Being that Guam is so small, we naturally have a very small developer community. With .NET's language-agnostic approach, I can bring in or outsource Java and C++ developers and the relative learning curve is greatly reduced, more so than someone starting from scratch. They learn basic C# or Managed C++ syntax, and write apps to integrate with our Visual Basic.NET/C# platform. Our app schema is largely VB.NET-based for major applications, with several C# modules…and this is another key: the seamless integration with cross-language apps is terrific…those who prefer to write C# can keep doing so, and my VB.NET guys can keep writing their own code, too. It's all completely interoperable in the final wash when run through the CLR. This is a huge improvement to a problem I've got now of finding talented developers now with specific skillsets needed to expand our site. Also, custom configuration and session management is a lot more elegant by using global.asax and web.config files is much easier to write, manage, and monitor than in Classic ASP. We'll be using this progression in developing customized services, a "Your News" service of sorts. It's very customizable and scalable, and so much more easier to do, compared to traditional ASP programming.

We're also spending a lot of time researching and building XML Web Services. Very few things in IT got my attention as much as the XML Web services model, and so this is my personal favorite area of .NET development. We're planning several variations of data-centric software services stemming from our news and radio databases such as portable headlines, subscription-driven feeds, and giving people the ability to search through our archives for their favorite stories. Our current portable newsfeed service is cool and is currently in wide use, but is limited in the amount by which clients can customize the output data. They can apply CSS rules, but that's about it. With Web services, we simply expose the data to the consumer, and they build clients that filter, and/or evaluate the data in ways that are appropriate for them, and then write their own clients to display the data so they're completely satisfied with the finished product, which makes it more flexible to incorporate into their own sites. We're also doing much with certain developing the “software as a service” concept and using it for apps that aren't customer-viewable, for improving internal communications and business processes, really milking the B2Bi advantage. It's all really very exciting, and we're really anxious to start.

It's also a concern of ours to have a presence in multi-device and multi-platform markets, so we're also spending lots of time developing mobile solutions so that our outbound news will be more available via WAP, and also for internal communications. We've got a current mobile product through AvantGo that is very popular, but is limited in not being truly connected to the "Mobile Web". True WAP development gives us seamless integration among all outlets, not just the confines of the desktop PC. On that note, chief among my concerns is being able to let our reporters bring as much of our newsroom out into the field with them as possible. In the past, we've been limited to being able to work effectively due to geography...being physically distanced from our newsroom systems. Implementing componentized internal mobile solutions for our reporters will empower them to really keep in constant contact and literally let us work right up until the moment we go live on TV for our newscasts. This lets us deal better with the one factor that really works against us everyday - time.

While we'll still keep the majority of our Classic ASP apps in the short term, I project us being able to realistically cutover to a 40% .NET platform by October of 2002, and possibly 100% integration by mid-2003.

Yet, the learning curve is dramatically steeper than with previous technologies, and while we're obviously extremely excited about using .NET, more organizations here are hesitant to deploy .NET or will do so very gradually, which makes the true effectiveness and growth of our B2Bi-type apps stunted. Many developers I've worked with and talked to have a hard time grasping the true benefits of using XML, object-oriented programming and enhanced security, which is expected. So I spend a lot of time doing technical evangelism not only within my company, but also to the Guam business community's leading IT professionals and business managers.

Guam by its nature will always be a few steps behind the U.S. mainland, but we're doing what we can for the Guam macroeconomy in the round. Many people I've talked to about learning .NET programming naturally think it's a new version of ASP, meaning that the focus is on presentation. We're still bound by the abilities and limitations of HTML, but it's the ease of development for dynamic apps and ability to deploy and manage them that's the key for us.