Under New Management
Hello, World! That seems to be a fitting way to introduce myself to a developer audience. Welcome to my first official blog post as editor in chief of Visual Studio Magazine.
I'm taking over from the inimitable Mike Desmond, who ran the magazine for a number of years, and made it the indispensable resource for Microsoft .NET developers it is today. I'm greatly indebted to Mike, a good friend as well as colleague, for helping make my transition so smooth.
(For those wondering, Mike is sliding into my old spot over at MSDN Magazine. They're lucky to have him.)
I'll be writing, for the most part, about the software development industry, with a focus on Microsoft. But I don't want this blog to be a lecture; I much prefer conversations. For this to work, your feedback is not only requested, but essential. The give-and-take with readers is one of my favorite parts of the job, and I know from my time at MSDN Magazine that developers are some of the sharpest, most opinionated folks anywhere.
A bit of my background: As I mentioned, I worked at MSDN Magazine for awhile, and at TechNet Magazine before that. I've covered Microsoft and the IT space as a reporter/writer/editor for more than a decade now, at various publications within 1105 Media (the fine folks who publish this magazine).
I also make movies as a hobby, play sports, follow pro football and basketball to an unhealthy extent, and am addicted to coffee (you'll have to pry my Keurig from my cold, dead fingers) and gadgets. I may blog about some of that stuff from time to time, but I'll try and state it upfront if I do, so you can scroll on past if you're not interested.
Finally, I wanted to share a sliver of dev-related material. As you may know, PDC has been given a new name this year: It's the BUILD conference, and Microsoft promises we'll finally get the nitty-gritty about things like Windows 8, HTML 5/JavaScript, and the future of products like Silverlight. Pretty important stuff, huh?
But it doesn't seem like many in the industry are aware of the show. In the last several weeks, I've talked to several developers and vendors, and they didn't even know that Microsoft's PDC replacement this year is called BUILD. The marketing for the show, from what I can tell, is limited, if even these pros didn't recognize the name. I'm a bit shocked that this crucial developer show isn't being more widely promoted and publicized by Microsoft. Are you aware of it? Did you know it was called BUILD? Let me know your thoughts on the show, or anything else.
You can follow me on Twitter at VSM_Keith. Let's get this conversation going!
Posted by Keith Ward on 07/30/2011