I was tagged by Josh Holmes in his Inspired By blog post. My reply to this tag is a long time coming. This is due to the fact that there is just so many people in the developer community that truly inspire me.
I am inspired by people that give back to the developer community. The people that openly share experiences and make it a point to improve the knowledge of fellow developers. These people take time out to genuinely help people reach their goals in their career, they also help feed the curiosity for them to try new things in technology. These people are (in no particular order):
- Bloggers – who openly share their development experiences with others, so that they may avoid similar pitfalls, solve problems and apply techniques/technologies that are successful in their problem-space.
- Screencasters – who show hands-on exactly how their technology of choice can be applied visually. The benefits of this is that a single screencast can be created once and be reachable to any developer.
- Speakers/Presenters – who spend countless hours and sleepless nights perfecting the delivery of a session that will help developers understand and apply the topic at hand.
- Event Organizers – who also spend countless hours and sleepless nights crossing the T’s and dotting the i’s to ensure event attendees are provided a comfortable and functional learning environment. They also organize the marketing, speakers and sponsorship so that the event is possible in the first place.
- Event Volunteers – usually the people "behind the curtain" ; they work feverishly throughout the event to ensure the event plans are executed without a hitch and help attendees wherever needed.
- Event Attendees – the most important piece of the developer community. These are the people who show ambition and desire to learn and improve their trade. They go back to their workplace and lead by example; taking the lessons they have learned and apply the technologies in successful ways (and most importantly share the information with others). These are the people that make the developer community worthwhile.
I know it seems as if I’m dodging the question of who it is that inspires me, so I’ll spill it. The first person that had a profound impact on my interest in the developer community is Drew Robbins. I met Drew at a Developer Days event in November 2001. He was actively recruiting members for the Central Ohio .Net Developer’s Group here in Columbus Ohio. Let’s just say that some day I would hope to match the passion that he has for the developer community. He is the person who encouraged me to get more involved, to get over any fears and just get out there and make a difference.