Josh McWilliam

(Originally posted on my Flatburger.com Blog) I suppose it’s fitting that as I write my first Blog entry, I am sitting here at the Boston Convention Center overlooking the army of people in the exhibition hall at the Microsoft® Tech-Ed Conference. It’s fitting because this conference marks the beginning of my new role as Technical Evangelist and Director of DotNetNuke^TM Product for FlatBurger. This is the first of many trips I will be making in the near future to talk to people about both DotNetNuke^TM and FlatBurger. With over 12,000 people here in attendance, there are few better places to get started.

I have been working with DotNetNuke^TM since version 2.0. What started as “playing around” with this cool new technology for a personal site has turned into a full time job running a successful business using it. From working with customers, to developing modules, to designing skins, to putting it all together to create, test, and manage a quality solution that solves a customer’s problem, I have been involved in many aspects of what it takes to create a business using DotNetNuke^TM.

My charge now is to help others do the same. The problem we face is the old chicken and egg issue. There needs to be an ample supply of quality modules in the community in order for people to take those modules and use them to solve people’s problems. However, in order for there to be an ample supply of quality modules in the community, there needs to be sufficient demand from people willing to pay for their use in these solutions. Without someone paying the bills, it can be real hard to find the time and resources needed to create these quality modules.

My goal is to help the community gain access to the additional services, tools and resources they need in order to help push their products to the next level. I say “gain access,” because there is no single person that has all the answers. For this reason, to think that a single person, or a single company, could effectively provide those resources themselves and serve as the expert in all areas would be foolish. My job is very much one of fostering communication. For everything that I don’t know, I know there is someone out there that does. It’s helping to drive the mechanism by which people can share and exchange their collective knowledge that will yield the biggest results.

It is for this reason, that I am at Tech-Ed, talking to people, asking them what it is that would make it easier for them to create quality products. It is for the same reason that I will ask the same of you, dear reader. I want to know what you are good at and what you want to learn more about. What are the things that you provide, and what are the things that you need. I want to know the modules and pieces of functionality that you wish existed, so I can try and find people interested in creating them. I believe that for everyone that has a need, there is someone out there willing and ready to fill it. So, I invite you to help me in that effort, and email me anytime with your thoughts and feedback at jmcwilliam@flatburger.com.