The ESRI Developer Summit and the .NET SIG
February 8, 2010 7 Comments
Play this below to set the mood:
### That Was Then ###
Way back in 2005, at the ESRI International User Conference, [there was a .NET SIG](http://www.spatiallyadjusted.com/2005/07/27/arcgis-net-developer-special-interest-group-meeting/) that essentially started something great. In that room there were some great folks (Scott Morehouse, Art Haddad, Brian Golden, Rob Elkins, Jithen Singh, Brian Flood, Dave Bouwman, and others) who talked about where we should take the developer community at ESRI. In my opinion the biggest thing to come out of that meeting was what became the [Developer Summit](http://www.esri.com/events/devsummit/index.html).
I’m sure most ESRI developers feel the same as I do in saying that the DevSummit is probably the biggest thing to come out of ESRI in the last 10 years. It has grown to be probably the must attend event for many ESRI users. At at the DevSummit, the .NET SIG (as well as the other ones) became sort of a place to reconnect. It didn’t matter if you were web or desktop development, used Desktop or Server or worked in C# or VB.net; you could talk about what the .NET community was doing at ESRI and how ESRI could continue improving it.
### A Brave New World? ###
Well looking at the [2010 ESRI Developer Summit Agenda](http://www.esri.com/events/devsummit/agenda/index.html) I can see the SIGs have been dropped. I asked a couple contacts at ESRI if this was just an oversight on the website and they confirmed that the SIGs are no longer part of the program. I guess the idea is that you’d rather “Meet the Teams” to talk about what you are doing directly with them. Of course most folks probably won’t bother because they’ll be meeting the teams at the ESRI Islands and talking with them all week.
What I think I’ll miss is the strategic talk about how ESRI can improve their developer community. I thought this feedback was valuable to ESRI, but I guess these days it is better captured through [contact us forms](http://www.esri.com/about-esri/contact.html) than face to face discussion. Part of what makes the Developer Summit so great is that it isn’t like any other ESRI event and I’m afraid that this is just the start of it losing its “woodstock” feel. Of course maybe change is inevitable but I can’t help but note it sucks.
About James Fee
In 2005 Microsoft offered neither native spatial types in SQL Server nor a Silverlight Mapcontrol in Bing.
Instead of abstracting away .NET, I think ESRI should make extra efforts to show how they add value to the Microsoft stack.
Given how much talk and visible desire about community there was floating about at the last UC, this seems to be completely two steps back.
As James points out, the event is evolving. It’s also growing quite a bit. Preserving the grassroots-iness of this as a developer community event is no doubt important to all of us.
.NET was heavily dominant with us in 2005, and while still large there’s much more in 2010: web services, web APIs, growth of mobile GIS and mapping–particularly phones, growth of Java in our community esp. outside the US, Python for automation and in app design. That’s not even mentioning Geodatabases for developers on any platform–the second largest draw of the Summit.
So rather than a strategy discussion cornered to the special interests of the .NET community or any others, the way we see the DevSummit evolving–the entire event–from tech sessions to the dev team islands, meet-the-teams, hallway chats, all combine to give us a place for a few days to talk about the future, the present, learn from the past, etc.
Bottom line: The heart of the DevSummit will always be your accessibility to our architects, developers, engineers, and our direct accessibility to you. These folks like James lists above, they’re there. Grab them at an island, in the hall, at a session, at the social (before or after the beer runs out). We’ll learn from each other what we need to succeed.
Add it all up and we expect as a community event, we can accomplish and learn so much here even without a specific meetup hour for .NET developers alone.
Piffle.
This is what happens companies transition from products-based marketers that rely on partners and developers to serve customers, and becomes a services-driven organization that sells integration on top of its own tools.
IBM stopped making boxes and now they’re almost exclusively a services organization. Who is their closest partner in the geospatial trades?
Watch this space people. And remember the good times, when getting thrown in the pool on Wednesday night was a badge of honor and a measure of your contribution. Cute little ESRI is growing up, and we’re in the way…+
Hey! I did hear stories about people getting thrown into a pool (or hot tub) back when the UC was in Palm Springs… Is it really true?
Yes. Both. Multiple times. Many years. Different pools, too.
You missed it.
I miss it.
[sigh]
.net is soooo 2005….