Perception!
I am sure all of us have heard that perception is 9/10th the rule. Unfortunately perception is what tainted the name Alt.Net.
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The community at large has seen this movement as gathering of elite programmers to form a secret society that is trying to crush the Microsoft software development world.
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I am not implying that this how you feel Collin just my perception 
over the couple of post I have read over the last day or so.
>You’d be bringing your ideas to a whole new audience instead of, and I realise this is a generalisation, preaching to the converted.
This could not be further from the truth. As a community we realize the VALUE that all of the engineering practices add to the community but you know what? People aren’t listening. We have tried for the past 4-6 years to convey these practices but as a community (Alt.Net) we aren’t being very effective. Hence the confusion surrounding all these initiatives.
Enter the Alt.Net conference.
- How as a community of passionate developers can we come together and figure out how to adequately convey these awesome software engineering practices to the development community as a whole.
- How can we come together and figure out even amongst ourselves what these engineering practices are so we don’t interrupt each other’s progress.
- And last how as a community can we show people how to do this using the Microsoft technologies that have grown to love.
This forum allowed each of us that are passionate about these concepts to better refine our ideals, constructs and practices in being a professional developer, so that we can better serve the community at large.
It is not a movement so much as it is a refinement of practices as an overall community.
My anguish is in the derogatory perception that is surrounding the Alt.Net moniker.
As a community of developers that just want to do what is right and share what we do, we have to do a better job at not propagating the stereo type of what Alt.Net community members are (There are a lot of do’s in there). Classic example of this can be found on Sam Gentiles blog.
Like all great things it is going to take time, patience and a lot of laughter.
Rome was not built in a day. But everyone had a great tan!
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I have to agree, the goal was not to segregate the community, but to create a community. We don’t have what the Java, Ruby, and other communities have, and this conference was an attempt to jump-start a community. I understand the negative connotations, but those who didn’t understand the goals probably should have gone to the conference to find out.
@Joe: Interesting comments, and I can understand where you’re coming from, definitely.
@Jimmy:
“Those who didn’t understand the goals probably should have gone to the conference to find out.”
That’s probably the silliest thing that’s been said in this discussion so far!
@Colin
Hmmm…let me qualify that, probably didn’t come out right. Obviously not everyone can fly to Austin to participate in what may be a lot of hot air.
So how do we create the community in .NET that Java, Ruby, and other communities have? I’m tired of .NET always looking at those communities for leadership and direction. The comment was made more than once to call the conference the “NIH conference”. Hopefully, this conference created a community with a voice that can lead.