When Shavlik began conversations with Spiceworks regarding partnering and integrating our technology into their community I was asked by Marketing to familiarize myself with their community and what it has to offer.  The functionality they offer free of charge is great.  Their Dashboard has many interesting widgets.  Even one for Shavlik showing patch releases and Product Blog postings.  They have some interesting Inventory features and HelpDesk options built into the site as well.

What I have found most valuable on Spiceworks is the rest of the Community.  It really started with my spice level.  Participation in Spiceworks is rated on the Scoville scale beginning with Pimento and going all the way to pure Capsaicin.  A little healthy competition?!  Of course I need to get my spice level higher!  I can’t be branded a Pimento and leave it at that!  I did the first and easiest thing to get up to the next pepper level.  I finished my profile.  100 points!  By the way, 100 points is exactly what you need to get to the Sonora pepper level.

Ok, so now I am hooked.  I can’t just stay at Sonora level forever.  Time to browse the Answer Questions section.   Here IT Pros can ask questions and get answers.   Read a post, spice it up (their version of Like) for a spice point.  Reply to a discussion for 10 points.  Someone votes your response as helpful and you get 25 more points or if you are selected as the best answer you get 50 additional points!  Cool.  So I can browse a few forum posts each day and generate some points.

I moved on to other parts of the community, did a survey, reviewed some software, and found that you can also write how-tos, post scripts in any scripting language and get points for downloads, etc.  Attend local Spice Group meetings with IT Pros in your area for even more points.  I achieved Pablano status and am well on my way to Jalapeño and I stopped to think about what I had done so far.   I found some interesting scripts that actually helped me figure out a few things for customers I had been working with and in figuring those issues out I wrote a few scripts and posted them to the Spiceworks community to get feedback from them.  Found some great product reviews on tools I had not used before.  Downloaded and tried a few.  This is social networking at its best.  You get to turn what you have to do into a healthy competition and get a lot of value for “Free” (my time not calculated in the “Free” membership).

I highly recommend checking out Spiceworks if you have not already done so.  Small IT shops will especially find value here.  You can tap into the knowledge of over a million Spiceworks users for recommendations and assistance.  The community is quick to respond and offers great advice.  If you do join the Spiceworks community, find and follow the Shavlik Group to get answers to your patch questions.

Also check out the recent post from DaveEike to see more about the benefits that the Shavlik and Spiceworks partnership offers end users.

Regards,

Chris Goettl
Product Owner
Shavlik Technologies