The Rational Guide to Building Technical User Communities (Rational Guides) (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: technical user communities, user group leaders, technical user community, United States, Wagga Wagga, Recruiting Members (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

In The Rational Guide to Building Technical User Communities, Microsoft Regional Director Greg Low explains how the most successful user communities succeed by focusing on people rather than technology. He explains the differences between user groups and user communities, how to ensure productive meetings, the importance of using speakers effectively, and tried and true methods of recruiting and growing a group. He also discusses the best uses for technology, remote and online communities, and the ins and outs of group dynamics. Advanced topics include legal and financial issues, such as funding, insurance, and sponsors.

Product Details

• Paperback: 136 pages
• Publisher: Rational Press (August 13, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932577327
• ISBN-13: 978-1932577327
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,297,032 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great, one-of-its-kind book for everybody who is interested in building technical user community - Founder SQLAuthority.com, July 4, 2009

By	Pinalkumar Dave "Pinal Dave" (SQLAuthority.com) - See all my reviews

Short Review : A Great, one-of-its-kind book for everybody who is interested in building technical user community. There is no other book written on this subject but after this comprehensive book no further reading will be required.

Detailed Review :
This is for the first time in my book review, instead of talking about the book or author, I will introduce myself in a couple of lines to explain why and how this book is helpful to those interested in building community. [...]. I am actively involved with Technical User Group Community all over the world and have been helping many user groups to start, grow and continuously expand successfully. I am helping user groups in capacity of their mentor to overcome any obstacles they face while running the user group.

Author Greg Low is the most experienced person when it comes to community and people. He is a Microsoft Regional Director as well as mentor for Solid Quality Australia. For over a decade, he organized several Queensland User Groups. Greg is looked upon for guidance when User Groups are in need of the most appropriate advice. He is a very renowned person in technical community and does not need any further introduction.

This book focuses on the most important lessons learned by Greg over decades of involvement in technical communities. It provides practical advice on establishing, sustaining and growing these communities. This books is focused on helping user group leaders to deal with any potential pitfalls and contains workaround as well. The book is not limited to only user group leaders. In fact, this book is for everybody who is interested in community. If you are already a member of a community, this book is a perfect guide to help you get the most out of your membership.

The first chapter, which is appropriately named as - "People, Not Technology," sets the pace and keeps up the concept live till the end of the book. In community, staying in focus is very important for people as everything revolves around it. No matter how knowledgeable or renowned a person is in the domain of technology, if he is not a people's person, he cannot become an integral part of community and can never grow. For any technology to survive, support from people is required. Community provides combined power of people to lend strong support to community.Throughout the book, this key concept is cherished and explored.

Greg talks about two very important challenges for any technical community. 1) Finding Speaker and 2) Finding Operational Funds. If these two things are done appropriately the heart of any community, which is "Finding People," comes to shape on its own. I run few User Groups and they are growing tremendously. Recently, we have been discussing about lots of legal issues. That was the prime reason why I chose to read this book. After reading this book through and through, I presented the valuable ideas from this book to my fellow leaders , and we all agreed on them right away. The rich experience that Greg shares with his readers can effectively solve their problems. Because of this book, we were no longer required to spend money on lawyer and instead we will now divert that fund toward our scholarship program.

Each chapter of this book is build to stand alone and it covers the subject with sufficient breadth. I really liked the real-life examples from Greg, where he talks about his friends, fellow MVPs, SQL Server Groups Leaders and other important people of community. As each chapter is written to have independent read, same topics have been covered twice. But what I liked about it is that same subject conveys different meaning when it is presented in a different consent. This particular aspect of the book, makes it a genuine must-read book.

One negative aspect of this book is that a very important checklist of the book is only given to those who will register online. If you have a friend who owns this book and has already registered online, you can ask that friend to pass this important stuff to you. One more thing, I would like to request Greg to include his latest learning from his experience as a Global Community Development of PASS, in the next version of his book. I am sure that more information about international technical user groups can be now included.

Rating : 5 Stars

Summary : A must-have book for everybody who is involved with technical community in any capacity. This is a unique book on this subject.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Easy going, sound advice., November 8, 2007

By	Mitchell Wheat "Mitch Wheat" (Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Greg Low has been involved with technical user communities for some time. He is well known in Australian developer circles (and further afield) and is a frequent speaker at conferences as well as a Microsoft regional director. I'm currently helping to run the Perth .NET user group, so I was glad to receive a review copy of this book from Greg, curious to see if there was something we could be doing, but currently were not.

The writing style is conversational, easy to read and interspersed with recounted stories. The book is divided into the following chapters:

People, Not Technology
Something for Everyone
Finding Speakers
Tried and True
Pizza Does Not Define a User Group
Don't Reinvent the Wheel
Recruiting Members
Content and Handouts
Using Technology
Recruiting Volunteers
Conducting Meetings
Tips for Presenters
The Fine Print
Funding

The book makes it clear from Chapter 1 that "Communities, whether technical or not, are about people" and the reasons why people are motivated to get involved with a user group are examined.

In Chapter 2, "Something for Everyone", Greg describes his strategies for making meetings have relevance to all attendees:

- Avoid Single Topic Meetings
- Avoid Increasing Depth
- Some Repetition is OK

This advice might seem to fly in the face of how many user groups are organised but his explanations make good sense. I think this chapter could be summed up by the following quotes, which in other settings might seem cliché or hackneyed: "Participation is very important" and "Everyone wants to feel valued".

I think Greg did a good job of keeping the book short and easy going; I read it in 2 sessions over 3 nights. Not all of the advice will fit every user group, but I would be surprised if a single user group did not found something of interest that they can put to use. There are many valuable ideas that can be quickly put into practice. It was pleasing to find out that our group seems to be following much of the advice given in this book.

The only negative thing I found that was that there were a few short paragraphs that were repeated, but maybe that was just to drill in the message!

If you are thinking of starting a technical community or even already involved in one, this book is certainly worth reading.

[BTW Greg, the tale of the Avocado mouse pads made me smile!]

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good collection of advice, March 13, 2008

By	Michael Paladino (Fort Smith, AR USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book does a good job of covering a variety of topics related to starting and maintaining technical user communities. The author's opinions come from years of working with user groups in various capacities, and all his opinions are backed up with stories from his own experiences. His ideas seem to be mostly common sense, but it is helpful to have all the information aggregated in one location.

The book is easy to read and is a good length. I found the discussion of recruiting volunteers to be very helpful. The one point on which I disagree with the author is his opinion that meetings should always have two topics. I certainly don't have the experience that the author has, but I have found that there is just not enough time to allow for disussion, handle group business and giveaways, and cover two topics in a reasonable amount of time.

Overall, I was very pleased with the book and will be passing it around to the rest of the leadership of our user group.