.NET Rocks!, an online audio show created and co-hosted by Carl Franklin, was just picked up by MSDN as its first third-party on-air program. Besides being a great proponent of Visual Basic .NET, Carl is a new member of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVP) program. MSDN Magazine recently spoke to Carl about being an MVP and his thoughts on the future of software development.

MSDN How did you get started in the computer industry? Did you study computer science in college?

Franklin I began by working a summer tech support job at Crescent Software, one of the first companies to offer third-party custom controls for Visual Basic 1.0. I had time between calls to learn Windows programming from Charles Petzold's book Programming Windows and from the API reference. I started writing tools for Crescent. At the same time, I began writing a Q&A column in BasicPro Magazine (later renamed Visual Basic Programmer's Journal) and started writing feature columns and speaking at VBITS.

MSDN What were you working on that led to the title of MVP?

Franklin Apparently I was nominated because of my .NET Rocks! MP3 talk show (http://msdn.microsoft.com/dotnetrocks or http://www.franklins.net/dotnetrocks.asp). I had co-created Carl & Gary's Visual Basic Home Page, one of the first sites created outside of Microsoft for Visual Basic, which lasted several years. I guess Microsoft measures your overall commitment to the community you serve.

MSDN What do you do as an MVP?

Franklin The MVP program is designed to recognize people who give of their time to the community in support of a Microsoft product. So, as long as I keep doing my shows, speaking at user groups and conferences, and teaching Visual Basic .NET, I have a shot at staying an MVP.

MSDN What has MVP status done for you professionally?

Franklin I've only recently become an MVP, so it's definitely the result of my professional experience. I must say, though, I'm very impressed with how Microsoft runs the MVP program. They go out of their way to give MVPs access to people inside Microsoft. That's a wonderful thing for everyone involved.

MSDN How do you keep up with software developments?

Franklin Fortunately, I am really connected to Microsoft. I'm an MSDN Regional Director, of which there are fewer than 200 worldwide. We have a great mailing list where we share knowledge and new discoveries. Also, I read the blogs. I recently joined the blogging community and I'm hooked (see my blog at http://weblogs.asp.net/CFranklin). Blogs are a great way to keep up with things as they happen in the whole community.

MSDN What are your favorite problems to solve?

Franklin I really like communications in general and I've always liked programs that communicate across phone lines or networks. I enjoy thinking up new ways to plug all these technologies together to make something spectacular. Recently I've been writing Web Services to serve up Web statistics for my show to an auto-deployed Windows Forms app. I just love .NET! As a musician, I'm also interested in MIDI. Right now I'm working with a local artist on a project that incorporates the Internet, MIDI, instruments, lights, and various controllers.

MSDN There are many new products coming out in 2004. What was the most unexpected for you?

Franklin I was blown away when developers on the Visual Basic .NET team told me about the new features of Visual Basic .NET, some of which I did not expect to see, namely, XML comments (the ability to generate documentation and IntelliSense from comments above methods and properties), support for unsigned types, generics (which can't be explained in one sentence), and Edit and Continue. I think people will take a second look at the new Visual Basic .NET. It is essentially version 3.0 of the product.

MSDN Where do you see the industry in the next five or ten years?

Franklin I see more and more companies deploying the .NET Framework across their enterprise through a broad variety of means. I believe that Web-based applications will continue to become less attractive in the enterprise, giving way to a wave of development of auto-deployed Windows-based applications that use Web Services and remoting. Of course, Web Services will become the dominant technology as they get better, faster, and more robust. Longhorn applications written with XAML will be like a hybrid of Windows and Web-based applications, which should satisfy many Web developer's concerns about the rigidity of the Windows Forms interface.

I also believe that Whidbey will be seen as the definitive reason for programmers to move to the .NET Framework. With the new language and debugging features (like Edit and Continue), this is the Visual Basic .NET we wished we had a few years ago. It really feels like Visual Basic 6.0 with a much richer environment and true object-oriented features.