Becoming More Than Just a Developer

A colleague of mine approached me the other day; wondering how he might be able to get out of the trend that he's found himself in. The issue he approached me with was the fact that he's a tenured developer for his company and is often approached by his peers and managers to field questions and to help out when times are tough. He has no issues with such; however, he finds himself drawn to newer technology than what he's working with on a daily basis and also loves helping people with their development questions. In essence, he wants to become more than just the developer he is currently. He wanted to know what he can do to expand his knowledge with new technology and project the information to others.