2005 Highlights

• Thu, 12 Jan 2006 at 23:39:20 GMT
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In the tradition of my 2003 and 2004 highlights, I'm posting my personal highlights of 2005. As in years past, this is mainly for my own benefit. I hope everyone has a wonderful 2006. :-)

• Launched the PHP Security Consortium (31 Jan)
• Interviewed for the first time (01 Feb)
• Launched Brain Bulb (28 Feb)
• Spoke at PHP Quebec for the first time (30 Mar - 01 Apr)
• Spoke at NOAA's IT Security Conference for the first time (04 May)
• Spoke at php|tropics (now php|tek) for the first time (12 - 14 May)
• Spoke at PHP West (now OSEvents) for the first time (11 Jun)
• Made the OSCON Top Ten Tutorials list for the first time (21 Jun)
• Spoke at ApacheCon EU for the first time (18 - 22 Jul)
• Spoke at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention for the third time (01 - 05 Aug)
• Started Ask Chris in cooperation with the Pro-PHP Podcast (08 Aug)
• Participated in the PHP Job Market Webcast (24 Aug)
• Spoke at php|works for the second time (14 - 16 Sep)
• Spoke at NYPHP for the second time (27 Sep)
• Spoke at Boston PHP for the first time (06 Oct)
• My second book, Essential PHP Security, was published (13 Oct)
• Spoke at ZendCon for the first time (18 - 21 Oct)
• Interviewed for the second time (31 Oct)
• Joined the PHP Collaboration Project (11 Nov)
• Launched PHPSecurity.org (07 Dec)
• Spoke at ApacheCon for the third time (10 - 14 Dec)
• Interviewed for the third time (14 Dec)

I'm also starting a new tradition by mentioning a few goals for the upcoming year. The guiding theme is going to be:

Work smarter, not harder.

Here's hoping I can apply that to my life.

• Speak at fewer conferences.

  I love conferences. I try to speak at several conferences each year, because I enjoy contributing something back to the community. However, the time required for preparation and travel make it difficult to do much else. In 2006, I want to increase my contributions in other areas, so I need to speak at fewer conferences.

• Contribute more to open source.

  My contributions to the open source community generally revolve around education. I love to teach (Teach a Man to Fish), and I try to do so by answering questions on mailing lists and forums, writing articles, writing books, and speaking at conferences. However, I love programming even more, and I don't get to do that as much as I would like. In 2006, I want to contribute more code to the open source community. I pointed myself in the right direction by getting involved in the Zend Framework, and I plan to make my next PHP Security Consortium project an open source tool.

• Do more cool stuff.

  Working on Ning was pretty fun, and it made me realize that I don't get to work on enough cool stuff for my liking. In 2006, I want to do more cool stuff, and my first cool project is already underway. More on that soon. :-)

• Blog more.

  My blog has become more popular than I ever thought it would (possibly due in part to the popularity of Planet PHP and Planet MySQL). I think that's very cool, and I want to thank those who read my blog by offering more (and better) content in 2006.

• Make Brain Bulb even better.

  Although it took me almost all of 2005 to transition my freelance career into a consulting company, Brain Bulb is everything I wanted it to be. In 2006, I want to offer better PHP security audits and PHP training courses for less. I also want to begin offering additional products and services.

Bye bye 2005, and welcome 2006!