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What do we want from our community?

Former Community Member
Former Community Member
Hi everyone



I am keen to understand what we as a group of 150 IET members interested in systems engineering want from our community. We have quiet a nice online platform here but almost no discussion posts or activity. Do people want information, networking opportunities, news of relevant events, case studies, specific SE technical subjects, or something completely different?



i am very keen to hear your thoughts, since at the moment being a member does not seem to benefit any of us very much and I am sure that with a bit of ingenuity we can help eachother and have some fun at the same time!





Alan Harding
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    OK so in the last six months 43 people have read this post but nobody has replied. 



    • Is anybody interested?


    • Does anybody want to work together to better support systems engineers who are IET members?

  • I did start drafting a response but came to the conclusion that as I'm a Business Analyst right now, on the fringes of systems engineering at best, what I want or need is probably quite some distance from what the more mainstream engineers want or need.



    Personally I'd like to find out more about case studies and techniques that I can apply to the more system analysis/architecting side of my role.  Networking opportunities would be good.



    But that's just me.


  • As a project manager working in transport infrastructure, where I'd get most value is learning from the experience of others of implementing SE on projects, especially, but not exclusively, infrastructure projects, which I think is a field not very well covered.  As a group of possibly more generalist engineers (in an SE sense) than might be found in INCOSE, the general theme of sharing experience via seminars or forum posts would be good.  INCOSE have and still do run some very good early evening events, especially the Rail Interest Group, but they tend to be London-oriented - something Yorkshire way would be good!
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    I can't answer the question or solve the problem - I can only sympathise.



    I chair the Rail Interest Group, to which Christopher Mason refers, and we get masses of interaction at our events and afterwards in the pub but, when we set up a LinkedIn page, it was a silent as the grave.



    The medium is problematic. It encourages hastily-formulated contributions. This is the same as talking to people, of course, but unlike talking to people there is no instant feedback. All this means that even successful electronic forums have a low signal to noise ratio.



    It is also open to the world and so everything one writes may be read by anyone on the planet.



    As a consequence, while there is nothing to be lost in signing up to a forum like this, it is only human nature to hesitate before contributing.



    I hope someone can work out how to make this forum a success but I don't know how to do it and, if it does join the billion other dormant electronic forums on the planet, I hope we don't end up cross with each other.