Resp: Why ALT.NET?

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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.</p>

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.

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.</p>

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!