140.
That is my magic number for 2008. I am wondering how many of my INETA User Group Leader brethren and compatriots know what that number represents. For that matter, how in touch with all the new technologies and changes are we these days with changes (of ALL kinds) coming at us at hurricane force velocity?
Change can be good and change can be fun. Change can give us a great restarting point or reinvigorate sagging aspirations. I really believe that. As I approach my 5th decade, I find that I am not as surprised to feel good about change as other people who have come this way and seemed to pour cold water over my youthful enthusiasms. Getting into .NET was something I dove into head first, full immersion and have not regretted a second of it. I have embraced every incarnation and even went further than I envisioned by delving into some of the "tools" and platforms such as Expression (Visual Studio for artists?) and SharePoint (the Swiss army knife of web portals.) And with all that I have been getting into the aspects of "Web 2.0" that are not necessarily on .NET but riding on the same idea and promise. I got into things like MySpace, LinkedIn, CDBABY and Windows Live to name but a few.
The operative word for me these days while things get busy and we find ourselves hunkering down for a swing down the rapids is keeping in touch. We try to keep in touch with our families, friends, colleagues and members through email, text messaging, blogs, etc. The unprecedented communication facilities we have today are truly heralding the changes yet to come that I look forward to. With all that's out there I find myself actually less long winded than I used to be. That's a good change some would say especially since most of my wind is limited to 140 characters. Ok, let's let in the others who are not sure about that number in on it. 140 is the character limitation for TWITTER. It's a bit shorter than a text message but extremely compact and very useful a tool we can all use in our day to day communications with our members as well as others. Have you tried it yet? Speaking of which, I have some tweeting to do for my group right now. Have fun!
Oh, and by the way, you can find me on TWITTER at twitter.com/bigpix2000.
Ralph Rivas
Asst VP of Marketing, INETA NorAm
Dot Net Basement Club, Northern Illinois Chapter
INETA - The Face of .NET