When Covid took out the PASS organization, I had someone say to me, “Well, that’s the end of the data community.” My response was pretty simple, “Nope. The community is the people, and they’re not going anywhere.”
I was right.
And I was wrong, but not because of PASS.
Splintered
I was asked recently, in a single word, to describe the data community. I chose ‘Splintered.’
Why?
It’s because of social media. We leaned pretty hard on having a limited number of channels for communication within the community. There were really only a couple of choices. Today though, we’re scattered to the four winds. BlueSky has brought in some people. Others are on Mastodon. You’ll still find people on X or Facebook. However, even more are on LinkedIn. Don’t forget about Slack (oh, but I wish I could). Or Teams. Discord. Tic Toc (yeah, really). There’s always the umpty-gazillion podcasts on a whole slew of platforms. I can keep going. Youtube, sure. Vimeo. Rumble. The list feels endless.
I’m not being critical of this. I’m certainly not demanding that we somehow pick THE platform. This is just an observation.
Conclusion
“The community” as an entity is both extremely healthy, and utterly devastated. I was right. The people haven’t gone anywhere. They’re still out there, talking and sharing and promoting one another, same as always. Yet, It’s also scattered, splintered, across an ever-growing number of channels and frequencies, making it both harder, and in some ways easier, to find, but mostly harder.
Honestly, no real conclusion here. Just an observation. Maybe I’m just getting old, but I kind of mourn a bit what we used to have when lots and lots of people were interacting, sharing, and growing together, rather than apart.
Now get off my lawn!
Wait one! If you think there is a channel/app/website/something that gets more eyeballs, I’d love to know about it.
I liked the word ‘splintered’ and agree there. Although I don’t think it is just social media/Twitter. Granted, that’s a platform we relied on and that’s no longer valid. I think there is more to it than that. Some reasons i’ve seen —
People have moved away from SQL Server into other platforms, some even non data.
People have retired.
SQL Server is getting less love from the mothership (I heard this repeatedly at summit this time from many people) – making it less attractive as a platform to focus singularly on.
Job related hiring has gotten increasingly complex and difficult. (as opposed to referring someone you know, and having a small # of applications for the company to choose from).In other words, gains from networking into jobs is much much harder now. It still exists, it is just harder.
Last but not the least – global politics. It has gotten really personal and factors into literally everything.
And I must differ with you – PASS was an umbrella. A leaky, faulty bad umbrella, but an umbrella we gathered under of and fought our battles despite all the rest. That its gone is showing.
Hey Mala!
No arguments on anything. I’m sure there are lots and lots of things going on. It’s both good and bad, like everything.
In the 1990s I worked in advertising. The CEO lamented that the days of being able to reach 80% of women with 2 publications had gone.
When Satellite, cable and streaming took off it became harder still to reach a large target audience.
I feel this fragmentation has led to the rise of the “influencer”, a dilution of quality info and the sort of self-promotion that is more clickbait than substance.
There’s still a lot of good stuff and good people out there, but its like listening for a heartbeat at a death metal concert.