An hour with Shaun Walker

Is what I spent with him in a room for an interview. And you get to see over half of that. What am I talking about? Well, at the WebConnections conference in Hamburg (a 2 day DotNetNuke event) we interviewed a number of participants. Vincent Bourgonje from we-do-it in Holland and myself were approached beforehand if we’d be interested to do this. We both immediately said yes. Vincent is a “pro amateur” video maker who owns and enjoys operating some pretty serious equipment. As for me I’ve always wanted to interview these guys that I’ve come to see as my friends and colleagues as I felt there was very little public about the human beings behind DotNetNuke. This provided an opportunity for me to show you that there are real people with real lives working hard behind the scenes to get you this great platform. The open source world can be a tough and unforgiving place. With happy but sadly also sometimes angry voices hiding behind anonymous usernames. And sometimes we tend to forget that all these voices are not directed at an avatar or some abstract entity, but at the individuals behind this. The people I interviewed had one thing in common. We all make our living with this platform. So I hope that what you’ll take away from these sessions is that the people behind the avatars/usernames/profiles are likeable, decent human beings who are enthusiastic about the DotNetNuke project. And hopefully this will inspire you.

This is the first interview we finished editing. The interviews each lasted for about an hour as did this one. Although the original plan was to have “mini interviews” that could be cut down to lets say 10 minutes, it quickly became obvious there is a lot more to tell about the project. So sit back and grab a coffee. I hope you enjoy it.