User Groups and Profesional Associations

I’m part of the SearchDataCenter.com Data Center Advisory Board, part of which involves contributing to a discussion every so often on IT topics. This round, the question was around what user groups and professional associations have helped me in the past and in the present.

Thinking over the question, I realized that in my present life as an analyst I’m not involved in as many user groups as I was when I was a developer. Even back then, I wasn’t much of a joiner, though I enjoyed the local Java User’s Group and conferences.

So, I took a different tact and thought about where the “support groups” I depend on professionally are. Most, as you might expect, come from places like blogs, other “Web 2.0” buckets, and esp. Twitter:

Over the past year, Twitter has become one of the top conduits through which I interact with these ad hoc groups. The combination of people I follow there, those who follow me and those I chat with through Twitter make an extremely valuable group.

Check out the rest of my answer, and the much more interesting and diverse answers from the rest of the Advisory Board.

Disclosure: RedMonk get a small stipend from SearchDataCenter.com participation in the Advisory Board.