Approximately three years ago, Robert wrote the first entry in his blog. Since then many more have followed and as a developer evangelist at Microsoft Sweden he’s pretty much setup never to run out of things to blog about.

Just like his co-worker Johan Lindfors, Robert spends a lot of time on the road, travelling from city to city, all around the year, brining the information to customers and partners.

Robert is also a regular co-host of the Swedish MSDN Radio podcast and author on the swedish MSDN website. You can also check out interviews, by Robert, on the swedish MSND TV section of Channel 9

What got you into blogging?

I started blogging after realizing how much other blogs helped me in my daily work. I wanted to share some of the ideas I had, and also write about solutions to different problems I stumbled upon, working as a system integrator and consultant at the time. That and being bit of a exhibitionist is what got me started.

What keeps you motivated as a blogger?

Once in a while someone spins up a new comment thread on the blog and that’s always nice. I get more contact mails from the blog than comments though. I often get mails with comments and questions on the things I write about in the blog which I find a bit odd. Why not put it in a comment so more people can take part in the discussion?

What profile do you try and give your blog?

I have a very technical profile on my blog, focusing on news, tips and tricks, code examples and other useful resources - on development In general and the Microsoft platform in particular. It is also a repository for various material that I produce, like slide decks and demo code from our road shows and seminars. From time to time I write about more personal stuff, but I really don’t want to make my blog too personal (although I think I have a personal way of writing about technical stuff).

How has blogging affected the way you work?

Before I joined Microsoft blogging was mostly a personal interest. Although my employer at the time did host my blog on their site and also used my blog in marketing, I didn’t have an outspoken commitment to write blog posts as part of my work role. That changed when I joined Microsoft .

It is now part of what I do in my daily work so I can set aside time to do research and write up posts. It sometimes takes more time than you plan to write the longer, a bit meatier posts. Especially when writing about security I like to double and triple check on things before I publish.

How has blogging affected the developer community?

I think it has had an tremendous affect on the community. Blogs are now the most important way of getting information and finding ways to tackle different challenges in the daily work as a developer. It has also become an important source when looking for more deeper technical stuff, best practices and experiences from the field - as well as an enormous repository for code sharing.

I think this has speeded up the flow of knowledge through the community, as code and examples on how to accomplish new things get spread really fast. It’s also a way for the community to have a direct open dialog with people at Microsoft about specific technologies in a way that wasn’t possible before the blogs.

How has blogging affected the software companies?

Blogging has made many companies much more transparent and has led to a greater visibility in how the work is being planned and what the roadmaps looks like. Blogging has also affected software companies in a sense that bloggers in the community can raise their voices when they see things they think is not right, and the vendors listen and adjust accordingly if the reactions are strong enough.

This has changed how development frameworks and platforms evolve today, beyond the old ‘get feedback during alpha test’ way of finding out a community opinion.

Should employers encourage their developers to blog?

I think blogging ideally should come from a personal interest and a wish to express yourself and share information and ideas. Corporate blogs with people hired to blog professionally tend to be quite boring where the lack of enthusiasm shines through. That said, I definitely think companies in general have lots to gain in allowing and encouraging their employees to blog I they want to.

If nurtured right it can really help the company gain visibility and also position their employees as cunning professionals in their areas.

How do you think blogging will evolve over the next couple of years as a tool for developers?

Hmmm… that’s a tough one. In a near future I hope we will see Microformats being used by bloggers more and in creative ways to exchange data between blogs and various programs and services. The micro blogging trend will pass (I think so just because I don’t get it myself :-)

We will probably see even more of a mashup between traditional blogs and social networking sites.

Do you have any success stories where blogging helped you in a project?

Absolutely – one of the more recent ones is a blog post I wrote about a new customer program called ‘BizSpark’ from Microsoft, aiming to help get startups that build applications on our platform up to speed by providing them with free software. Since the posting I’ve helped numerous people from different startups in Sweden to get in contact with the right people to get them into the program, which hopefully helped some of them off to a good start for their business.

Thank you Robert, for taking the time to answer my questions. Stop by Roberts blog to find out more on the things he’s passionate about.

This interview is part of a series of interviews I’ve conducted on the subject of blogging and software development. You can read more about it here