I've had a blast being a technical evangelist for the Developer Division over the last 3 years, but I've recently accepted a new position as the Community Manager for the Windows Graphics and Gaming Technology group (I officially start on July 1st).  This is going to be a totally rocking job, and will let me reach out to a community that has been pretty starved for attention for quite some time.  My job will focus primarily on developer outreach for Windows game programming (both Native and Managed). 

First on my list is to re-energize the DirectX Community site, which is quite spartan right now.  This is a big challenge, because there are so many places that Windows game developers already go to for dicussions and information (GamaSutra, GameDev, The ZBuffer, CodeSampler, FlipCode, IGDA, Channel9, etc.).  We don't want to try to displace all those great sites, but we want our developers to know that their issues are being heard by the Windows Gaming team.  This means that we need to channel feedback in appropriate ways so that we become better listeners, preferably in partnership with sites like the ones above.  I'll be posting more details about this as time goes along.

Second on my list is working with current and new MVPs to help us with community outreach.  These folks are brainy-smart people (much smarter than I am about game programming!) and are outstanding community leaders.  If you know somebody that is deserving of an MVP role, please don't hesitate to drop me a note!

Third is "everything else about Windows Gaming."  That means speaking to independent game developers at various conferences, helping people understand some of the "Whys" about DirectX, getting community feedback on what you want/need in future SDK releases, etc.

In a nutshell, my new job is all about Windows Gaming.  All I can say is.... "w00t!"

David "ChiliConCarnage" Weller