While at Dev Connections 2010 I had the privilege to interview Shaun Walker the creator and founder of DotNetNuke (or DNN for short), a .NET based Content Management System (CMS). Content Management Systems typically allow non-technical people (i.e. Marketing personnel) to build websites like Lego with content being the pieces. They are very popular among corporations, and even this site uses WordPress which can be considered a CMS for bloggers.
Other CMSs you might know are Drupal, Adobe CQ and Alfresco.
I sat down with Shaun not knowing a heck of a lot about him or the history of DNN and was pleasantly informed that DNN started out life as an Open Source software systems that grew into an Open Core/Dual Licensed flagship product. It's nice to see this model in play in the .NET world, I hadn't heard of too many .NET based projects which have gone this route.
Shaun was a great guest, even if you aren't into .NET or CMSs you should give the cast a listen, I doubt you'll be disappointed.
Networking Event
One other thing I should mention is the hospitality DNN extended to me. They were throwing a party and gave me and my friends from Apptius Computer Solutions free invites. The party was a blast, and they gave away over 20 prizes of which one of my friend's won a copy of Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate edition with MSDN ( a paltry $11,899 value) and another friend won a DNN plugin pack.
Got to meet a lot of great people including all the DNN Corp folks. I talked to a number of DNN customers and they all seemed pleased with the product and the people behind DNN.
Thanks again DNNCorp!
Enjoy!