From the EditorTech•Ed Live Broadcast

Joshua Hoffman

Whenever I sit down to write this month’s From the Editor, I find it a challenging exercise. It’s easy to think of a topic, because there are always interesting things happening that I want to share with our readers. The problem is that our readers don’t get to read each piece until around six weeks after it’s written. This is partly because we need enough time to print the magazine, but mostly because it takes that long for the editors to correct my mistakes. Unlike writing a blog, where you receive feedback instantly, it is difficult to write news in these circumstances, as whatever happened is no longer “news” by the time it reaches the reader.

I’m currently in sunny Orlando for Tech•Ed 2008, which must be the most important event in the world right now. For that reason, this article might be a bit out of date by the time you get to read it... you get the idea, it’s difficult.

There are a number of reasons why Tech•Ed is a very exciting event for me. One reason is that it’s one of the few times in the year where we can meet so many of our readers (and even our writers)! Although we communicate all year round by e-mail, instant messaging, and phone, it’s not the same as being able to get together with so many people, talk freely, and exchange ideas.

Tech•Ed is also a fantastic opportunity to find out about developments in the coming year. Some of the senior executives that attend are well placed to talk about their development strategies, and such conversations are extremely valuable references. We will hear the latest news on many new trends relating to revolutionary concepts including virtualization, the next-generation Web, and system management.

Besides all this, I also heard the following piece of news. Mark Russinovich, a member of Microsoft’s technical staff and a contributing editor, will be discussing how to redefine security perimeters. Steve Riley, also a contributing editor, will be speaking about network perimeters becoming a thing of the past—a very exciting and innovative idea! Mark Minasi, Romi Mahajan, Dharmesh Godha, and I will also be hosting a panel discussion on the consumerization of IT.

I will also be presenting some basic guides that were originally put together for TechNet Magazine. I’ve been doing these presentations for the last few years and they’ve definitely inspired a number of budding writers. By the time you read this article, the slides for my talk will have been published on my blog, which you can find at blogs.technet.com/tnmag, so feel free to take a look. Who knows, maybe you’ll be attending next year’s Tech•Ed as one of our contributors!

Also, don’t forget the Tech•Ed events. We also really love these events.

—Joshua Hoffman

With sincere thanks to the following technical experts at Microsoft: Sunil Agarwal, Eric Charran, Trina Gorman, Sanjeev Nair, Isaac Roybal, Jez Sadler, Roger Sprague, Stefan Stranger, Kevin Sullivan, Jim Truher, Alan von Weltin, Michael Walsh, and Buck Woody.

© 2008 Microsoft Corporation and CMP Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This article may not be replicated without permission, either in whole or in part.