October 7, 2007

The Authoritative ALT.NET Definition and Manifesto

by Brian Donahue

A dramatic thing happened last night at the ALT.NET conferenceBroken Link: http://altnetconf.com/.  From the way people are talkingBroken Link: http://codebetter.com/blogs/jeffrey.palermo/archive/2007/10/05/altnetconf-scott-guthrie-announces-asp-net-mvc-framework-at-alt-net-conf.aspx, you might think that it was Scott Guthrie's unveiling of the new Microsoft MVC framework.  But no, it came shortly after that.  In the euphoria of the moment, the entire conference turned to me and said "Brian Donahue, you who have given us the world's first ALT.NET User GroupBroken Link: http://phillyalt.net/¹, we turn to you to define our movement, and lead our community forward!"

At first, I was a little taken aback.  But, being the incredibly charismatic, natural born leader that I am, I just stepped up on one of the conference chairs - managing adeptly to maintain perfect balance, yet swivel around mystically to face all my new followers - and bellowed "ALT.NET shall be about...  ALTERNATIVES!"  You can imagine the cheers and awe that arose from the room after that rich statement.

[returning to reality]

It is, in fact, true that many people inside and outside of the ALT.NET community have been calling for some sort of definition to be stated.  "Declare yourself and make yourself known!"  As if the lack of definition or a posted "manifesto" is somehow a tactic to disguise our secret plans to topple Microsoft (more on those plans to be posted on our secret site later - bring the decoder ring that was in your goody bag at the conference).  

Usually following the calls for a declaration of purpose, there are calls for a new name.  "ALT.NET is divisive, scary, rude, evil, etc." 

I think both notions are connected, and equally pointless.  First, there is no name that is going to keep those who are confused or threatened by the ALT.NET community from having those feelings.  We could name it "OpenArms.NET" and there would be FUD.  Jeremy MillerBroken Link: http://codebetter.com/blogs/jeremy.miller/ made a great comment about how much people hated the name "Extreme Programming" when it came out, yet it's becoming more and more mainstream now.  He then added that "Agile" seems as innocuous title for a "movement" as you could get, and there is still heaps of FUD thrown at it.  So ALT.NET it is, and if you don't like it... guess what?  THAT'S OK.  WHY?

Because the real definition of ALT.NET is about being open-minded.  It is about being OK with the fact that not everyone that builds web apps in .NET wants to use WebForms.  And for those who do, more power to you!  It's not about rejection, it's about inclusion.  If I had to come up with a single sentence definition, it would go something like this (synthesized from many conversations and statements made during the conference):

ALT.NET is about always looking for better ways to make software inside and outside of the Microsoft platforms, tools, and technologies.  It's about choice.  The reason it's hard to put it into one sentence is due to all the other principles that are behind it.  Perhaps the biggest being:  Better for me does not have to mean better for you.  ALT.NET is interested in having those conversations - what IS working better for you?  That is why it is not the Monorail movement, or the NHibernate movement, or the agile movement (although the latter might be the closest you get to lumping it in with something else).

1 I have no idea if that's actually true, but hey, it scored me a late invitation to the conference.


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