Deirdre Walsh Interview with EDN

[JackDunaway]

Community Manager Deirdre is interviewed by EDN about the importance of social networking for engineers: http://bit.ly/Deirdre-Walsh-EDN-Interview

[Deirdre]

Thanks for sharing the article.  Would love to hear thoughts on these points as well.  

[JackDunaway]

I couldn't agree with you more that talking with other nerds such as myself colleagues broadens and deepens technical expertise and camaraderie. But there's a snag - as a usability junkie, I notice the ni.com homepage does not highlight two of it's greatest resources: the Discussion Forums and the Communities.

Could you make an internal "push" to get these two treasure troves the publicity they deserve: a menu item on the homepage? This improvement could act as a springboard for other low-hanging fruit to accelerate the growth of NI's technical community.

[Ray.R]

I really liked the article. 

I must admit, that I'm not comfortable with Facebook, but we're already LinkedIn, so that's my contribution to the social network..  And of course, this forum.

I have not yet found a similar site for embedded C/C++ developers, especially VxWorks.  Quite dissappointing, actually.  WindRiver could learn a lot from NI (forums).

I do agree that these days, getting a job or contract is pretty much through who you know.  Sending resumes is getting more & more a waste of time.  I suppose too many people claiming to be something they are not.  That's another article for EDN 😉

I probably need to learn / explore blogs and twitters.

Cheers Deirdre!

RayR

[JackDunaway]

I realized I left out one important point from my post above - Great article. The line that struck home: "People get really caught up in the technologies. It’s less about the technologies and more about the conversation."

[Deirdre]

Ray and Jack, 

I'm really glad you liked the article.  

Additionally, I appreciate the feedback on the navigation on ni.com.  It is definitely something that we discuss internally and it's helpful to having it coming directly from customers.  

Hope you both have a good weekend!

Deirdre