5 New Years Resolutions for this Developer in 2013

As I look forward to 2013, I have nothing but hope and joy for the things that I look to accomplish over the next 12 months. As a developer, I put together a list of 5 things that I should accomplish this year. None of these are a given, but they are all thing that I feel are within reach in the year ahead.

1. 100 Blog posts in 2013

I want to write a minimum of two technical blog posts a week. There is enough technical content to be documented and shared that this should be a very attainable goal. Some of these 100 posts will appear here on csharpfritz.com and some will also appear on blogs.telerik.com Either way, YOU my dear reader benefit from more FREE technical content.

2. 20 Speaking engagements

Over the course of the last year, I gave 8 sessions at user groups, code camps, and conferences. Over the course of the coming year, I’d like to double that number. You should see me at approximately 2 events a month, and I hope they aren’t all concentrated on the mid-Atlantic region of the United States.
I’d like to get at least 1, preferably several of these speaking engagements outside of North America. There are opportunities for me to engage in Europe, and I want to capitalize on at least one of those events.

3. 6 Webinars / Screencasts

I issues a screencast in July on this website where I demonstrated a technique in developers writing unit tests with the Nancy web framework. This was an exercise I thoroughly enjoyed, and would like to issue more screencasts on testing techniques, Asp.Net development tips and tricks, and other .Net goodness. I’d like to deliver on this promise at least every other month. You will find all of this content for FREE on YouTube.

4. Bring Webforms Back in Style

Many Asp.Net developers have been migrating away from the original Asp.Net webforms architecture. This is not a bad development technique, nor is it deprecated by Microsoft in any way. I want to write enough documentation and give enough presentations that demonstrate the advantages of webforms compared to other Asp.Net techniques to keep webforms in the forefront of your mind when you choose to build your next web application.
This goal is a true test of the scope of my influence, and will be tested as Microsoft grows and evolves the Asp.Net and Windows Azure platforms. To truly accomplish this goal, I will need to engage representatives at Microsoft and receive their approval in the type and style of content that I deliver.

5. Write a book

This is the big one… this goal is the furthest reach for me. Each of the other goals are things that I need to keep pace with over the course of the year. I want to compile my experiences and engage a publisher, or self-publish on Amazon. There are many things that I have learned from my years of designing and building large scale multi-tenant, software-as-a-service applications that I think the development community would really like to hear. If I want to keep to some sort of a schedule to complete this in the course of 2013, I should have a first draft ready by June 1. That should afford me enough time to publish by October 1. We will see how this goal progresses, as it is the one I am most excited about.

Conclusion

That’s it, my 5 developer resolutions or goals for 2013. Its an ambitious list, but I think its one that I can cover more of in the year ahead. I encourage you to follow along with me as I pursue this list. More details about my engagements and upcoming schedule will always be posted on the events page of this site.