(Cross posted across all ADN DevBlogs)
Those of you who have been watching carefully will have noticed that the ADN DevTech team has been doing a few things differently recently:
- We’ve launched these DevBlogs , and have been steadily moving technical content (a.k.a. DevNotes) from the members-only ADN website to here, along with posting new content.
- We’ve been increasing our presence in the Autodesk discussion groups that cover our product APIs.
- We’ve revamped our Developer Centers to update and (hopefully) more clearly document the resources available to developers who want to use Autodesk technology as part of their software solutions. That includes our recent ‘My First Plug-in’ tutorials for AutoCAD, Revit and Inventor.
This is all part of our master plan to hold the world to ransom for ONE MILLION DOLLARS! …
Oops – hang on – that was my other plan. Try again …
This is all part of our plan to make information on Autodesk technology more accessible to people who can’t afford the fee for full ADN membership, and/or who are evaluating the best technology to use to implement a new solution and want to be able to quickly find the best tools for the job via a simple web search. All of these changes have been our putting the pieces in place so that we can formally announce ADN Open.
So that’s the basics. You can quickly browse www.autodesk.com/adnopen and stop reading here if you like. But if you want more information, read on (if you’re an ADN Standard or ADN Professional member, you should have received similar information on this via the ADN DevNews newsletter) …
What is Changing?
Along with the two existing types of ADN membership – Standard and Professional – we now have ADN Open . ADN Open consists of software developer focused blogs, moderated discussion groups (forums), training materials, and more - that are available to everyone and anyone for free. The two most noteworthy changes are:
We are migrating all non-confidential software development information previously available through the password protected ADN website to ADN Open DevBlogs.
This means that a simple Google search – something most of you already do to look for solutions to your problems - will now include crawling the thousands of DevNotes that Autodesk DevTech engineers have published. We believe this change will result in your getting better answers to your problems faster, using the same search technology you already use every day.
We expect to complete this migration task within the next few months, and we’re posting new information to the blogs at the same time.
Participation in the Autodesk public API discussion groups (forums) will increase.
We will be offering ADN Standard and Professional members the option to either ask their question in private (as they have always done), or to ask their questions on the forums. The DevTech team will be monitoring the forums to ensure that these questions are answered. While we’re there, we’ll also help out with other questions. We anticipate that our involvement, and the increased involvement from ADN members who previously asked questions in private, will further enhance these already thriving communities.
Check out the ADN Open web site – www.autodesk.com/adnopen - for a current list of Autodesk technology now being actively supported through public DevBlogs and API discussion groups.
If you’re an ADN Standard or Professional member, please read your ADN DevNews newsletter for more information on this.
Why do we still offer Standard and Professional ADN membership?
There are additional benefits to ADN Standard and Professional membership. You’ll want to maintain your ADN Standard or Professional membership if you:
- Need access to Autodesk desktop products – easy download and perpetual license through the ADN extranet
- Access to Autodesk beta software.
- Want an Autodesk engineer to help you with a confidential issue/question.
- Need API support for the few Autodesk technologies not supported through ADN Open – only the forums listed on www.autodesk.com/adnopen will be supported by the DevTech team.
- Want your product, services and company information visible to hundreds of thousands of Autodesk customers on www.autodesk.com/partnerproducts.
Please visit www.autodesk.com/joinadn if you’re interested in upgrading from ADN Open to ADN Standard or Professional to take advantage of these additional benefits.
Why the Change?
The Autodesk Developer Network was designed during a time of a rapidly expanding market for desktop design, engineering and entertainment software. This was a time of growing sales of heavy desktop software, never enough computing power, and limited connectivity. The investment to start and grow a software company was significant.
The software industry is now undergoing a period of rapid change and innovation driven by cloud enabled, limitless, low cost computing power; rapidly expanding near ubiquitous connectivity through the internet and mobile devices and cross-platform support for key web technologies including HTML5 and Java. Cloud and mobile technologies - along with the increasingly social behavior of software entrepreneurs and programmers - is changing the software industry, our personal and business lives, and the world we live in.
By modernizing the ADN program to better fit with these technology driven changes, we believe we can significantly improve the service we provide to software developers who choose ADN Professional or Standard membership levels, provide much better assistance to software developers who don’t need the additional ADN benefits, and make it easier for a new generation of innovators to discover and evaluate our technology.
Questions?
If you have any questions about this, then you’re welcome to comment on this blog post or email me directly.