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developerWorks: This is a developerWorks podcast. I'm Scott Laningham. This week we have Valerie Skinner, a member of the developerWorks marketing team and dedicated developerWorks blogger. We'll visit about how she blogs and how she uses My developerWorks.
(Editor: To discover what new resources are available this week in developerWorks and My developerWorks, jump to the end of this interview.)
Joining me now is Valerie Skinner, a member of the developerWorks marketing team, a developerWorks blogger. She averages two to three posts per week which makes her a role model for me. So I'm glad to have her on the podcast today. Hi, Valerie.
Skinner: Hi, Scott.
developerWorks: I say role model, Valerie, because you blog two or three times as much as I do a week, just once a week on my end. And it's just the podcast, but I guess that counts as a blog entry. But anyway, talk about what you blog about.
Skinner: Well, I will say that I do think that your podcasts count as a blog entry.
developerWorks: Okay. [LAUGHTER]
Skinner: But what I write about. Well, I started my blog on My developerWorks probably about a month after My developerWorks started, so last May I started blogging. And I started out blogging about, you know, social networking and blogging in topics like that because I was exploring those, I was new to those topics, and I was sharing insights and thoughts about those.
And I'm not actually a technical blogger, so I wanted to blog about something that was interesting to me that I could share some thoughts on that might also be interesting to the My developerWorks community.
developerWorks: I love that aspect of blogging, don't you, too, that you can follow people who are writing about getting to know about something instead of simply being experts just talking about the pathway of getting to know something. And that in and of itself can be educational for people and something that they can interact with, too.
Skinner: Yes, I think so as well. And that's one of the things that I really often encourage people on is don't feel like you have to be an expert to have a blog. That you can come from the standpoint of things you're interesting in, things you're learning about, things you're exploring, things that you found along the way, and other people will be interested in that also.
developerWorks: Now you're doing some interviews as well. You wanted to tell people what those were about?
Skinner: Sure. So a little while after I started blogging I got the idea to start interviewing some people that were part of the developerWorks community because I really wanted to bring those people to light and learn more about who's in our community. And I also felt that it would be a way that I as a blogger could relate to this audience since I'm not technical myself.
And I really have enjoyed doing those interviews. So once a week I pick someone from the My developerWorks audience. I usually look for people that are a little bit more active, they're out there doing something — maybe they're blogging, maybe they have a group or they're sharing lots of bookmarks. And I'll study their profile, check them out, and look for some interesting questions to ask them and I do an interview.
So it's really been enjoyable for me just to learn what I've learned about people asking some interesting questions like "how did they get interested in IT in the first place?" I've gotten a lot of interesting answers to that one.
And I really feel like it's also helped bring more attention to the developerWorks numbers.
developerWorks: Absolutely. You know, I love that you're doing that and the kind of interviews you're doing would make for great podcasts, too. And I know you and I have talked about maybe trying to do some of that and have you on here talking with some people in the audio setting as well as in the tech setting that you do with your blogs. So maybe that's something people can be looking forward to soon, hopefully.
Skinner: Yes. It sounds interesting.
developerWorks: Now, you group blog as well, you participate in a group blog. Do you want to talk just briefly about that?
Skinner: Sure. So I started out having my own individual blog and then in December we started a group called the My developerWorks enthusiasts and we started a group blog as part of that group. And so I'm just one of the bloggers on that blog.
And the purpose of that blog is really to help people interested in My developerWorks, interested in professional networking, figure out how they can do it and how they can do it well. So we talk about things like tips for using My developerWorks, we talk about ideas for groups and wikis, we talk about ideas for improving your blog. And so that's something that I blog about typically about once a week.
And then also I'm the group leader for that group and so once a week I do a summary of some highlights of things happening in My developerWorks as well.
developerWorks: We talked about how often you blog, two to three posts a week average, right? Well, how does it fit into your routine? Where does blogging fall into your weekly schedule?
Skinner: For me, it actually falls in at several different days of the week, but I think for routine is really a key word, because I've kind of gotten into a routine and that helps me do it consistently because I know, on Monday I publish an interview with someone from My developerWorks community.
On Tuesday I'll either publish My developerWorks tip of the week or I'll work with somebody else in the group blog who publishes that. And then on Thursday, I publish the weekly summary. So kind of having that a schedule ahead of time keeps me in that routine. And then sometimes on Friday I'll do a fun random post.
So I think routine has really been key for me to keep going.
developerWorks: Yes, absolutely. And both for content generators and for users or commenters, right? How would you encourage people or why would you encourage people to participate in My developerWorks even if they don't feel like they want to start a blog of their own?
Skinner: Well, I think there's a couple of different ways that you can participate in My developerWorks. I mean, one way is if you're just learning and you're looking for information on technical topics, you can use My developerWorks by joining a group; you can search bookmarks and tags on the topics you're interested in; you can follow bloggers that are talking about topics you're interested in. So you can really get a lot of information that way.
You can also participate in My developerWorks and connect with other people, adding them to your network, connecting with experts that are blogging on those topics you're interested in. You can ask them questions. You can get feedback.
So, there's a lot of ways that you can participate. And even if you're not interested in blogging which can be seen as a big commitment at times, there's other things that you can do. So you can have a profile, you can update your status, you can add people to your network. So these are other ways that you can participate and start to meet people and get yourself out there.
developerWorks: Excellent. Valerie Skinner, developerWorks blogger member of the developerWorks marketing team. This was fun, Valerie. We should do it again soon.
Skinner: Thanks, Scott.
developerWorks: Check out Valerie's blog at ibm.com/developerworks. Click on blogs and then search for "Yin meets yang," Y-I-N meets Y-A-N-G. And you can connect with Valerie there as well.
developerWorks is 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: But first, let's check in with dW Newsletter editor John Swanson again. John, how is your week?
Swanson: Not too bad, Scott, how are you doing?
developerWorks: Doing great, man. So what's on the Swanson radar this week?
Swanson: This week in the developerWorks newsletter we're giving focus to My developerWorks, which is a year old this week, celebrating. Do you remember that, Scott? Remember when we launched it?
developerWorks: You know, I wish [LAUGHTER] I remember launching it, I did not remember that today was the anniversary or this week was the anniversary, but how timely that we've got Valerie on then to talk about all this.
Swanson: Oh, she's been an integral part of the whole effort. And what a year it's been. It's just more successful than we ever imagined. And right now we've got nearly 300,000 profiles. Last few weeks we've been getting over 1,000 a day, new profiles and there are...
developerWorks: Wow!
Swanson: Yeah! There are over 700 groups and nearly 500 blogs. Maybe by the time this broadcasts it will be over 500. It's now available in six languages and with more on the way.
And I'm just out there letting folks know that if you haven't joined, now's the time to join. And if you have set up your profile, make sure you get involved and participate because there's a lot of great resources in this enormous network of technical professionals.
You can start your own blog. You can create a group. You can network. You can find answers to technical questions or give answers. You can connect your My developerWorks activity to Facebook, not that you'd ever need to use Facebook anymore. But loads of stuff going on and also just great improvements have been made in the last year based on user feedback.
So now's the time to get on. Scott, I've seen that you're on there, you've got a blog and you've got plenty going on there. And I'm out there and I posted the newsletter into every week and it's really the place to be if you're an IT professional.
developerWorks: Absolutely. And that number, 300,000 and growing at the rate that you described, that's just wonderful. I mean, it certainly puts to rest any fears that we're just talking to ourselves here on the staff, doesn't it?
Swanson: Exactly. Exactly. It goes way beyond IBM and no matter what you're doing, it's just a great option. And it's free.
developerWorks: John Swanson, DW Newsletter editor, always good hearing from you, John, thanks.
Swanson: You too, Scott.
developerWorks: Turning to the developerWorks feature and highlights this week:
- We have from WebSphere "Data4BPM," a first-class representation and definition of data for business process management applications; Part 1 in that series.
- From open source, "Data mining with WEKA, Part 1: Introduction and regression."
- From Ajax, "Develop Ajax applications with Smarty," Part 1. Build Ajax applications using PHP, the Smarty template engine, and the jQuery framework.
- From information management, "Secure DB2 resources using Tivoli Access Manager for Operating Systems."
- From Java™ we have two pieces: First, "Java Web Services, CXF performance comparison" and "JSF 2 fu: Ajax components."
- And finally from Linux®, "Linux on 4KB sector disks: Practical advice."
Find it all at ibm.com/developerworks.
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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