Ever since I started x86 programming, I've always found communities of individuals sharing knowledge and collaborating from the early days on local BBS's and FidoNet to forums and blogs today.  It's quite ironic considering all the jokes about anti-social programmers that the field has had such a long history of mostly volunteer support communities.  I cannot imagine being nearly as productive today if I had to work without Internet access.  The industry moves so fast nowadays that paper documentation is outdated before it's published and much development is based on components on top of frameworks taking advantage of (hopefully) well thought out and tested code as a base.  I've learned so much reading from others often tackling the same types of problems I am.  I've often meant to share some of my own experiments and ideas in return, but never made the time or had the place for it.  I hope to make this blog the place for it.

As of last year, I've also been participating in in-person communities and events like NJSQL, Sql Pass, and soon my first CodeCamp.  It's been fantastic meeting community leaders, MVP's, and Microsoft developers and gaining their firsthand insight.  I hope to one day present some of my own topics and experiments at some of these venues.