COMMON Expands Global Presence, Creates Multilingual Content Library
Floyd Del Muro, president of COMMON, outlines new education and networking opportunities for IBM i users across the globe
2024 was a big year for COMMON North America as it increased its global footprint in Latin America, Japan and India. Members in these regions can now access the IBM i and Power user group’s renowned education, networking and advocacy in their own language while staying closer to home.
Floyd Del Muro, COMMON president, explains how this expansion came about and how the organization discovered opportunities for events and translating content into local languages.
From the COVID Shutdown to Virtual Events
COMMON’s expansion emerged from challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, “a defining moment,” in the words of Del Muro.
During that time, the global shutdown forced the COMMON team to move its bi-annual in-person networking events to virtual events. Organizers developed a virtual classroom model for not only presenting material, but for preserving it.
“Not being able to meet in person allowed us to grow our content library from the event recordings we generated,” Del Muro says.
New Opportunities for ‘Education Deserts’
Between organizing the virtual events and growing its library, the COMMON North America team realized geographical and language gaps—what Del Muro calls “education deserts.” Del Muro says these deserts resulted from “the global shutdown during COVID, a lack of content in native languages like Japanese and Spanish, and most recently, the increased cost of travel.”
That is also where they found an opportunity for growth. With support from IBM and COMMON members in Latin America, Japan and India, COMMON North America rolled out events in each of these regions. By this time, the COMMON team had already developed a virtual learning model that it could replicate and use to host virtual events for Latin America and India.
For Latin America, Del Muro says, “we launched our first virtual event all in Spanish and had a great response from attendees, although they were not overly pleased running into the siesta hour. Our next virtual event is December 18, again all in Spanish. But this time, it’ll be shorter than the first event and will go from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., so everyone can still enjoy the afternoon siesta.”
When IBM held its first in-person event in Japan, organizers invited the COMMON team to introduce itself to Japanese attendees. Dawn May, COMMON’s immediate past president, and Del Muro each gave a 25-minute presentation in hopes the attendees would consider adding a track to the i Evolution event they were planning.
It worked. “At their live event in Tokyo, COMMON had an IBM i/Power track at the inaugural iEvo event. Local experts conducted all sessions in Japanese, except for one session by a native English speaker,” Del Muro says.
COMMON also held virtual events for India this year, but in 2025, it will roll out its first in-person event at the end of February in Pune, India. “We have some great business partners helping us, along with IBM,” Del Muro says. “This two-and-a-half-day event offers an expo and three tracks all in English: an introduction or student track, an application development track and an operations track.”
He adds, “We’re optimistic about this event. We’re working predominantly with IBM and programmers.io as the lead sponsors, as well as other business partners.”
Enhanced Multilingual Content Library
Prior to these international virtual events, COMMON members who were non-native English speakers had little IBM i and Power content in their native language. “English is not always the best language for educational purposes,” Del Muro says.
With these newly added virtual and in-person events, Del Muro says, “My agenda is to amplify the value of the content library to our global community and use it as much as possible.” So far, COMMON has roughly 500 hours of recorded educational sessions in its content library, or rather, its content repository.
“COMMON doesn’t own all the content; the speakers or experts who give us the material do,” Del Muro says. “Our global community members have stepped up to assist with translation, even seeking permission from the content owner.”
“We also have content in Japanese and Spanish for community members to use,” Del Muro says. He adds, “Members of COMMON Iberia [Spain and Portugal] are helping to build on the Spanish-language content we have for both its members and those in Latin America.”
One Source for IBM i, Power and Related Technology Information
While the COVID pandemic forced some COMMON groups to close, COMMON prevailed in its rebound. “Our expanded global presence has been well received,” Del Muro says. “Our members in these areas can now access valuable IBM i, Power and related information in their own language through our events and our repository.”
He continues, “People trust COMMON for its education, whether they’re new to the platform or developers who are transitioning to Power, RPG or adjacent technologies. While this information might not be new to long-standing members, it’s new to members getting started with the platform.”
COMMON Europe has also jumped at this opportunity, giving its communities access to COMMON North America’s content repository. As a result, some COMMON groups have grown their memberships.
The repository will soon also contain German- and French-language content. “We’re trying to get ahead of the language needs as best we can,” says Del Muro. “I’m grateful to our members in these countries for volunteering to take on this translation work.”
Onward Into 2025
Going into 2025, Del Muro says, “we plan to continue with events in Japan, Latin America and India, and hope to add events for New Zealand and Australia. Here in the U.S., we look forward to hosting POWERUp, FOCUS and NAViGATE, and expanding our presence at IBM TechXchange.” Stay tuned to see what COMMON has in store next.
If you’d like to speak at any of these events or help translate information, contact COMMON to get started.