You've gotten a lot of attention because of your involvement in user groups and INETA. What is it about community that is so appealing? Why does it matter to you?

I spent my formative years as a developer in the FoxPro world, so my perspective is naturally geared towards community - almost as if FoxPro developers invented it. There were really no distinctions of who was "famous" or who was just a regular ol' working stiff programmer. We all had this big thing in common, and had a lot of fun connecting and sharing with each other because of it.

When I started the Vermont.NET user group, I wanted it very much to be like what I had experienced in my FoxPro days. And this dream has come true.

When I first came to Vermont and attended the MSDN-like "Russ' Toolshed Events" there were always about 50-75 people in the room for the day. Nobody knew each other and they barely talked to each other. Now, when we have events, everyone not only knows each other, but they are friends.

Of course, the other huge win of the user group is watching the members evolve. Hey, and me, too! I did not even install .NET until after our second meeting. After that meeting, I was determined to have a useful, working ASP.NET app by the next one, and I did.

Additionally, I try to have a good understanding of each member's needs. This is really helpful because, when particular opportunities arise that fits a certain person in the group, whether it's a book, a contracting job, or just someone else that might be interesting to them, I'm able to make sure they have access to it.

This goes back to what I was saying before about why I have become so well known in the .NET community. That I have an interest and take the time to know people and seem to have a very good memory of their details. Someone compared this to my being like a Rolodex. Although, being a data wonk (I can't believe I just called myself a wonk), I might prefer a comparison to a really powerful database.

Something that I am really proud of having done is hooking up a number of the women who I knew, have met, or just knew of that are quite visible as authors and conference speakers. Most of them did not know each other and unhappily thought of themselves as islands without female peers. We have been in contact as a group for about a year and are constantly amazed by the experiences we share as women who have been in the programming world for many, many years.

My attraction to being involved with the developer community is also driven by my desire to even things out in the world - and this is an area where I can have an impact. I have had a lot of opportunities and advantages that have enabled me to get where I am today. I think anyone who is interested in doing this type of work should have also have the same opportunities, so I spend a lot of energy trying to enable people to get what they need or show how they can enable themselves.

There is something very interesting that is happening also because of the “I” in INETA, which stands for International. We work with the development community all over the world. This creates a quandary because of the problem in the U.S. that is created by outsourcing. There is a part of me that is thrilled to be able to help people in countries that are very economically disadvantaged, because I know these people will be able to help their own communities. I don't just mean their communities of developers, I mean their real communities, their cities, their towns, their economies. INETA has .NET user groups in some seriously third world countries. Also, I have been completely blown away by the explosion of developer communities in South America. But then I think about the many programmers in the U.S. who are now out of work, and sometimes wonder if what I am doing to help and encourage these other developers is hurting these local developers. This is of course the tip of a very hot debate that I don't want to get involved in. I just want to help everyone that I can.

The user group involvement gives you a unique perspective on what users and developers care about -- as if you can see the user community from a 30,000 foot height. What have you learned about .NET developers that, maybe, Microsoft isn't as aware of?

This is a really interesting question. I think that Microsoft has been doing an unbelievable job of trying to learn about developers needs and I love being able to share what I learn with them whether it is through my weblog or chatting with different people I know at Microsoft. There is no question that they are not only listening but asking.

Two things that I think I see clearly from my user group involvement are that (1) most developers are not that interested in the cutting edge technologies and (2) they are sometimes missing out on information that is really important to them. But I see Microsoft addressing these issues. DevDays was a good example of this. This event was aimed at teaching what developers can do to secure their apps with the current development tools, and not all about Whidbey and Longhorn. The ASP.NET Roadshow also focused mostly on current tools. Some of this content has been around for a long time, and it is really important that it doesn't get buried by the overwhelming information about the new technologies that are coming.

But Microsoft is well aware of the fact that only a small portion of the wider community of developers using their tools have already totally moved over to .NET. As for the information overload problem, MSDN is working very hard to reorganize (and in some cases completely redefine) how they are presenting information.

I think CAN-SPAM has created a big problem for Microsoft as well. It has meant that as a local user group leader, I have had to really pick up the ball to try to push information out to my members that I think they should not be missing because Microsoft's hands are tied by CAN-SPAM.

If you could change one thing, just one thing, about the way Microsoft or one of its products work, what would it be?

I would love for Microsoft to get rid of the public “evil empire” image. I fear that I am seen as a Microsoft shill in return for goodies from them, and I really hate having to defend being able to do what I love for a living and getting to have fun with it too.

One of your pet peeves is the apparent dearth of women in technology. What do you think is keeping women from entering the field?

I think that the lack of women in visible roles in our community is one of the biggest problems. A general consensus is that there are about 10% women in IT, and that this same percentage applies to programmers. But if you look at authors and conference speakers, it's miniscule in comparison. Take a look at the speaker list for TechEd 2004. There are as many speakers named Brian (including one Bryan) as there are women speakers.

Certainly, a lot of social and cultural factors make IT a more heavily male populated field, but I think that if we saw more visible role models that were women, two things would happen. One is that more women would make themselves known in the community and the other is that more young women would be encouraged to come into technology.

Outside of the scary stories I have heard, of school girls literally being discouraged from pursuing an interest in technology, it would seem more inviting to young women if they could see that there are plenty of women in IT, and that having an interest in this career does not make them abnormal. That does not mean reading statistics. But seeing lots of books written by women, plenty of women listed as conference speakers, and plenty of women visible in the many tech publications, is what will make a difference.

Chat with Julia this week (or just discuss the issues she raised in our discussion forum.