I created my first technology blog back in July 2004 over on http://blogs.msdn.com/ericnel when I was an Application Architect inside Microsoft UK. At the time I had been with Microsoft 8 years, I was very focused on early adoption work with SQL Server 2005 and was looking for a broader way to help developers in the UK. A blog seemed to be a great way of doing this and I used it to share my learnings, thoughts, advice, best finds etc. throughout the beta of SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005. I went on to do early adoption work around Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and IIS 7.0, SQL Server 2008 and most recently Visual Studio 2008. They were fun years but I realised I was slowly moving away from technology and moving towards a combination of programme manager + relationship manager +  salesman. Hmmm….. not good.

In July 2008 I decided to change role inside Microsoft and found myself a new home as a Developer Evangelist – which ultimately meant a lot less time looking at spreadsheets and a lot more time looking at code. I feel after six months in my new role I have a decent understanding of how I want to shape it and what tools I need to the role well. One of those tools is a blog.

Which leads me to – why http://geekswithblogs.net/IUpdateable?

I recognise that how I blog has changed over the last four years and as a result my msdn blog has lost  focus and a clear reason for existing. It was time for a reboot. The obvious choice would have been a new blog on http://blogs.msdn.com but I follow some great bloggers on http://geekswithblogs.net who speak highly of it and decided to request a blog. IUpdateable was born.  I am impressed. It is fast, full featured and has the bonus that it takes me out of the “comfort zone” of http://blogs.msdn.com and gets me “out in the community”. Oh – and I like change :-)

The plan is fairly simple. Over the next few days I will bring across the best of my posts from the last six months (Hence expect  a lot of posts!)  and then once that is done, mothball http://blogs.msdn.com/ericnel.

Thanks for reading.

Eric