Celebrating 10 Years of i Can
How time flies! It’s hard to believe I’ve been writing the ‘i Can’ blog for 10 years. Over these 10 years a lot has changed, yet my dedication to the platform remains as strong as ever.
The ‘i Can’ blog started as a way to share information about ‘hidden gems’ in IBM i. At semi-regular intervals, IBM adds features and functions via PTFs and technology refreshes. When new releases come out, there are many enhancements that don’t make the announcement material. In addition, there’s a lot of existing capabilities in the system that many simply don’t know about. My goal is to free as many secrets as possible of the best operating system available. You may have noticed that I typically focus on administrative topics since that’s my primary area of expertise, but guest bloggers have written on other topics.
Technical advancements in the past 10 years have been incredible. IBM i 6.1 was the newest release when the blog started; 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, and now 7.4 have been delivered since. We vaulted from POWER6 to POWER9. Technology refreshes have changed the way function is delivered. Information delivery has changed from the Information Center to the Knowledge Center and developerWorks. Your author moved from farmland to the big city, and then to the beach.
When I started writing this blog, I was a business architect within the IBM i development team, covering the core operating system. The team of business architects helped define the key content that should be delivered to clients. When I volunteered to write this blog, I felt apprehensive. The idea of writing articles available to a large audience was a bit outside of my introverted comfort zone. But pushing yourself forward is always good to do and I embraced the opportunity.
This blog has been a big contributor to my professional development over the past 10 years. It has enabled me to expand my professional network, share my knowledge, increase my knowledge by learning topics so I could write about them, and more. This blog eventually paved the path for me to leave IBM and form my own small consultancy practice.
While change is constant, there are some areas of stability where things have not changed much. IBM i is still a rock-solid platform for business solutions, the IBM i community remains passionate about their computing platform, and IBM i has a strong roadmap for the future.
I appreciate and enjoy interacting with my readership and the editors at IBM Systems magazineare great to work with. I enjoy sharing all the new goodies that we unwrap with each new IBM i update and I am certainly looking forward to another 10 years of “i Can.”