developerWorks: This is the developerWorks podcast. I'm Scott Laningham. developerWorks editor-in-chief and editorial lighthouse Michael O'Connell joins to talk about the results of a new developerWorks user survey. Hey, Michael.

O'Connell: Hello, Scott. Good to be with you.

(Editor: To discover what new resources are available this week in developerWorks and My developerWorks, jump to the end of this interview.)

developerWorks: Thanks for taking time for this. It's been a long time, too. It's good to have you on again. It's been way too long.

O'Connell: Yes, good to be back.

developerWorks: Now what was the focus of this survey that we're talking about? What were we trying to find out?

O'Connell: Well, basically trying to tap the intelligence of our millions of developerWorks community members worldwide and find out what trends are developing, what are the most important things that they're grappling with, and make sure we're helping that community address those challenges ... make sure we're investing [in the right areas] ... even IBM has limited resources for investment by the way and so we have to pick and choose, for example, which topics to cover, which types of material to develop and whatnot. And this has been a helpful exercise in that regard.

developerWorks: Let's talk about the results a little bit. What kind of things stand out to you as particularly interesting?

O'Connell: Well, I think primarily, you know, if there's just a couple of key takeaways in my mind that are worth noting that everyone I think would be interested in:

1. One is mobile applications development; it's is a big deal and growing.
2. And second is cloud computing; likewise, big deal and growing.

And both are fortunately areas that we've been dedicated to in some fashion or another. And in particular, cloud computing; we recently this spring launched a dedicated zone. Last year we had actually started ramping up content aggressively across all of the technology areas and brand areas and we had a critical mass of materials and put that together. We're looking at doing more with that and redoubling our efforts partly based upon the results have the survey.

A third point, aside from mobile application development — and I'll talk more about that in a minute — and cloud is there's an increased recognition that

3. industry-specific skills or knowledge is important, particularly for the careers of IT professionals.

And that's another area of attention that developerWorks has recently put more energy and investment into.

So on the one hand, the survey was designed to help us recognize areas of importance and better invest; another area, it's kind of a validation of where we've already headed.

In terms of mobile, that's another topic that we've covered extensively across a variety of areas on the site, the technology and brand areas. And for example, HTML 5 [at developerWorks] is a topic that we've been doing a lot around lately. We've done quite a few things related to iPhones [at developerWorks] and Android [at developerWorks] and continue to do more of that. So again, it's good to validate that we've made the right decision in terms of investing there.

Oh, I guess you're going to be talking to a couple of my colleagues here at developerWorks about another development on the mobile application front in terms of developerWorks offering for an iPhone?

developerWorks: Yes, absolutely. We'll talk next week with Nick Poore and Ami Dewar about the developerWorks iPhone app [Listen | Read | Get app] which is out there and available. And they're going to talk about what it does and some things about how they developed it, how it came to be in the first place. So we'll look forward to that discussion next week. But that app is out there for people that want to ... that haven't already checked it out and want to check it out now.

Michael, hearing you talk about how the results both represented validation and also maybe new ideas and I'm sure they ... these things always impact priorities and wanting to deliver what people are interested in. Do you find that it's also impacting our sense of how we deliver content in any way?

O'Connell: Yes, I think as we're getting more information that will flesh out in greater detail as well, you know, what particular angles to take. And some of this may warrant some follow-up surveys as well.

I think understanding, for example, 91 percent of our respondents say they're anticipating cloud computing overtaking on-premise computing within the next several years. So actually Scott, it's hard to overestimate the importance and prominence of cloud computing based on both what we've seen anecdotally, what with the traffic to the website and activity with our cloud offerings at IBM and also what's been validated and reinforced in the survey. You know, in other words ... developers clearly believe in the future of cloud computing.

One of the things that I wish I had more detail on for you Scott is some of the more specific details of how we're covering cloud or how we're covering mobile. I think some of that is not as clear cut from a survey simply because we didn't ask that detailed level of questions.

developerWorks: You know, some of that maybe is obvious. I mean, more and more people are buying things like iPads and tablets and stuff. So obviously we're going to be optimizing more content for those more mobile platforms while we're also writing about how to build apps for those platforms, right?

O'Connell: Absolutely. And, you know, the stuff we've done on Android and iPhone and HTML 5, including the top story this week has been an HTML 5 article; so, you know, we've been doing that already, the story about how developerWorks built the developerWorks iPhone app is also now available. So we got really a good example there. Not just us producing and making available an app for the iPhone but also explaining how others can do the same sort of application.

developerWorks: Very cool. developerWorks editor-in-chief, Michael O'Connell. Michael, good to have you on. And let's not wait so long until next time, okay? [LAUGHTER]

O'Connell: All right. I'll keep my microphone handy, Scott.

developerWorks: This is the developerWorks podcast. Find us on iTunes, visit our group page on developerWorks, or subscribe to our podcast feed or related blog feed at ibm.com/developerWorks, IBM's premier technical resource for software developers with tools, code, and education on IBM products and open standards technology. I'm Scott Laningham, talk to you next time.

What's new in the developerWorks community?

developerWorks: John Swanson checks in from the developerWorks newsletter's Waltham, Massachusetts, bureau. John.

Swanson: Hey, Scott.

developerWorks: How are you doing up there, man?

Swanson: Not too bad. Not too bad.

developerWorks: What's the word this week? You know we're going to talk to Michael in a second about the survey and I know that's got to be a big focus in the newsletter this week.

Swanson: Oh, yes. And I have to be very careful; I don't want to steal my editor-in-chief's thunder or step on his toes. But rumor has it he's going to be talking about the results of the developer survey and rumor has it that the survey indicates that developers think a whole lot of mobile communications and mobile applications. But, hey, I haven't gotten confirmation on that yet.

developerWorks: Absolutely. It is true. That's not a scoop. That's definitely true. [LAUGHTER]

Swanson: All right, cool. Well I hope folks will continue listening to this podcast beyond this point, but in terms of the newsletter [October 08, 2010 issue | current issue], we do go into the survey a little bit and we also mention a couple of mobile-related feature articles that are up this week.

We've got an open source feature Data-driven interactive applications with HTML5 and Ajax which basically shows people how to use HTML 5 and Ajax to create cross-platform web applications for online or offline use.

We also have a Java™ article [Tweet your project's build status] that talks about creating a build notification system that sends Twitter status updates after an automated Ant build is completed.

Rumor also has it that the survey respondents like cloud and of course, we have tons of cloud resources and a big robust cloud section in this week's newsletter.

developerWorks: John Swanson; helping to steer those boats into the harbor. Thank you John.

Swanson: We do what we can.

developerWorks: Also new on developerWorks this week:

• From the AIX UNIX zone, "restricting SSH connections."
• A second one from the Java technology zone: "5 things you didn't know about ... Apache Maven."
• From Linux®, "Kernel logging: APIs and implementation."
• From Rational®, "Use Rational Performance Tester to exchange data between modular tests."
• And from WebSphere®, improve security by "Processing attachments in WebSphere DataPower SOA Appliances."

All that and more at ibm.com/developerWorks.

Resources

• Podcast blog
  
  

About the author

Scott Laningham, host of developerWorks podcasts, was previously editor of developerWorks newsletters. Prior to IBM, he was an award-winning reporter and director for news programming featured on Public Radio International, a freelance writer for the American Communications Foundation and CBS Radio, and a songwriter/musician.

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