Amazon Web Services recently announced an AWS Community Heroes Program where they are starting to recognize publicly some of the many individuals around the world who contribute in so many ways to the community that has grown up around the services and products provided by AWS.
It is fun to be part of this community and to share the excitement that so many have experienced as they discover and promote new ways of working and more efficient ways of building projects and companies.
Here are some technologies I have gotten the most excited about over the decades. Each of these changed my life in a significant way as I invested serious time and effort learning and using the technology. The year represents when I started sharing the “good news” of the technology with people around me, who at the time usually couldn’t have cared less.
-
1980: Computers and Programming - “You can write instructions and the computer does what you tell it to! This is going to be huge!”
-
1987: The Internet - “You can talk to people around the world, access information that others make available, and publish information for others to access! This is going to be huge!”
-
1993: The World Wide Web - “You can view remote documents by clicking on hyperlinks, making it super-easy to access information, and publishing is simple! This is going to be huge!”
-
2007: Amazon Web Services - “You can provision on-demand disposable compute infrastructure from the command line and only pay for what you use! This is going to be huge!”
I feel privileged to have witnessed amazing growth in each of these and look forward to more productive use on all fronts.
There are a ton of local AWS meetups and AWS user groups where you can make contact with other AWS users. AWS often sends employees to speak and share with these groups.
A great way to meet thousands of people in the AWS community (and to spend a few days in intense learning about AWS no matter your current expertise level) is to attend the AWS re:Invent conference in Las Vegas this November. Perhaps I’ll see you there!