The motto of this site is “Connecting Developers, Building Worlds”. I came up with that while I was sitting in a hotel room far from home trying to get my main blog off the ground. I originally wrote it thinking of what my goals are with web2Project. I believe that one of the fundamental reasons why so many software development projects fail is poor communication… between developers, with customers, with projects managers, with testers, etc, etc, etc. I believe that this still holds, but there is another aspect that I had not considered.
Over the past two months, I have given presentations on dotProject to NoVaLUG (Northern Virginia Linux Users’ Group) and DCLUG (Washington, DC Linux Users’ Group) and will be giving a presentation to NoVaJUG (Northern Virginia Java Users’ Group) this evening (details here). These have been a great opporuntity to connect with the community, discuss issues with other software people, and meet quite a few great people. And it made me realize that there is something missing.
I am looking for up to ten project managers who want to write, discuss, and generally contribute to a group blog. I am looking for people of all backgrounds, experience levels, skill sets, and nationality, but there are two things required. First, the postings must be in English. A conversational style is encouraged, but basic grammatical rules should be followed. Second, you should post something – a book review (linked to your Amazon account if you wish), project management issue, a howto, etc – at least once a week. I have found that most of my entries take 10-45 minutes.
What do you get for this effort? Well, nothing financially as CaseySoftware has no intention of paying you because we’re not likely to make a dime from this. We plan to provide all technical support, but more importantly, I see this as your opportunity to polish your writing and communication skills, to demonstrate that you are a professional, and – most importantly – to establish yourself, your expertise, and get your name out there.
Obviously there is nothing preventing you from starting your own blog somewhere with minimal effort. Unfortunately, you’d then be a lone voice and be responsible for all the content. This way, you can benefit from having numerous contributors and the increased traffic that results. After all, if a person blogs and no one reads it, did they really blog?
My goal was to launch on 12 September.
If you are interested in becoming a contributor, please drop me a message at webmaster [at] CaseySoftware.com with an example or three of your writing. These can be blog entries, recent articles, book reviews, etc. I need to see that a) you are a competent writer and can contribute to the community and b) you are serious about this opportunity.