Cabling industry community -- worth it? CI&M asks YOU

Cabling Installation and Maintenance's associate publisher and national sales manager, Ed Murphy, and I had an interesting chat by the water cooler this morning.

Ah, the chat by the proverbial water cooler! An enjoyable and often worthwhile activity among peers at work in which I'm sure many of you out there in the cabling industry also often partake, whatever your business concern. Maybe your water cooler is a Thermos full of hot coffee at a job site outdoors, if you're installing OSP or wireless network technology, or by the chill of the server room in some mega-data center, or perhaps simply (and this where Ed and I dwell, folks, Monday thru Friday) in that mainstay area of 21st century American working life: the Cube Farm.

Ah, the Cube Farm.

But I digress. The water cooler chat! Is, when you get right down to it, the activity of a community of peers, engaged in the same or similar business or work. And for sure, the discussion that Ed and I had this morning was about community, within the cabling industry, to be exact, and the value of community discussion among professionals working in the same field -- or as is often the case in our industry, actually in the field. And about the specific effort it would indeed take to build such a community. Specifically, an area of this Website dedicated to supporting the community of cable installation professionals who form CIM's core audience.

But (exclaimed Ed and I) this community doesn't necessarily need to be built, not so much perhaps, because it in fact already exists! At least fundamentally. And its members are any and all of you folks out there, who visit the CIM website on a daily or weekly basis (we hope!). All this community really needs then, for best purposes, is its own dedicated area on the Web in which, simply, to grow.

Yes, CIM readers! It bears saying again. The cabling community is YOU, and any community website enterprise would in large part belong to YOU, would be a place dedicated to YOU. A place to post feedback on articles seen in the magazine and on the website, and to have discussions about said articles. A place to post a video demonstrating a technique or a product, or to post a blog such as this, the better to share an opinion or a viewpoint. A place where you as a professional and peer working in our industry can take part and be heard. Ask a question, receive an answer. Air a gripe! (...on second thought, might want to watch that one...).

Or how about: share a funny story! Or a serious story. Some unusual or notable thing that happened on the job site. Or even: pictures of your kids, your vacation, your dog? Not kidding! There is more to life than just work, is there not? Ever heard of a little enterprise called Facebook? We're not talking about re-inventing the wheel here, folks!

Ahem.

Nonetheless, Ed noted, rightly, that, for us here at CIM, any such enterprise would represent what is known in Cube Farm parlance as A Bandwidth Issue. And indeed it would. We at CIM would be the facilitators of such a resource; and without doubt, initating a community site would take some time and effort (as do all things worthwhile, yeah?); but, as Ed and I continued in our water cooler discussion, we began to brainstorm a few ideas for why a community site might really be of value to CIM's core audience...

Got questions about a CIM Webcast that just occurred, questions of yours that maybe weren't able to be addressed during the formal Q and A part of the event? Keep the discussion going, online, at the CIM community site. Having a problem with a tricky installation or sourcing cabling system components for an upcoming design? Ask your peers who might have faced -- or who, very likely, might right now be facing -- similar challenges at the community site. Nervous about how you might perform at an upcoming BICSI Cabling Skills Challenge competition? Hear from a guy or gal who's already been there, at the community site. Confused about some intricacy of a TIA or IEEE standardization, or about the finer points of USGBC LEED certification? Throw your question out onto the community site, and maybe get an answer from a real expert, who is also a member of your community. (We try our best here at the editorial desk, but in truth we are really just humble scribes and typists -- of course, I speak only for myself...not Patrick!)

And so, we at CIM want to ask YOU, our audience, a question. In terms of a section of this Website dedicated to serving the community needs of you who work in the plethora of disciplines that comprise the business, your business, of cabling systems installation and maintenance, the question we ask is this: if we build it, will you come?

Let us know! Your comments and/or questions are, as always, welcome in the space below.

-- Matt Vincent, CIM senior editor