While I will continue to write for O’Reilly, I did want to let you know that on July 9, 2007, I will begin my new job as “Senior Program Manager” in the Silverlight Development group at Microsoft; working on “building Developer Community.” (My goal is to do for Silverlight some of what Joe Stagner has done for ASP.NET and AJAX and a host of other technologies).
That said, it is my hope that I can remain a reasonably objective and informative voice about this new technology in my writing for O’Reilly. After all, I took this position because of my enthusiasm about Silverlight (and not the other way around), but of course, as a Microsoft employee my opinions and comments must be weighed somewhat differently (where’s that Kool-Aid?). Fortunately, my job is to make Silverlight understandable and usable; not to convince you it is desirable.
In any case, this is my first “real job” in 12 years, so it will be very exciting and consuming, and I will try to document at least some of it in this blog.
The folks I’ve met in and around the Silverlight team are quite extraordinary; and to tell you the truth, I couldn’t be more thrilled to have been offered this position. (Actually, to really tell you the truth, I can’t believe they did give me this job, and maybe you want to check back mid-July to see if they woke up and decided it was all a hideous mistake!)
As part of my job, I will be creating new avenues of communication about Silverlight, both here, and of course through sites and portals and who-knows-what-else at Microsoft. Stay tuned… much to come very quickly, I suspect.
Thanks.
-jesse
Nice! Congratulations, Jesse!
where will you be based? still in the New England area?
SBC
www.ctdotnet.org
congratulations!
where will you be based? still in the New England area?
SBC
www.ctdotnet.org
Yes, I'll not be relocating, but working from home, and traveling to Redmond to work with the team on a regular basis. A good model for my work is that of Joe Stagner - creating videos, teleconferences, speaking at shows, building showcase applications, creating web sites, doing whatever I can to facilitate and ease the use of Silverlight by developers, designers and other potential users. Also working with the team on the direction of the product, priorities, timing, etc. Zero marketing. Details to be worked out once I begin.
One commitment I intend to keep: open, honest and direct. Inside and outside of Microsoft. With frequent blogging here, and on Microsoft.com and lots of articles and books,etc.
Thanks for the kind words.
Great news Jesse. I have been reading your books for a decade and would say you are in the top percentage of all coders. Microsoft is lucky to have you.
Hoi,
Have fun and be happy :)
Thanks,
GerardM
Good for you. Why am I not surpised?
Good for you. Why am I not surprised?
Don't know. Personally; I was shocked :-)
-jesse
PS: Here's the quick scoop: I will continue to support my books (current and future) here and on my web site (http://www.jliberty.com). I haven't figure out yet whether I'll consolidate all email under jliberty@microsoft.com or keep my book email separated under jliberty@jliberty.com, but both will work for now.
In any case, I'll be blogging about writing here, and about Silverlight development there, and about politics on my political blog, so I'll be doing lots of mouthing off, as you might expect. In addition, I'll keep my books page and my book recommendation page alive on my web site, so feel free to keep those cards and letters coming.
Wouldn't you rather have an employer you didn't have to apologize about working for?
At any rate, congratulations and I hope it works out well for you. I've always enjoyed your books and writings. I think you're too good for the evil empire, but oh well. :)
>>Wouldn't you rather have an employer you didn't have to apologize about working for?
Congratulations, Jesse. I too have been a fan of yor books for a while now.
Personally, I am hoping one of the first things you will be able to do is provide us with a comparison between Silverlight and the Adobe Flex/Flash tools. I would be much interested in your opinions.
David wrote >>Personally, I am hoping one of the first things you will be able to do is provide us with a comparison between Silverlight and the Adobe Flex/Flash tools. I would be much interested in your opinions.
David wrote >>Personally, I am hoping one of the first things you will be able to do is provide us with a comparison between Silverlight and the Adobe Flex/Flash tools. I would be much interested in your opinions.