About Us
Underbelly is a website about anything and everything web related, talking about Microsoft technology and the people who work at Microsoft in an open way and engaging with the web community at large. We’re interested in the people behind the technology as well as the technology itself. We also want to address key issues and questions related to the challenges developers and designers face every day. Why do some designers find it hard to use Silverlight and what can we do about it? What are the challenges developers face with using PHP on Windows?
To achieve this we need your help. You know all too well the problems you deal with day in and day out, and we want to hear about them and how you overcome those challenges. We welcome guest posts on all web related subjects, as well as video diaries (we have a great diary on its way about using Drupal and ASP.NET) and ‘a day in the life of’, either by video or photograph.
Finally, we want to evolve the content and so all and any feedback is very welcome. Feel free to add your comments to any blog post and start a discussion, or contact us directly at saraal@microsoft.com. You can also follow us on Twitter @ubelly.
Sara Allison joined the team in January 2010 with the specific goal of setting up Underbelly. She is a self confessed web nerd with 3+ years experience at Microsoft in Website Management and originally hails from North Yorkshire (by ‘eck).
In a previous life she has worked in a shoe shop, as fashion editor of four trade fashion magazines, in the US for three years as a marketing executive and freelanced helping small businesses with their business development and marketing. She enjoyed working in the US but really missed pork pies and ‘proper’ bacon. Oh – and her family and friends.
She has a husband, a (large) dog and a cat but loves them all only slightly more than Cheshire Cheese (ideally with fresh bread – yum!). And she has a ‘thing’ for wearing moustaches.
Sara is keen to meet as many people in the web industry as possible, and continue to shape and define Underbelly. All feedback is gratefully received!
Andrew Spooner joined Microsoft in June 2010 bringing with him almost 15 years of digital production and web development experience. Having worked as a developer and technical producer within small digital agencies and for global corporate websites, he has worked with almost every web technology past and present. New technologies and new problems to solve are what makes him get up in the mornings (although to be honest, it’s usually his children that rouse him first these days).
Other worldly experiences such as ocean sailing, working abroad and a wealth of obscure training certification have previously earnt him the moniker ‘Forest Gump’ however he is unwilling to accept this name until he has completed a marathon. He currently has no plans to do so which makes this an unlikely future title, but never say never.
He lives in Bristol but is regularly in London and can be found on Twitter as @andspo. Andrew enjoys listening to and telling a good story, so if you want to start a conversation, get in touch via Twitter or this site.
