better living through blogging

Internet Explorer 6,Windows ME

and Comic Sans:The Holy Trinity of the Web

Joey deVillaDeveloper Evangelist

Microsoft Canada

Better LivingThrough Blogging

Joey deVillaDeveloper Evangelist

Microsoft Canada

Who am I?

“Since it’s now fashionable to laugh at the conservative Academie Francaise, I have remained a rebel by joining it.“

-- Jean Cocteau

The Take-Away

Outliers: The Story of Success(Malcolm Gladwell)

How to Make Luck(Marc Myers)

There is a formula for success

Ability alone is not enough

Effort alone is not enough

You need opportunitiesalong with ability and effort

You need ways to create opportunities

The Accordion

May 1, 1999 (daytime):Queen’s Park Cutback Protest

May 1, 1999 (nighttime)Sanctuary Vampire Sex Bar

November 30, 1999:New York City

December 1999:Chapters Online Holiday Party

“I have no idea what you do, but I want to hire you!”

“The street findsits own uses for things.”

(William Gibson)

“The intention of users has more impact than the intention of the

designers.”

(Clay Shirky)

The accordion doesn’t scale

Blogging is Accordion 2.0

Blogging is Accordion 2.0

Bloggingis

Accordion 2.0

A Blogger is Born

“The word blogshould be an acronym forBest Listing On Google.“

(Will Pate)

“Tools don’t get socially interestinguntil they get technologically boring.”

(Clay Shirky)

Friends

B-Harmony

“Internet datingis a web of

lies and obesity.“

Blogging Saves Lives

Work

Heather “Dooce” Armstrong

77% of recruiters surveyed say thatthey use search engines

to check out job candidates.

1 in 4 hiring managers say thatthey use search engines

to research potential employees.

There may be have been up to50 million proper-name searches

in 2006.

“Over time, the lack of a Web presence

— particularly for IT professionals —may well turn from a neutral to a

negative.”

”If someone came looking fora senior-level job and had left no mark

on the Internet, I’d see that as a big negative.“

Tucows(July 2003 – November 2007)

“The fact that he had a blog was absolutely a factor.

His weblog really gave us insightinto how he was a great communicator,

how he has a gift for the gab,his understanding of technology and

his writing talent.

It enabled me to drill deeperand get a better look at the kind of person he

is.”

[Well-funded, badly run startup](November 2007 – March 2008)

b5media(March 2008 – September 2008)

Microsoft(October 2008 – ???)

Writing

10,000 hours

Self

Exposure

Money

$132,994.97? Really?

Accordion Guy, April 2008 – April 20092.7 million hits, 2.1 million uniques

Global Nerdy, April 2008 – April 20091.4 million hits, 1.1 million uniques

How Much?

4 jobs

6 years of employmentat a decent to greatprogrammer’s salary

From laid off toSith Lord

in 3 weeksduring the econopocalypse

A call froma New York

Book publisher

Where do youfind the time?

Consumer: A gullet that lives at the end of the distribution system’s

conveyor belt,who gulps down products

and craps out cash.(Jerry Michalski)

“When you don’t create things,

you become defined byyour tastes rather than

ability.Your tastes only narrow andexclude people. So create.”

(why the lucky stiff)

Thank You

The Adventures ofAccordion Guy

in the 21st Centuryjoeydevilla.com

Global Nerdyglobalnerdy.com

Canadian Developer Connectionblogs.msdn.com/cdndevs

Contact me!joey.devilla@microsoft.com /

joey@joeydevilla.com