SQL Server Communities
PASS itself is a community for SQL Server developers, DBAs and managers, but there are a lot of other communities out there with different missions and focuses that complement the community offered by PASS. These communities offer a place to learn, teach and discover. Participation in these communities, like participation in PASS, pays back the efforts you put into it. It's important to understand that PASS is a peer in the community of communities, and that you'll probably want to participate in more than one as your career evolves.
PASS Virtual Chapters (VCs), formerly called Special Interest Groups (SIGs), are the first place to go at the PASS website to begin participating in the PASS community. The VCs cover topics such as Women in Technology, Database Administration, Application Deveopment, Security and Auditing, and Business Intelligence. Articles, interviews, and webcasts are hosted on the site. Contact for writing/speaking is virtualchapters@sqlpass.org.
One million strong and growing, SQL Server Central is one of the largest SQL Server community sites on the web. They publish articles every week day along with interesting and provocative editorial content in a daily mailing. They pay for articles. The forums on the site are extremely active with a large number of MVP’s hanging out and contributing. The forums are friendly to new users. SQL Server Central also hosts blogs. There is a weekly round-up email as well that includes news, white papers and blog content. There is a job and consultant board. Membership is free. Contact for writiing is articles@sqlservercentral.com.
SQL Server Performance is one of the oldest SQL Server web communities, starting out in 2000. They regularly publish articles from users. They pay for articles. The focus of the site has always been towards performance, but they cover a wide range of topics from development to SSIS. The forums are active and well populated with MVP;s. SQL-Server-Performance.com hosts blogs. Membership is free. Contact for writing is editor@sql-server-performance.com.
New articles are occasionally published. The focus here is on the forums, which are active, and on the community building activities. There is a job board. Membership is free. Use this link to Submit an Article.
The primary focus of SQLServerPedia is to act as a wiki for SQL Server. There are blogs hosted by SQLServerPedia and they syndicate select blogs from around the web. You can submit questions and the answers become a part of the wiki. Guided tutorials are hosted on the site. Membership is free. Read How To Help if you want to participate.
JumpstartTV focuses on delivering video to the users that teaches various database related topics. New videos are featured every day. You can discuss the content of a given video on the page that hosts it. Viewers can request video’s on different topics and you can choose to record your own video. Membership is free. For information about publishing videos contact webmaster@jumpstarttv.com.
Some articles and some blog posts are linked off the main page of SQL Junkies. A set of active forums are available. Membership is free. See Become an Author on SQLJunkies for information about participating.
MSSQLTips does exactly what it says. It publishes a set of tips daily on various aspects of SQL Server. A daily email is available that shows the featured tip of the day as well as popular tips. It hosts Webinars on the site. A set of active forums is available to discuss the tips and other topics. Membership is free. Contact for publishing articles is Authors.
SQLMag.com is the online presence for SQL Server Magazine, published by Penton. It has articles from the magazine as well as web-only articles. It also acts as a portal for Penton Connections events. The site also hosts webinars, podcasts, videos, and white papers. The forums are very active and feature quite a few MVPs. Membership is free, but some content is restricted to paid subscribers of the magazine.
Simple-Talk focuses on more than just SQL Server, but their SQL Server offerings are very good. They publish articles on a regular basis on a variety of topics. The editorials, usually by Tony Davis, are always worth a read. There’s a regular newsletter published through email. The SQL Server forums are small, but well served and regularly visited by a few MVP’s. Membership is free. Information about writing for Simple-Talk can be be found at Become an Author.
SQL Server WorldWide Users Group focuses on other database platforms as well as SQL Server. They publish articles regularly, host a radio and video broadcast and have regular webcasts. The forums are active and well attended. Membership is split between a free basic member and a paid full member. Read Write for SSWUG for information about being published.
SQLTeam is a very clean site focused on SQL Server and associated technologies through published articles, forums and a newsletter. The forums are very active and feature quite a few MVP’s. There’s also a very nice listing of SQL Server books. Membership is free. Information about writing for SQLTeam can be found at Write for SQLTeam.com.
SearchSQLServer is part of the Tech Target windows media set of web sites. Each site is devoted to a different technology base. SearchSQLServer focuses on SQL Server by publishing regular articles and tips. They have an Ask the Experts area and host several white papers and multimedia. There is an active forum, but it’s a mixed technology forum covering more than just SQL Server. Membership is free.
The grand-daddy of all SQL Server Communities. While the newsgroups aren’t quite the same type of community as many of those outlined here, it does offer a great place to go to discuss SQL Server and learn about how it works. These newsgroups are well populated with MVP’s and are some of the most active on the web.
Database Journal describes itself as the 'Knowledge Center for Database Professionals' offering numerous articles, tutorials and news features on major databases including SQL Server. This website has a wide array of SQL Server articles, scripts, samples, videos and forums.
Beyond Relational is a community just getting started. It's offering forum discussions, blogs and wiki entries. While the population is light, the forums are active and do feature MVPs. Membership is free.