A funny thing happened on the way to the forums…

Actually, before I get to that funny thing, a couple of other bits. First, apologies for the pop culture pun. If you hadn’t realised it, that title is a play on a once famous and very funny movie of the same name. I’ll probably be doing a lot of that on this forum. Which brings me to the second point: while we call it the TechnNet blog, it truly is a forum in which you, our community, play a vital role in creating and discussing the trends that matter in technology. It’s a dialogue which we hope will continue with your support and engagement.

So, back to my bad pun: a funny thing happened on the way to the UK Developer and TechNet forums. While they were created for two distinct communities – developers and IT professionals and enthusiasts, respectively – over time we discovered that many of the topics overlapped between the two audiences. If you look at subjects such as advanced analytics, bots, big data, blockchain and cloud computing, you’ll see that these are areas of interest for both developers and IT professionals.

And it’s not just the interests that are similar: even the roles of developer and IT professional now show significant overlap. Whether you’re an IT professional for a large organisation who loves to experiment with cutting edge or novel technology, or if you’re an app developer who thinks about how your apps interact within a larger business context, the skillsets for both roles continue to move closer together.

Because of this convergence, we’ve decided to blend both sites into a single forum for both developers and IT professionals here on TechNet UK where, we hope, the continued dialogue inspires both groups to achieve more.

If you need your fix of developer news, Microsoft HQ still has the latest product news, patterns and practices and dev centres on the MSDN website. You can also tune in to Channel 9 to watch the likes of Mike Taulty and Andrew Spooner on Context, a show that looks at some of the more natural means of interaction with devices, or keep up with what's new and interesting in the web world with Martin Beeby and Martin Kearn’s show Web Hack Wednesday.

If you’ve just come over from DevNet: welcome! If you’re a long-time TechNet follower, keep an eye out for the innovative and cutting-edge articles that our Developer audience will be bringing with them.

If we’re sticking with the Forum theme (like the ancient Roman one, where citizens could publicly share their thoughts and give thanks) – we’d like to take this moment to publicly thank Sara Allison for building out both channels, and bringing such engaging stories to light, and to Christopher Walden for taking on the bulk of the publishing duties this year. To both of you: Salutant!

As a caveat, the whole quote is “Ave, Imperator: Morituri te salutant!” – which means “Hail Emperor: we who are about to die salute you!” As Serg and I take on the responsibility for TechNet I’m sure there will be some bumps as we catch up to speed. We ask you for your patience… if you are not entertained.

Cheers,

 

Adrian & Sergejs