I was hired by AOL games to provide a voice for the community within the games group. After a few starts and stops I think we are getting there. There have been a couple of initiatives that have worked and a couple that have not.
What has worked:
1. Making a message board to make sure people who are having trouble with the games can get their voices heard. When I came on board to AOL games there wasn't really an avenue for the people playing the games to contact the people who were putting the games up. I bounced the idea of a community feedback board to be linked to new games and received approval. Since then, members who have had trouble have posted their comments and I have been able to relay those comments to the production team. It's been a huge help.
2. Taking on more production work while waiting for the tools for a community to develope. I came on board here and immediately was sent to Virgina for training. That was interesting, but I didn't have much work to do. I got mildly frustrated and started asking for more work. Its the best thing that I did. I am now more integrated into the work flow of AOL games and have the necessary skills to really make things happen when the time comes to enable the games community.
3. Taking initiative and reading about what I am doing. My father is a basically smart guy and also a little arrogant. He never thought you should go to someone else to do something. The best example being fixing a car. He never went to a mechanic. He figured, what does that High School graduate know that I can't learn out of a manual? So he'd buy mechanics books and fix his cars. How does this apply to me? Well, I've taken my Pop's idea that "Hey's its in books!"and applied it to my interwebs work. I read all I can on new technology and ask for book suggestions from people that I think might help. So far I think it has. I have a good idea of what I want to do with a community blog and hope that its here sooner than later.
