Most DotNetNuke users will know Bruce Chapman for his work in the areas of friendly URLs and SEO. In the most recent edition of our ongoing speaker Q&A series, we learn more about the two sessions Bruce will be presenting at DotNetNuke Connections and discover that his first visit to a DotNetNuke conference was like "walking into a room full of old friends you'd actually never met."
Speaker ::
Bruce Chapman
Sessions ::
Creating a New DotNetNuke Install in the Cloud
Building Friendly URLs into DotNetNuke Modules
Q. Why are you looking forward to DotNetNuke Connections '10?
A. It's a great opportunity to meet and talk to people who work with DotNetNuke in different industries, and different regions. I get a lot of interesting feedback and have a lot of interesting discussions. And it's a whole lot of fun to get out from behind the desk and spend a few days doing something completely different.
Q. Why should people consider attending your session?
A. I'm doing two sessions - the first will be on integrating friendly URLs into DotNetNuke modules. This is a question I get asked on a weekly basis - how do I improve the URLs in my DotNetNuke module. It's going to be a good session both for those building modules, and for those who buy modules. In the former case they'll get some concrete ideas on how to do things a bit differently. In the latter case it will give information to help separate the good modules from the also-rans. The second session will be covering use of DotNetNuke in the cloud. While it's not a new topic, things are moving quickly in cloud computing, and there will be information on what you can do today to change the way you think about hosting and delivering DotNetNuke sites.
Q. When you’re not presenting, which session at DotNetNuke Connections are you most interested in attending?
A. I want to visit all the sessions I can that will be discussing performance and scalability of the platform. Plus I'm interested in the MVP session that Charles Nurse will be presenting.
Q. Any sessions in the concurrent tracks at DevConnections you're particularly interested in attending?
A. I've got a little side project going which is going to need Silverlight, so I'll seek out a good Silverlight development session to see if I can pick up any tips. As for meeting people; I'm just happy to dive in and see who I bump into.
Q. Do you have any particularly interesting memory from a past DotNetNuke conference or gathering that you would like to share?
A. On my first visit to a DotNetNuke conference I was surprised at how many people came up to say hello and took the time to have a chat with me. I had never met anyone in the DotNetNuke community before, so it was a bit like walking into a room full of old friends you'd actually never met.
Q. Any specific sights, shows, or events that you plan to make time for while in Las Vegas this fall?
A. No, I pretty much stay in the hotel and spend all the time at the conference. I might take the time out to buy something for my wife and kids so I get a better reception when I return home!
Q. How long have you been part of the DotNetNuke community?
A. Well, my dotnetnuke.com account dates back to December 2005, so I guess that makes it almost 5 years. That was the point I decided to focus all my development efforts on the DNN platform, and I started contributing bits and pieces not long after that. That time has gone very fast!
Q. What area of DotNetNuke do you specialize in?
A. I'm best known for my work in Friendly URLs and SEO functionality in general, but more generally I specialize in the development of any type of DotNetNuke modules. Some of my best module work is hidden away in websites you'll never hear of. My best DNN modules are still yet to be developed, because I learn and develop new ways of doing things with each new project I complete.
Q. What is one thing you wished everyone knew about DotNetNuke?
A. The latest versions are both fast, scalable, reliable and flexible. Whenever I hear someone complaining that DotNetNuke is not the right platform to use, I usually find out they tried using a 2.0 version 6 years ago and that's what they base their opinion from. There is yet to be a problem I can't solve by extending the base platform in a way that leaves the core code untouched.
Q. What is the DotNetNuke web site you’re most proud of?
A. I guess my own site, which is ifinity.com.au. I long ago outsourced the design which improved things immensely. There's a lot of tweaks and extensions on the site that are transparent to visitors but which provide me with an immense amount of information about what people are looking at and downloading. I wish I had more time to devote to developing entire websites as I'm bursting with ideas to try out, but unfortunately reality has to come in. I see some sites where people have implemented some of my software and I'm blown away by how good a DotNetNuke site can look and perform.
Q. What is the first computer you ever owned?
A. My parents bought home an IBM jx which was a market flop and thus quite rare. It had a sizzling 4.8 Mhz processor and twin 3.5 floppy drives - the first home computer to have a 3.5" drive. However, my parents didn't know you had to buy software to go with it, so I didn't have anything except the operating system. All it had was a big fat BASIC reference manual, so I read that and started to write my own programs. I had my first paid programming gig at 17 when I wrote a program to tabulate the results of a survey done by a local community organization. I still have that listing somewhere on a dotmatrix printout - spaghetti code doesn't even begin to cover it.
View Bruce’s full bio on the DotNetNuke Connections speakers page.
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