DZone produces valuable content for a network of developer-focused tech media sites and is among the most popular resources for advanced programmers and web designers worldwide.
Mr. ‘Rick Ross’; Founder and CEO of the US (Cary, North Carolina)-based start-up “DZone”, took some time to explain to us a bit more about who’s behind his Company and what it is all about.
According to Mr. ‘Ross’; DZone produces valuable content for a network of developer-focused tech media sites and is among the most popular resources for advanced programmers and web designers worldwide.
Located in Cary, N.C., our passion for providing current trends utilizing links, blogger content, white papers, podcasts, Refcardz and cheat sheets is shared by over 650,000 members.
Though DZone was founded in 2006, the company’s startup culture has lead to the success of its newest product AnswerHub, a social Q&A platform for enterprises that combines the best features of wikis, forums, search engines and social networks.
AnswerHub is used by enterprises such as GridGain, Readify, Dyn DNS and Guru.com.
We hit the 20 employees mark this year, and expect to grow rapidly with AnswerHub.
The startup scene in N.C. is up and coming. There are lots of new tech companies choosing to be here for many of the same reasons we chose.
At the same time, it does feel the area lacks the infrastructure to support startups that you see in other hot startup areas.
Most of our business is on the West Coast, so we remain relevant despite our location.
North Carolina is a place where we don’t lose sight of actually living our lives instead of getting caught up in the hustling Silicon Valley scene.
Our location sets us apart and makes us different.
In the early days of the Internet, long before forums became popular, Rick sent an email to a couple lists hoping people would share his need for developer communication.
He set up a community site for developer-focused news and information with no intention of it being a business.
After hoping a few people would join, the site went viral and the developer community shared the feeling that it is really important to be able to speak about technology from a developer’s point of view, which is entirely different than a corporate point of view.
When the Internet bubble burst around 2000/2001, the Java community that started out as a labor of love was actually what would succeed as a business.
Competing as yet another startup, the community was bound with passion leading to success.
Long after everybody has forgotten the dotcom, Javalobby still flourishes along with our other topic zones and portals.
Coming out of being very active in Java technology and in early Java communities, as other languages grew up and became popular we decided to reach beyond a Java focus and speak to all developers.
DZone now has many communities covering topics such as NoSQL, Windows Phone, HTML5, .NET and Big Data.
This expertise and history in community building led us to what makes our Q&A software, AnswerHub, successful.
Not only do clients purchase AnswerHub as software, they also get access to our team who specializes in growing communities.
We experienced a lack of information sharing within our own organization and wanted a tool, a place to find and share resources.
The model is useful in almost any industry application allowing us to remain relevant and stay true to our original roots through this new venture.
Kelly Reiser, kellyr@dzone.com, 1-919-400-4111 will be the contact for DZone.
