Helping others has always been a passion of mine.  I spent 7 years on a rural volunteer fire department and 6 years on a rural volunteer ambulance.  During that time, I also spent time teaching Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) classes to other's who had a passion to help others.

When I started working with Kentico in 2009 on version 4, Kentico was only 5 years old!  I also noticed the DevNet didn't have much of a developer collaboration community either.  As I worked on my first Kentico site, I asked many questions on what are now the old forums and many times never received an answer or worked through my issue on my own.  You can find me under the handle "FroggEye".  

After visiting the Kentico Corporate office in Brno, Czech Republic a few weeks ago, I saw first hand how many calls and support tickets the Kentico Support team handle.  In fact, I even spent a bit of time behind the desk with Juraj and Jan at Kentico.  It was very enlightening!  I know now why there weren't many answers to my questions in the early years.  


Brenden and Jan Hermann checking out the support tickets and talking code.

Fast forward to 2013 and 2014.  I spend a lot of time on my computer throughout the day working in Kentico.  Many times per day, even weekends, I'll check the DevNet for others who have questions.  I don't do it for any award or personal recognition, I do it because I know others are out there who were in the same boat I was (sometimes still are) and they need help.  Sure they aren't dying, yet, but they must at least be stuck because they are asking for help in one form or another.  

When I visited with the different folks at Kentico, I was asked time and time again, "How much time do you spend on the DevNet?" and "What's in it for you?"  My answer every time was the same:

There is nothing in it for me but learning and helping others.  By answering questions I may or may not already know the answer to, helps others and helps me keep current on my Kentico skills.  One thing I learned while teaching EMT class was the more I taught the more comfortable I felt when I was in the field helping people in need.  By answering questions easy and hard I am more comfortable working with Kentico.

On average, I spend about 8 hours per week on the DevNet.  Some of the time is spent researching answers to questions I don't know the answer to and want to know (I love a challenge).  Some is answering questions I already know the answer to.  And some is simply just browsing questions that have already been answered.

Check out this infographic and the article Kentico wrote on me!  Looking forward to an awesome 2015!

Thanks again Kentico!