The SAP Business Workflow Community- Exemplifies Community

I just got my copy of Practical Workflow for SAP 2^nd edition ( "bestselling expertise on developing and using workflows in the SAP system")

Not only was I blown away by the depth and breadth of the content and excited to see the authors list filled with community members (Ginger Gatling, Alan Rickayzen, Jocelyn Dart, Erik Dick, Oliver Hilss, Somya Kapoor, Silvana Kempf, Susan Keohan, Thomas Kosog, Paul Médaille, Mike Pokraka, Shalini Sabnani, Jörn Sedlmayr, Ted Sohn) and acknowledgments of help from other SCN folks (Thomas Jung and Michael Hill among them) but I was delighted to see in SAP mentor Ginger Gatling's preface the following words:

"I hope you have noticed that all royalties from this book will be donated to Doctors Without Borders/Medecins San Frontieres.  Each author has individually decided to donate his or her royalties.  Your purchase of this book helps us support an international medical humanitarian organization that delivers emergency aid in many countries.  Thank you for enabling us to provide support to his important organization."

And my delight and pride turned to astonishment and happy laughter with the last sentence of her preface:

"I hope to see you blogging about workflow on SDN after reading this book!"

Go Workflow Community.  You all rock.

*Disclaimer, Ginger bestowed upon me the incredible honor of writing a forward to the new addition.  Here is an excerpt which I hope explains the admiration I have for the Workflow community, many of whom you all know quite well.

"The goal of this book is to get you started in understanding how SAP Business Workflow works, how it fits in with SAP's overall Business Process Management strategy.  It is meant to provide an overview of workflow usage in SAP ERP, CRM, HCM, and SRM systems.  This book should supply the initial technical knowledge required by the workflow designer and developers, as well as enabling you to understand options for how to ensure each task in the workflow is routing to the correct person. 

The creation of this second addition is itself a study in collaborative process improvement as well as community-minded teamwork.  The authors, 13 in number, hail from 5 countries, 3 continents and multiple SAP community environments. They span our SAP ecosystem by representing customers, partners, independents and employees in varied industries and SAP solution areas.  The authors' workflow knowledge stems from consulting, development, solution management, education and most importantly practical and extensive field experience.

Knowing as I do the human fabric represented in the author demographics, I dare say the group also is personified by altruistic, supportive behavior, professional as well as social, where sharing knowledge is done generously and munificently, be it by sustaining the work of others in online forum discussions, user groups, customer engagements and events.  Those contributing to the publication of this book exemplify that generosity of spirit and have kindly donated the proceeds of its publication to Doctors Without Borders.   An apt gesture from a group of people who see that where uncertainty is greatest, coordination and response know few limits and boundries. "