The Architecture Journal just reached it's sixth edition. Fantastic! I've anticipated each edition and welcomed the dedication Microsoft has started to focus on architecture, design patterns, and best practices. That's one area where Microsoft development organizations have fallen short. The lack of guidance has stifled the community's growth a lot, in my opinion. The ease of VB classic definitely helped make up for this in the big picture, but standardized development with promising guidance has never been so available. I'm lovin' it! (Nobody tell McDonald's I said that - it's their current slogan.)
With their sixth release, a very nice turn of events has taken place. Microsoft has decided to transition the magazine to a permanent staff - as opposed to the temporary, "test-bed" staff that's been getting it up and running. To lead this group, Simon Guest has been recruited (to that team, anyway - he's already a Microsoft employee).
Simon is a great asset to this team. I was lucky enough to hear him speak and discuss a few topics with him a few years back at an architecture conference for government customers. One of the best things about Simon is his J2EE experience. The J2EE community has had more of a focus on architecture, design patterns, and best practices than the Microsoft development community has. Simon uses this experience to focus .NET development in the right direction. I know that The Architecture Journal will just keep getting better and better - not to take away from its current success.
So, I think I can speak for all .NET software architects when I say, "Welcome, Simon! We expect great things in the road ahead and are excited to see what the new team churns out." Architecture is a very important discussion topic and as someone with has interop at the top of their priorities, Simon will serve this task - and us - well.