As the Dev Pro staff has worked countless hours to bring you a new and improved website, I couldn't help but think about the changes that this publication has gone throughout the years and how those changes reflect how the development landscape has changed, too.
I remember sitting in my entry-level development course on the first day of class, where my professor declared to the class in a matter of fact tone, "Development trends and technology will fundamentally change about every two years." At the time, her statement didn't quite sink in for me. Even as I write this, it's hard to imagine how far technology has come along in the last decade or so.
As a reference point, ARPANET was established in 1969 and became one of the main driver's for the technology revolution that our society now lives and breathes. In less than 50 years, we use the Internet for a variety of different tasks, including communicating through social networks to maintain friendships, surfing the Internet for the majority of our news and information, and seeking out applications to make our lives easier. As developers, it's more important than ever to stay on top of the latest development trends, and Dev Pro continues to fulfill its mission to help developers succeed and overcome the challenges of new and existing development technologies.
With that said, I want to provide you with a brief history on how Dev Pro has progressed throughout the years to address the wants and needs of our readers.
In 2008, Penton Media acquired asp.netPro, which was a resource that was solely dedicated to serving professional software developers that leveraged Microsoft's ASP.NET technology to build and deploy web applications and enterprise solutions.
One year later, we relaunched the publication as DevConnections Magazine. In keeping with current development trends, we took a bold step to expand our coverage to include prominent development platforms such as .NET Framework and Visual Studio. During this time, changes were apparent with the Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 release. We recognized and acknowledged these changes and wanted our content to reflect our aim to serve you with the best how-to and independent developer news.
Fast forward to today, we are constantly fine tuning out content strategy to address your needs. Not only can you find up-to-date information on .NET Framework, Visual Studio, Windows Azure, and ASP.NET, but you can also find information on the latest web development trends, including HTML5 and jQuery, along with our continuing coverage on open source technologies. With these focus areas in mind, I'm pleased to bring you the new Dev Pro website that was designed with you in mind. Here's a rundown of what our new website offers you:
- Topic focused navigation that's designed to quickly help you find the information you need by selecting the technology you need.
- Enhanced search to help you find the answers you need fast.
- An improved mobile version of the website for when you're on the go.
- Integrated social media feeds to help you stay in the loop of the conversation here on Dev Pro.
On a final note, although Dev Pro has gone through several changes throughout the years, our mission hasn't wavered since day one. It's our goal to provide you with the latest development content that's relevant to your needs. I hope you find that the new website is a useful tool to help achieve your own professional goals. Please share your thoughts by commenting on this article, contact me directly, or message us on Twitter or Facebook!
