Changes, changes, changes

Many of you have undoubtedly noticed that my blogging has dropped off precipitously
over the last half-year. The reason for that is multifold, ranging from the usual
“I just don’t seem to have the time for it” rationale, up through the realization
that I have a couple of regular (paid) columns (one with CoDe Magazine, one with MSDN)
that consume a lot of my ideas that would otherwise go into the blog.

But most of all, the main reason I’m finding it harder these days to blog is that
as of July of this year, I have joined forces with Neudesic,
LLC, as a full-time employee, working as an Architectural Consultant for them.

Neudesic is a Microsoft partner (as a matter of fact, as I understand it we were Microsoft’s
Partner of the Year not too long ago), with several different technology practices,
including a Mobile practice, a User Experience practice, a Connected Systems practice,
and a Custom Application Development practice, among others. The company is (as of
this writing) about 400 consultants strong, with a number of Microsoft MVPs and Regional
Directors on staff, including a personal friend of mine, Simon Guest, who heads up
the Mobile Practice, and another friend, Rick Garibay, who is the Practice Director
for Connected Systems. And that doesn’t include the other friends I have within the
company, as well as the people within the company who are quickly becoming new friends.
I’m even more tickled that I was instrumental in bringing Steven “Doc” List in, to
bring his agile experience and perspective to our projects nationwide. (Plus I just
like working with Doc.)

It’s been a great partnership so far: they ask me to continue doing the speaking and
writing that I love to do, bringing fame and glory (I hope!) to the Neudesic name,
and in turn I get to jump in on a variety of different projects as an architect and
mentor. The people I’m working with are great, top-notch technology experts and just
some of the nicest people I’ve met. Plus, yes, it’s nice to draw a regular bimonthly
paycheck and benefits after being an independent for a decade or so.

The fact that they’re principally a .NET shop may lead some to conclude that this
is my farewell letter to the Java community, but in fact the opposite is the case.
I’m actively engaged with our Mobile practice around Android (and iOS) development,
and I’m subtly and covertly (sssh! Don’t tell the partners!) trying to subvert the
company into expanding our technology practices into the Java (and Ruby/Rails) space.

With the coming new year, I think one of my upcoming responsibilities will be to blog
more, so don’t be too surprised if you start to see more activity on a more regular
basis here. But in the meantime, I’m working on my end-of-year predictions and retrospective,
so keep an eye out for that in the next few days.

(Oh, and that link that appears across the bottom of my blog posts? Someday I’m going
to remember how to change the text for that in the blog engine and modify it to read
something more Neudesic-centric. But for now, it’ll work.)

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