Updated: View Pam's March 30 message on SHARE.org.March 30, 2009
It's hard to believe it's been over three weeks since I last put pen to paper - well, more like fingers to keyboard - for this column. Planning is well underway for SHARE in Denver, so now is the time to be sure you've submitted your session proposal.
Sitting here on a perfect Texas spring evening, I find myself puzzling a bit over choice of a topic. There's been a lot in the news over the past month. The economy still seems rather volatile, though there have been some encouraging signs. IBM and Sun appear to be in negotiations over the next move in the vendor consolidation game. Jim Michael joined representatives from our sister user communities last week at the International User Group Council meeting, our annual opportunity to meet face-to-face with a large group of IBM executives.
But I keep coming back to the question I posed to the volunteer leadership in Austin. What's top of mind for your CIO? What are the top 5 initiatives that your CIO is investing in for 2009? The collective answer to those questions truly informs how SHARE can best serve the community. Whether it's session content at events or member services on-line, our best opportunity to be of value to you is relevance to your needs and those of your organization.
So now I'm posing the question to everyone reading this article: What are your CIO's top 5 investment initiatives for 2009? It's not a rhetorical question. If you don't already know the answer, then find out. Just knowing the answer and thinking about how what you do contributes to those goals will increase your value to your organization.
But I'd ask you to go one step further. Share your insights. Send an email to sharehq@share.org with the subject line "Top 5". Tell us about your organization's Top 5 initiatives. Tell us how you think SHARE could best help you to contribute to those initiatives. Be an active participant in your community and help to shape what SHARE provides to you and your colleagues.