When I published my blog last week, I realize that it was a shock to many folks in the DNN ecosystem. I am humbled by all of those people who reached out to me over a variety of channels, both private and public, to offer their congratulations and condolences, compliments and appreciation, encouragement and optimism. The DNN community has been my home for over a decade and it felt wonderful to connect with so many people with whom I forged genuine relationships over the years.
In an effort to try and be short and concise in my blog, I have since realized that it left a lot of unanswered questions and confusion in regards to my future plans. This is especially true in regards to my ongoing participation with DNN. The fact that DNN Corp and myself decided to part ways does not mean that I am turning my back and leaving the DNN community. I intend to be as involved as possible with DNN. In fact, I personally view my new situation as an opportunity to be an even more integrated part of this amazing community.
I may have been more quiet than usual lately but there is actually a good explanation for this. In order to ensure a seamless continuity, I have been busy transitioning all of my DNN Corp responsibilities, relationships, and projects to a variety of folks within DNN Corp. At the same time I have been setting the foundation for the next chapter in my professional life, creating a new enterprise and entertaining a variety of exciting new business opportunities.
In a previous Community Newsletter I mentioned that I had formalized a contract with WROX Press for a new DNN Professional book. I have been in touch with the publisher to let them know that I intend to fulfill my obligation and will continue to coordinate with the 12 other authors who are assisting me in creating the content for this book. For those of you who read any of the previous DNN Professional books you are familiar with Chapter 1: The History of DNN and I look forward to documenting the legacy of the DNN project for the years between 2009 and 2014.
Developing useful software has been one of my lifelong passions, and I expect that I will continue to utilize DNN as the basis of my software projects going forward. In fact, I believe that as a real world consumer of DNN I will probably have even more to offer based on my own practical experiences. Now that I have greater flexibility and control over my time, there are a number of innovative enhancements I am planning to explore in the near future. And I plan to be a good DNN citizen and give back to the community by contributing to the open source DNN platform. Perhaps my contributions may even allow me to be recognized as a DNN MVP someday.
Earlier today I released a module I wrote which simplifies the DNN upgrade experience. The DNN Upgrade Wizard is a simple module that you can install on your DNN site. It allows you to specify the URL of a DNN Upgrade Package on Codeplex or manually upload a DNN Upgrade Package to an /Upgrade folder. Clicking the Upgrade Now button will extract the files into the /Upgrade folder and then XCOPY them over top of your existing installation in one seamless step. Once this is complete you can click a link to complete the upgrade by logging in as the host user and following the standard DNN upgrade steps. The module is open source and is written in VB.NET.