T-SQL Tuesday: Giving back in 2015

My friend Wayne Sheffield (b|t)is hosting T-SQL Tuesday this month and it’s been a long time since I’ve taken part (wow – since January 2011!). His theme is about how you’re going to give back or continue giving back to the SQL Server community in 2015. I’m going to talk about stuff we at SQLskills do in the community, in the spirit of the T-SQL Tuesday theme, not as any kind of marketing or self-aggrandizement.

We do a lot (I think) for the SQL Server community, both because we’re just nice like that :-), and because we appreciate the people in the community as they provide our livelihood. To be honest, for me it’s mostly because I like helping people with SQL Server problems. It’s like an irresistible urge when I see someone with a problem I know how to help with.

We’re going to continue with these things in 2015:

• Helping out on the fantastic #sqlhelp alias on Twitter
• Blogging on all our blogs
• Publishing our bi-weekly newsletter with a demo video and editorial (see the link on the RHS of your screen)
• Erin helps run the Cleveland User Group

And we’re also going to be doing a lot more:

• Remote user groups. I had this mad idea to do remote user group sessions for anyone that asks – so we’ve currently got 49(!) remote user group sessions scheduled in 2015 at user groups in the US, UK, Ireland, Belgium, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, Israel, Australia, Canada, Poland, and PASS virtual chapters. I’m personally doing 20 of them. Check if your user group has signed up, and if you’re in a country not listed above definitely hit us up for a session. See here for details.
• I’m putting together a comprehensive web encyclopedia of all wait and latch types that exist, across all versions, slated to go live in January/February. Shoot me an email if you’d like to help provide data (involves installing debug symbols and XEvent sessions on your prod server). That’s going to be cool!
• Kimberly and I have another special project coming up… more details in January/February

As Wayne says in his blog post, I encourage you to give back to the community. We’ve got one of the best technical communities in the world – I know we’re the envy of many others.

Thank you to everyone who blogs, tweets, runs/speaks at/attends user groups/SQL Saturdays/PASS – long may we all continue!

Cheers