Since it has been announced publicly, I can finally say– I’m writing a book! It’s titled The Ektron Users Guide: Building an Ektron Powered Website and I’m writing it along with Aniel Sud. It’ll be published by WROX Press later this year, so sign up on Amazon for alerts about the book and information about it as it becomes available. Here’s a early draft of the description:
In the Ektron User Guide, developers work through detailed steps as if building a comprehensive site for an fictional software company. Upon completion, developers will have a complete website for use as a template for other projects. Each technical section implements a specific facet of the site using the Ektron Framework and includes an in-depth explanation of the technology. The content requires no prior knowledge of the Ektron platform, however, developers already familiar with Ektron can use the book as a reference guide. Topics of interest include:
Over at ektron, we worked with SitePoint on a survey of 5,000 web developers titled The State of the Web Development 2006/2007 (25-page free preview). The goal was to conduct the most comprehensive study to date of the web developer community. The results are available and show not only the state of the industry, but also some interesting trends. A number of bloggers are already commenting and extrapolating.
Other noteworthy posts:
Note: the full report with detailed analysis is available through SitePoint.
Last night I was at the 2006 New Hampshire High Tech Entrepreneur of the Year of the Awards Banquet. Bill Rogers (my boss) was one of five finalists for the award. The highlight of the evening was a presentation given by Helen Greiner, the co-founder of iRobot (of Roomba fame). She stressed something I agree with, the importance for technology companies to facilitate open developer ecosystems around products. She pointed to a number of interesting things coming from their Roomba API, like Roomba Cockfights, Frogger, and pointed to work by NASA JPL. She also played a hilarious Saturday Night Live clip I hadn’t seen before, featuring a product called the Woomba (a little robot that cleans your lady parts).
One of her robots navigated the room autonomously, managing to climb stairs and steering clear of people. It handed a bag containing the award to New Hampshire Governor John Lynch, who seemed amused and a little unsure of it as he took the award before announcing the winners.