getting problems solved.”

The facts outlined above speak volumes, check out what André had to say for himself:

K: How were you originally introduced to communities and what inspired you to stay involved?

A: I subscribed to VMTN after moving to a new company – a VMware partner – almost exactly 10 years ago. For the first ~2 years I used communities as a resource to learn and search for help. Inspired by all these great people on VMTN, like Troy, Ulli, Woody, Brian, Wil, and many others, I started contributing, and I still enjoy helping people around the globe, no matter whether it’s a newbie question, or an issue which requires advanced troubleshooting. Another reason for me to stay active in the communities is that I’ve been a user moderator several years now.

K: What have you gained through your involvement with VMTN?

A: Short version: Knowledge and friends!

Long version: VMTN is one of the most active communities that I’m aware of. As an IT consultant it’s important for me to be up to date. Vendor documentations usually describe how things are supposed to work, but the communities also contain a lot of information about issues, and possible fixes, quite often prior to the knowledge base. It’s always great if users provide feedback once their issues are resolved. Over the years, quite some users contacted me to say thanks. What more could one want?

K: What is your area of expertise when it comes to VMware products?

A: My main focus is on server and client virtualization, i.e. vCenter Server, ESXi, Horizon View. In most cases my customer projects include setting up the required servers, networking, SAN, storage, and backup too. I’m also familiar with several other VMware products, but cannot focus on a single vendor’s products.

K: How did you become so well versed in the technical depths of so many products?

A: I’ve always been interested in technologies, and spend a lot of time reading documentations, KB articles, and community posts as well as “playing” with the products in my test lab. I also attended a few trainings at the beginning, and learned a lot from colleagues. It’s certainly also a matter of time, and experience to get the technical depth. I also had the opportunity to work as a Technical Editor on Brian Atkinson’s VCP-DCV 5.5 study guide, which “forced” me to deep dive into several product features.

K: What method would you recommend for someone trying to attain your level of knowledge?

A: Simply try to forget a lot of what you learned, and you will soon be on my level ;-)))

Seriously, the method (if it can be called a method at all) is to be interested, work with passion, willing to spend time, reading a lot, talking with others (face-to-face or e.g. on VMTN), setting up a test lab, break and fix. If possible, attend a training to get a good base knowledge on which you can build upon.

Thanks André for the amazing support and content you have added to communities over the past 10 years! Congratulations and Happy Anniversary!

If you’d like to contact André, please reach out to him by messaging him on VMTN: @a.p.

Do you see someone frequently answering questions in your favorite forums? Did someone provide server saving support to you recently at a VMUG or over Twitter? Any community involvement counts. Head to the Community Warrior page to nominate, or email katieb@vmware.com.

Discover VMware Technology Network: 7 Ways to Gain Points

This is the second blog in a series. See the first blog here: VMTN Global Forums

The foundation of VMware Technology Network is peer-to-peer support and engagement. Community is powered by human connection – the warm feeling of helping another person and the satisfaction of collaborating to solve a problem.

Screen Shot 2017-05-11 at 11.05.53 AM

And then there’s the added bonus to participation, the cherry on top, gaining points. The happiness when your answer is marked correct and you can almost hear the points adding up. A little competition to spice things up never hurts, right?

If competition is something you thrive on, and you went to get onto the Weekly, or All-time communities leaderboard (half-way down the homepage), I’m here to help. These are the 7 ways you can gain points on communities:

 

 

  1. Correct Answer – 10 Points. Having an answered marked as correct is the most lucrative way to gain points. Take advantage of the Browse feature to identify unanswered questions. Opt-in to Follow communities you are interested in so you get email notifications & they are added to your My Communities list. Or even bookmark your favorite communities.Screen Shot 2017-05-10 at 3.14.22 PM
  1. Helpful Answer – 6 Points. If you know a partial answer to a question, or a resource that might shed some light, go ahead and post it. An answer doesn’t have to be perfect, a user can mark your response as helpful and you still receive points.
  1. Reply to an Answer – 1 Point. Sometimes you will answer a question and the user will forget to mark it correct. It happens! Sometimes, you have a comment to add, like, “thanks for posting, this was helpful.” Engagement is always rewarded. As a contributor, you will receive 1 point for taking the time to reply to a question.
  1. Create a Document – 1 Point. Did you write a white paper, case study, or a study guide around a VMware product or solution? Post it on communities. Not only are you sharing your knowledge, helping others, and expanding your clout, you gain a point for doing so.
  1. Create a BlogPost – 1 Point. If you don’t host a personal blog, but have something to say, post a blog to your community profile. This is low maintenance blogging, where you’ll receive views, but have very little up-keep. If you do host a blog, post an abstract and a link to your blog on communities. The community’s audience wants to read the technical content being written. Plus, every blog you post gains you a point.
  1. Post a Status Update – 1 Point. This is a lesser known functionality on communities. Every user has the option to follow other users. To follow someone, visit that user’s profile by clicking on their username, or searching their username. When you visit their profile, select Follow in the bottom right corner. Follow Example
  • Make sure you select the option to follow them in your Connections Stream in the Follow dropdown. View your Connections Stream by clicking News in your header. The Connections Stream option will be on the left side-bar. Click and be brought here:Screen Shot 2017-05-11 at 10.49.38 AM
  • From here you will be able to post a status, see recent activity of those you follow, and filter your view. You will also receive notifications in your VMTN inbox (@) when a user you follow posts a status, and vis versa. Here you can post links to cool resources or share exciting news, like just having deployed vSAN, and gain a point.
  1. Have Someone like your Status Update – 1 Point. Always post relevant and technically informative resources. Spam and marketing are discouraged on communities. Getting status likes is all about appealing to your audience. To gain more followers organically, be active consistently on the communities, and promote your activity via social media.

While utilizing these 7 methods, keep in mind that as a community member, one must give to receive. Be sure to always mark answers correct or helpful on your queries, like other user’s status updates, and respond to questions. Visit communities to start gaining points now!

For further information on status/badge levels, gaining points, and gamification visit the Community Rewards Points System FAQ or email the VMTN Community Manager, katieb@vmware.com.

Turn the (App) Volume up for our Newest Community Warrior

Congratulations to this week’s VMware Community Warrior: @Ray_Handels. I could write Volumes about our newest 2017 Hall of Famer *pause for laughter* but his activity in the VMware App Volumes Community speaks for itself (1,151 points…).

Not a workstation management expert? Check out this brief video introduction:

Ray was nominated by sachindsharma (featured in the video above) for his involvement within the community, his seat on the App Volumes customer council, and his involvement in testing the latest and greatest App Volume builds as they roll out.

What makes Ray remarkable, is that he maintains a strong relationship upstream, with the VMware product team, and downstream, with customers like himself. He provides support to others in the forums, listens, and constructively communicates to the VMware product teams to improve App Volumes for all users.

Learn a bit more about how Ray manages these relationships…

K: What makes you passionate about VMware App Volumes and answering community questions?

R: I have been in workstation management for over 8 years but haven’t seen anything like App Volumes (formerly known as CloudVolumes) for our environment. The technique and idea, providing the application to the user while he is actually logging in, was a perfect fit for our business model as we never know what user is logging in to what machine.

Also, the writable volume feature enables us to provide users with a virtual machine, but they don’t even know that they are actually using a virtual machine because they get all of their applications and settings. Looking at the applications progress from CloudVolumes 1.8 (yes, we did use that version) to 2.12.1, which we are using now, it’s great to see where the program is going.

K: You have a unique relationship with the VMware App Volumes product team… Tell me a bit about that.

R: We started using the application as one of the first customers worldwide and really believed in it’s technical features. Because the old team was (and still is) very customer driven we had multiple sessions with people like Jason Marshall (product engineering) and Matt Connover about what features we would like to see added to the product, and tested a lot of those features for them. This gave us a unique opportunity to be a part of the building process for App Volumes.

K: How can community members get as involved with our product teams as you are?

R: I’d say the best way to start is to be active on the forums, not only to ask questions and take information, but also to share knowledge with other customers. The larger and more active the user base, the better the products will be for customers and users.

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Thanks Ray!

Contact Ray with any follow-up questions here:

VMTN: @Ray_Handels

LinkedIn: Raymond Handels

Twitter: @raymondhandels

Do you see someone frequently answering questions in your favorite forums? Did someone provide server saving support to you recently at a VMUG or over Twitter? Any community involvement counts. Head to the Community Warrior page to nominate, or email katieb@vmware.com.