ColdFusion Developers and Social Technologies

Posted At : March 25, 2008 7:32 AM | Posted By : Brian
Related Categories: Miscellaneous, ColdFusion
My manager is attending the BEA Participate conference in May (we run their portal product), and yesterday he and I sat down with a developer who was creating the portal for the conference itself. The conference portal was designed to promote social networking: attendees will be able to track the status of other attendees, see what their interests are, leave comments for them on their comment wall, and communicate with them via a Twitter channel.

Everyone attending the conference is getting an iPod Touch and there will be a mobile version of the portal so folks can simply use the iPod to keep abreast of what's going on.

My initial reaction was that it was a really cool idea...which is strange because I'm not really into social networking. I have a Twitter account and a Pownce account, but I never use them: who wants to hear what I'm currently doing, and when do I have the time to stop and tell them?

But I could see myself using these social technologies at a specific event like a conference, where part of the fun IS being social and participating in the discussion. The trick is that you have to have enough attendees to embrace the idea in order for it to be worthwhile. My manager isn't into social networking either, so I wonder if folks at his conference are really going to use these social networking features.

I can't help but wonder what would happen if we had a similar social networking portal at a big ColdFusion conference like cf.Objective() or CFUnited. Assuming the typical saturation of the wireless bandwidth wasn't a problem, would most CF developers interact with each other using these tools?

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it depends.

one thing I _have_ noticed is that CF people seem to be more "connected" than those from, say, Microsoft world. I suspect part of that is the influence of other web technologies. Heck, even Connect (Breeze) being available for CFUG's may have an effect in CF'ers mindsets.

which is why I reckon the social networking portal idea would work well for gatherings like WebDU (http://www.webdu.com.au/) or WebOnThePiste (www.webonthepiste.com/)

eh, just my 2c
# Posted By barry.b | 3/26/08 9:43 AM
@barry: I agree that CF developers are more inclined to come together (whether in person or on the web) and collaborate with each other than say Microsoft or Java folks. I'm not sure if that's because the collaboration opportunities (Connect, the CFUGs, etc.) have been "put out there" for us to come to or because collaboration is part of being a CF developer somehow...maybe as a reaction to being persecuted for using an occasionally "dead" programming language. :)

But those collaborations (for the most part) are structured discussions centered on a technology: someone presents a set topic/idea and the attendees take it in and provide feedback. These social networking technologies are a lot more free-form/disruptive, and their chief purpose is the create social/personal connections, not necessarily enhance your knowledge about a technical subject. So I see it as being a bit of a different "connection" medium with a different set of expectations and outcomes.

I hope one day I can make it out to Australia and New Zealand (whether personally or professionally): the image banner for WebOnThePiste makes me jealous. :)
# Posted By Brian Swartzfager | 3/26/08 10:34 AM
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