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Great - another acronym.  As twitter grows I expect more of these to come along.  Anyway, I saw it this morning on Harry Gries’ blog, and it stands for “Yet Another Social Network”.

Harry painstakingly gathered tweets from a thread and tied them all together into an interesting conversation.  You would not have got this conversation if you a) had not been “following” every member of the conversation and b) not been on Twitter at the exact time it was going on.  So, thanks Harry!

I put a pretty long comment on Harry’s blog, but there’s a point I’d like to emphasize.

JL Gray was wondering if “we” needed another social network when it came to Xuropa.  Of course, my answer to that is - he’s right, we need a professional network.  At the same time he was making that comment he added that using Cadence tools on Xuropa was “cool”.  And that’s the whole point - using the actual Cadence tools with no downloads, plug-ins, or license agreements is very cool.  But more to the point - it’s useful.  Xuropa is about providing a community that is useful and specific to your career and work.

Within a Xuropa Online Lab you can use the tools and ask questions of the tool’s application engineer directly; read the manual, or watch a video about how to use the tool.  At the same time, if you want to twitter about it, great!  Write a blog post, wonderful! Write about it on someone’s “wall”, knock yourself out!  Each of these social networks has its purpose and focus (or not).

Here’s a video introduction to one of the Cadence MIPI Labs on Xuropa:

This is what Xuropa is about.  Connecting engineers with technology.  The rest is up to you.

Posted under Community, Features, Xuropa, industry, marketing

Considering the number of open source tools available to create the basics of an online community site, it is tempting to go this route to leverage the ubiquity of the web.  Indeed, a couple of companies within electronic design have done this.  However, there are some fundamental reasons why this is a very bad idea and ultimately won’t work.

It’s only when you get into the web and community building business that you understand that there are two key elements to the process:

• Building the platform (software)
• Building the community (people)

It is easy to think that installing the software and configuring it is the hardest part.  This is the “build it and they will come” mentality.  Dead wrong.  If it’s on your own website there’s a great deal of work and maintenance required.  If it’s on an unrelated platform, you’ve just made your job harder for yourself.

If you’re a budget constrained organization take a look at the amount of effort and length of time it took John Cooley to build his audience (it’s not really a “community”).  A heck of a lot of guerilla marketing to get on everybody’s radar (and I would not want to maintain that site).  Or take Janick Bergeron’s Verification Guild.  It’s a relatively more modern web platform that allows interaction, but it has taken him years to build that community.

The problem is, you’re on your own.  Without some heavy duty marketing, how are you going to cut through the noise of the web?  It’s not the tool you use, but the fundamental marketing principles and effort behind the way you use the tool.

You on your own

There is another way  - to build your community within a group of communities with a point of commonality.  This way, there is a resonance from those around you that amplifies your efforts to build your own specific community.

So, for electronic design, you want to be building your community within a larger online electronic design community…this is Xuropa.

Your community on Xuropa

Building an online community is an on-going effort.  It needs to be fed and watered over time - daily.  This is hard to do when you’re a resource limited company.  But if you’re in amongst a number of other communities with a similar background, their efforts will help yours.  Leverage.

Of course, in addition to community functionality, you can have your software product at the heart of your community in an Online Lab.  That’s something that no other solution out there can provide.

So, please don’t waste your time, effort and money because the software’s “easy” to install and free.  You’re just taking a technical short cut that will make the whole process harder and the likelihood that you’ll achieve your objectives little to none.

Posted under Features, Xuropa, industry, marketing

We’ve just completed a new video providing a summary of some of the features of the Xuropa Online Electronic Design Community.  The biggest challenge was keeping the video short and choosing which features to highlight. 

The only way to really understand exactly what the Xuropa Community is about and what it can do for you is to register and sign-in.  But for those that would like to “look before they leap” - enjoy:

Here’s the transcript:

“Unlike any other online community, the Xuropa community is dedicated to the entire electronic design industry.  It has been designed and built for electronic design professionals by electronic design professionals.

Among the many tools Within this select community you can:

1. Use actual electronic design software to learn new skills or consider new tool acquisitions

Online Lab Learning and Exploration Environment

2. View and navigate the industry and your network as a visual map

The Industry Mapped Around You

3. See what news is hot to read through a peer voting tool

Peer Voting Tool Filters Hot News to the Top

4. Gain recognition for your experience and expertise within the industry.

Within a Xuropa Online Lab you gain access to actual electronic design tools for you to use diretly via your web browser.  There are no downloads, no installations and no configuration necessary.  Within an Online Lab, in this case it is the Cadence MIPI Verification Lab, you have the tool and all of the related documentation at your fingertips.  Use this area to learn about a new protocol, a new tool and verification methodology.  You can also use this environment to evaluate the products in your consideration for licensing them from the vendor.  Again, without the need to install anythng on your local workstation.

We put you at the center of the electronic design industry.  Based upon your professional profile, we map all of the electronic design professionals within the community.  This way you can see those people with similar backgrounds who might be interesting to network with.  You can also begin to understand the portability of your skills and specializations into different fields and domains.

To do this we go further than any other online networking tool.  Within your Xuropa Professional Profile you add Specializations, such as RTL Design Verification or System Level Architect.  You can also add specific skills, such as protocols, software languages or verification methodologies.

News articles are brought in from all over the web and ranked by the number of views and the number of votes each has received.  We also categorize each article into different fields so you can focus on the important news of the day.  You can also browse industry news feeds that you select in your customized feed view.

In today’s economic environment it is crucial that you’re able to differentiate yourself and be recognized for your expertise.  Within Xuropa you can do this by writing reviews of products and technology you have used or developed.  These are linked to your Professional Profile.  If you don’t have time to write a review you can quickly share your experience by rating products and technology

These is just a short summary of the types of tools available to you within the Xuropa Online Community.

Click here to register for the Xuropa Online Electronic Design Community.

Posted under Features, Xuropa