Microsoft Developer Thrive Site Unleashed!

At CodeStock I gave a talk entitled, Be a Better Developer.  Basically, in this economy everyone has to be thinking about how to improve themselves in order to stay relevant and employed.  My talk focused on the some of the roles that developers play beyond just writing code and some tips on improving themselves.  I think we all realize we need to keep up with what’s going on and make ourselves stand out to our employers.  Developers like us aren’t the only people that realize this.  Microsoft has created a new site called Thrive for Developers (they’ve had a Thive for IT Pros for a while) to help people working on the MS Platform keep up to date and access to resources.

The site has a good deal of resources, such as links to other MS tech sites and blogs describing current and new technology.  It also has career resources for someone who is looking for a job, or a looking to make a move.  Look for the content to continue to grow in the future as well.

The most important part of the site, in my opinion, is the Community section.  This is the section that will help you connect with the .NET community.  The .NET community is very strong in the heartland of the U.S..  I think that is a bit of an understatement given the contributions you see linked directly from the Thrive community site under the “Insider Advice” header (NOTE: These are the articles that were originally linked when the site launched.  They may have changed since).  You’ll see names like Dave Giard, Phil Japkise, and Brian Prince, along with my own name.  Each of these people are from the Heartland region.  That’s pretty cool.

If you are working on the .NET platform and want to see what resources are out there for you from Microsoft, you should check out the Thrive for Developer’s site. 

They have even gotten Brian Prince to release his Soft Skillz talk material as a 32 part podcast series.  This is an awesome talk and Brian shares some really good gems in this presentation.  In fact, he’s giving the presentation live this month on July 28th, 2009 at the CINNUG meeting.