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Publish or Perish

Back in 1999 or 2000, I showed up at a North American FoxPro conference after being away for several years. I hadn't been invisible during the previous few years. Instead, I had been focusing on promoting development efforts local to me in Ottawa, Canada. I had done a number of Microsoft DevDays and training in the area. But in terms of the international community, I had effectively "disappeared".

I think this happens more and more especially as people stop writing on one site and then start on another. One might be forgiven for thinking that Lisa Slater Nichols had disappeared off the face of the earth years ago when, in fact, she had merely moved into a different development environment and writing of SSRS. One of my favourite memories of Ms. Nichols was when I first met her in 1991. Everyone wanted to talk to her and my colleague had no idea of who she was. Someone said "This is Lisa Slater." He looked at her and said "You're the only Lisa Slater in the world?" Her quick wit showed forth - "You don't get on CompuServe much."

This post isn't to go back and reminisce, although one can find the recent exciting efforts of former FoxPro developers here and here. And the world of database development is really exciting...big data, business intelligence, NoSQL, PaaS, and it's hard to know where to go.

I've never stopped writing - in fact, I use the site 750Words to try and write every day. But it's not "out there". It's not adding to the public discourse of work and development as my original goal of writing on this spot was.  Should I move to another site to write? Many are now using LinkedIn or Medium as their posting mechanism. Despite being one of the first group of podcasters, the FoxShow podcast has limped along slowly to where it comes out once a year, primarily to showcase the latest comings in Southwest Fox.

So it's time to start publicly stating my process again here, sharing my experiences in the development world, thoughts on other key areas, promoting a few new initiatives, and adding value, hopefully, to your world, whoever you may be. Agree or disagree, similar or different experiences, or even better, new products and ideas...let me know. One thing is true...I haven't perished...just haven't published in a while. And it's time to restart.

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