About Me & This Blog
Me and Infragistics
I started at Infragistics in May of 2006. My official title is something rather boring that I'd rather not say, so they let me come up with something better. After many hair-pulling, brain-wracking hours of fitful, sleeplessness, a light shone into my half-consciousness, and I came up with Codemunicator.
The idea is kinda obvious if you let your eyes relax enough (like those funky stereograms like Magic Eye that were all the rage a decade or so ago). Actually, it's kind of the opposite because rather than coming together, you have to push the words apart so they become "code communicator." Then at least you'll have some idea of what the position involves.
I'm rather fond of portmanteaux thanks to Lewis Carroll, what with his slithy toves and mimsy borogoves, so they tend to bubble up to me while brainstorming. Codemunicator essentially means that I communicate the value of our code to you and everybody. It's really an odd blend of writing, coding, and other stuff that all comes together to hopefully help people to see how Infragistics can help them.
Well, it turns out we really like the idea, so we've built an entire group called the User Experience Group (UXG for short). Our goal is to help our customers realize the potential of Infragistics software through example and through storytelling. We want to help our customers create rich, interactive, highly-usable, and visually appealing applications without having to be user interface (UI), user experience (UX), or usability experts themselves. A large part of this, of course, is achieved through our awesome products, but just like any tool, there are different ways to use our products. Our hope is to show the best way through a variety of media.
The first thing our group accomplished, with the help of our superb Visual Design group, was to revamp our public web site and blogging system. This is an example of our showing by example how to create good user experience. Since then, we've launched a new community site (community.infragistics.com) to serve as a meeting place for sharing knowledge between us, you, and your peers. We're working on exemplars, articles, videos, podcasts, and more (e.g., solution scenarios).
The future promises many great things for you coming out of the UXG, so stay tuned. You won't be disappointed.
This Blog
This blog is one extension/manifestation of the UXG, so what you see here will be a combination of how-to's, stories, and other goodies with the chief purpose being to help you create awesome applications. We're always eager to get feedback about what we're doing, so please feel free to contact me with ideas or suggestions on how we can improve.
The Old Me
Prior to coming to Infragistics, I led a varied career at a number of different companies as a corporate developer and architect, consultant, and at an ERP software vendor. In my so-called spare time, I've written a number of articles, contributed to a couple books, and spoken at various code camps, tech fests, and Tech Ed. If you're interested in my other blatherings, you can find a record of them at my Microsoft MVP profile. Also, in addition to this blog, I blog on both technical and non-technical topics at my personal space on the web: dotNetTemplar.Net.
The Real Me
Despite appearances, my first love is not computers. If I had my druthers, I'd probably be professoring at a university somewhere, teaching, writing, and researching some blend of philosophy and history (humanities)--I have a BA in medieval European history. I might even be writing some fiction (who knows?--could still happen!). But I got married early on and took the easy way out, choosing a profession that is more fiscally rewarding. It's not that I regret that or my choice of career at all. I'm quite happy to be the father of three lovely children (girl->boy->boy) and married to quite possibly the best mother and wife on the planet, and I do enjoy software for all that. I'm just saying that there are things I prefer to do with my so-called spare time.
Currently, what miniscule time is left after working and spending time with my fantastic family, which includes copious movie and sci-fi series watching, I read either historical fiction (Bernard Cornwell's a favorite, as is Umberto Eco), history, philosophy, and theology, and I try to work on my Latin every so often when I'm feeling particularly industrious. And now that we're up here in New Jersey, we also try to get out and visit the sites and sounds of the area. Oh, I also do a bit of non-technical writing and blogging, and I keep meaning to start on that phantom best seller so that I can retire early!
That's about the long and the short of it. I hope what I and the UXG provide here at Infragistics ends up helping a lot of people wow their employers, customers, and clients. Enjoy!