Yes, I've joined Telligent!

As officially announced in this morning's press release, I've joined Telligent today as Director of Platform Strategy. I'm extremely excited about this role because it enables me to focus my time and energy on the things that I'm most passionate about, which are:

• Advancing a software platform on which customers and partners can build online community applications and services.
• Establishing a technology strategy based on open standards for interop and integration and on transparent engagement and feedback via the Telligent community.
• Working with other individuals who are just as passionate as I am, if not more, about unleashing the potential of a robust and flexible online community software platform to improve every phase of an organization's product lifecycle -- from planning to engineering, from pre-release evaluation to launch, from marketing to sales, from implementation to adoption, and from support back to planning again.

My role at Telligent brings me full circle to where I began my IT career more than 20 years ago with a PC-based BBS, four 2400 baud modems, relays for FidoNet, and a Usenet gateway. Yes, I strongly believe that online communities are indeed the past, present, and future of social computing!

My aspirations, in alignment with those of the Telligent Management Team, go far beyond social media, social networking, and other technobuzzwords, which I see as merely a set of tools that can enrich online communities when properly used. In subsequent blog entries, I will provide more details about my vision, approach, and plans for Telligent's Platform Strategy, for which I would greatly appreciate your feedback. And if you already have some ideas and suggestions, please don't hesitate to contact me via e-mail (LLiu@telligent.com) or Twitter (http://twitter.com/lliu).

Some of you might be wondering why I left not just the SharePoint product group but Microsoft altogether, especially during this time of economic upheaval and uncertainly in the IT industry. The simple answer is that I had to leave Microsoft in order to accept Telligent’s job offer, which is about as perfect a role for me at this point in my career as I can think of. Since this was actually the second time I've left Microsoft, the bar for what company (and position) I would leave for was exceptionally high. And I was very happy and excited to discover that Telligent exceeded that bar.

I've already said my goodbyes with the numerous smart and passionate people at Microsoft and in the worldwide SharePoint community with whom I'll miss working closely, so I won't repeat them here. I look forward to working with many of them again in the near future as a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and SharePoint value add ISV.

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