OK. I feel a bit guilty . I read the info-labview posting about the new community.ni.com forums; and... joined. I saw that no one had posted, got the fever, and posted a vi. Now I feel a bit ashamed. On the other hand, I was the first poster, so my name will live in history

There are a few tidbits in the NI Community FAQ that catch my eye.

How is This Different from the Other Examples on ni.com?
The primary difference is that you, the content contributor, own your examples on NI Community. We are providing a rich set of tools, like revision history, RSS, and ratings to allow both the users and the community to get more out of the examples.

Any examples you post will be found by users searching NI Developer Zone – alongside the NI provided examples.

Can Other People Edit My Examples?
Multiple users cannot edit an individual example.

In future releases, we plan to add a “sharing” component, where you can allow specific users to collaborate on your example.

Now, what does community.ni.com mean to people who use ( or more importantly SUBSCRIBE ) to LAVA?

Please answer my poll, if for no other reason than to clear my conscience....

I really hope that I'm wrong, but has the launch of the NI Community revealed this user's true intentions?

Maybe it's just me. But I find the new NI Community pages a little confusing, and there's only a few entries.

I guess it's just not apparent to me how they're going to manage navigation once they have a number of entries.

Given his latest blog entry, I think it is safe to say he was involved.

PJM

Phillip,

I have to say that if I were going through a slow spell at work, I'd probably check out the NI hosted forum, but I'm a bit overwhelmed between Work and Home To Do lists. I find that there is a very high quality of information from very high caliber personnel in the LAVA forum which is largely unencumbered by any corporate affiliation. I would say that its going to be hard to beat that. Seems to me that we recently had an April fools joke that scared the *&%$ out of some of us along these lines.

Now, if I could only get around to donating to LAVA...

(procrastinate... procrastinate... pro..



-Pete Liiva

Well, considering NI has million dollar budgets and lot's of manpower, I'd have to say that I'm not impressed. Then again, their priority is in sales and they probably find it hard to justify spending money on stuff like this. I actually knew about this over a year ago. Was even asked for my opinion on the matter from NI, so I can't say I'm caught off guard.

I was a little surprised to see Phillip Brooks post the first file and in response no less to a LAVA post. Then again, I know there was no ill intent, no hard feelings. I'm sure if LAVA had such an outlet, you would use it instead.

I wonder what will happen if LAVA members start posting VI's with secret scripting stuff enabled? Will NI censor them once again? C'mon folks you can't beat LAVA for that one and only reason... freedom.

One final thought, I don't know about you guys but I find that password protected VI's do not help in the growth of knowledge in LabVIEW. I think it's the same as going to a C discussion group and posting built executables..., what's the point? I think code is just as much about learning then just solving a problem.

Let me help you with my signature below:

BTW, this is what NI is using for the community site:

http://quintagroup.com/


So basically, the sky's the limit...

Foiled!

Being a little "pessimistic" about our community site launch is very much an honest and understood reaction.

What we are trying to do here is simply add another avenue for the community to collaborate. It has been said before, but I will say again that we do not want to compete or otherwise step on the toes of our partners on the web. I hope you understand this is not the goal.

What I always would want is to talk with you all about the usefulness of the site, your concerns with posting, and the like.

Of course, my true intentions in LAVA is to communicate with you all and help develop a better partnership. Ocassionally, I may EVEN be able to offer a LabVIEW hint or two...


PS. The community.ni.com site is built on an open-source technology called Plone, and we developed with the company Michael mentioned. It's a very impressive tool in my opinion.

Colin: You speak of "partnership" repeatedly. So, what has NI done (or is NI planning to do) to partner with LAVA and other independent LabVIEW resources? There are several NI employees who do provide regular high-quality contributions to LAVA, in the form of forum participation, and I think that's great. However, I think that NI could do a whole lot more. Also, NI needs to realize that we are not very interested in partnerships that co-op our efforts for NI's direct benefit.

Are you serious?!? If you want a true partnership then try being a partner: tell us what's going on and maybe we can be involved in the building of such a community. Don't just start asking loaded questions - that's downright rude and belligerent.


I'm not "pessimistic" - I'm far from "pessimistic", I'm angry! This is a forum for and by the people - I like that NI staff visit us, help out and occasionally learn some stuff - it's in all our interests - but I think you picked the wrong forum to be manipulative on. If you want to do that, then maybe you should stick to your own moderated forum.

As I said, if you want to truly partner, then IMHO you'll need to do a much better job that you did.

When I made the "First Post", I had no ill intent.

It was pure impulse, which when I reflect on it made me think of my three year old daughter. We've just moved into a new home, and there is a large flower bed in bloom. I was walking behind her to the door when she suddenly stepped into the flowers and started to stomp them. I screamed "WHY?!" and she started to cry. I asked her again after she stopped crying, and she said "I don't know".

That's how I feel now, "I don't know why..." I've actually lost some sleep thinking about what I did. If you don't believe me, look at my avatar and signature. Here are the conclusions I've come to:

I belong to various communities in my life. These are all of my own choice. These communities sometimes cross paths. I continuously discover that I share interests and habits that reaffirm my membership in the LAVA community. Thats why I'm a member and contribute. I'm part French, and once mentioned Pineau des Charantes in a LAVA post. These sorts of things appear to be outside the community.ni.com Community Policy.

I sense that NI sees "beautiful fruit" (vis, solutions) in the LAVA community, and would like to find a way to create this sort of "orchard" for it's whole customer base. The tools that are hinted at (revision control, collaboration, integration with the Find Examples tools) are exciting, but do not a community make. Tell us how we can use this great tool and still keep our independance, and I'm sure we would listen.

NI is the catheadral and LAVA is the bazaar. I go to cathedral once a week because it is compatible with my way of life (test engineering). I go to the bazaar every day to trade fruits (ideas and code) and occasionally to talk about life. When I'm at catheadral, I reenforce my knowledge and skills. When I'm at bazaar, I don't evangelize; and try to live by my beliefs (universal only, absolutely NO GLOBALS . I hope to actually go to The Catheadral in August, if time and money allow).

Thank you Colin for the opportunity to share the meager fruit of my garden. If I have extra and can help feed the masses, I will give when I can. I hope I can offer the millionth, and I won't expect an iPod. I might suggest that you begin to