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Join members of the Visual Studio Team System product group to discuss features available in Visual Studio Team Foundation Server, Team Editions for Architects, Developers, Database Pros, and Testers. In addition, discuss what's new in the latest Community Technology Preview (CTP).
Join the chat on Wednesday, November 8th, 2006 from 10:00am - 11:00am Pacific Time.
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Bar Camp is not a place to go have shots in a tent. The term is a play on words from the Foo Camp (a developer thing - see FOO and BAR -- get it?! get it?! - yeah, I'm a nerd.) - Foo Camp is the Friends of Orielly Camp. Foo Camp is all semi-elietiest and stuff (read: invite only)... Bar Camp is just the opposite - anyone can go to BarCamp. BarCamp is free, BarCamp is quality... if you attend, you must present! So the door is open, but the bar is high (too punny!). BarCamp traditionally brings in a lot of the open source/linux/php/designer/mac crowd... and I'm hoping that this one will be no different; even though we are hosting it at the Microsoft Las Colinas Campus. It should be fun!
If you have ideas that you would like to share (and hear from other people that are sharing their ideas) and are going to be in Dallas next January (2007) - then sign up on the BarCampDallas wiki.
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Microsoft eLearning has a deep dive on .NET 3.0 available right now for free!
5134 : Developing Rich Experiences with Microsoft® .NET Framework 3.0 and Visual Studio® 2005
This is a collection that includes:
Go check it out and get code on!
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Have you seen the agenda? Talk about a packed event!
http://www.ftponline.com/conferences/vslive/2006/dallas/agenda.aspx
Connect with your local user group leader... they probably have a nice discount that they can offer you. (but do that soon! - space is starting to run out!)
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The TulsaTechFest was an amazing event. Over 62 presenters, 119 hours of content, 20 simultaneous session to choose from, 1 day! Giovanni was there taking pictures; Carl Franklin and crew were there to record a DotNetRocks! episode (Ok, Richard Campbell was there with bells on… it’s not fair that he gets rolled in to “and crew” – but I like saying crew :); Shaun Walker was on hand (as well as a host of other members from the DNN core team) to discuss DotNetNuke, Ron Jacobs was there to discuss .NET Architectures, the food was excellent (Burgers and Fries, Subway, Pizza - all for free!). The guys from the Tulsa Developers group did an outstanding job raising sponsor support, organizing speakers, and keeping everything moving along smoothly. It was like Tulsa's personal TechEd (only free, and you could actually find some of the amazing speakers and have 1:1 conversations with them... this was too cool!)
I liked Erik’s comment:
“This event was free but let me tell you that it sure didn't seem like it. The content, speakers, and setup was as professional as any conference/training I've been to. The OSU-Tulsa classrooms, the main auditorium, free wi-fi, and lunch wa all great and all of the volunteers and sponsors were wonderful. All-in-all it was a great event and I plan on attending more like this in the future.” http://blog.eriklane.com/archive/2006/10/16/4013.aspx
I spoke at two sessions, Developing Next Generation Windows Applications (an Overview of .NET 3.0) and Creating Amazing Web Applications in an Insanely Short Amount of Time (an introduction to Atlas – now called Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX). Both sessions went well; I always enjoying talking to developer about practical ways to improve on the user experience. I heard Ron Jacobs compare UX to the “last mile” of design. Much in the same way that broad band connectivity has compares dial up to the expensive “last mile” – It’s relatively easy to connect cities with fiber optic and high speed pipes, but the critical piece has always been that last mile to the users. In application design the “last mile” is the space between the screen and the application user. Anyways, I thought that was a good comparison.
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, in that case here is a billion word description of the weekend.
Here are a couple of other highlights:
Like a lot of people, I’m looking forward to next year!
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It seems like a lot of people have been asking me about getting started on ASP.NET a lot lately. Some have been web designers (HTML/CSS etc) and others have been coming from “other” development platforms. :) I thought that I would post the suggestions that I've been sending out:
I would look at ASP.NET with C# or VB.NET. Specifically, I would download the free Web Developer Tool, look at Atlas (now called ASP.NET AJAX) and Blinq (BLINQ is especially nice if you have a Ruby on Rails background)
* Also, go check out these "first look" videos and the “official“ ASP.NET Developer Center.
If you're big in to CSS compliant web sites (This should be everyone then I would also go look at the CSS Friendly ASP.NET 2.0 Adapters and the free Developer Toolbar.
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It's been almost three weeks, but I'm just now getting a chance to blog! (way too busy)
The Webmaster Jam Session was a two day event in Dallas put on by Coffee Cup Software. The event brought in some of the leading speakers in the web design field. This was a great opportunity to interact with leading designers in the field and throughout Texas.
Event Images: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=WebmasterJamSession
Event Website, Session Podcasts and Video: http://www.webjamsession.com/
Some of the sessions that I attended:
“IE7 and Beyond”, Chris Wilson (Microsoft – Redmond, WA)
Chris is one of the program managers for IE7. He did a great job representing Microsoft and discussing IE7 with the web designers here. Chris is also the one the connected me with the organizers so that I was able to attend the event (kudos!).
http://blogs.msdn.com/cwilso/
“Accessible Websites”, Derek Featherstone (Canada)
Derek is an independent consultant and trainer from Canada. He gave a great talk on web accessibility. It was both informative and emotionally grabbing. He gave many examples of some of the frustrations that impaired users of the Internet have had while trying to accomplish simple tasks.
Company: http://www.furtherahead.com/
Blog: http://www.boxofchocolates.ca/
“Photoshop Tips and Tricks, Making Photoshop Your Bitch”, Bryan Veloso (San Jose, CA)
(Note: Title taken directly from his slides) Brian is well known in the design community for creating stunning and creative websites. I was a little disappointed by this session. Mainly because I’ve used Photoshop for years and this really was a 100 – 200 level talk. You could tell that there was a ton more advice that Brian could have dug in to - he's a genius designer, but he kept this very top level. It was a great talk for people who are starting out, and want to start out right.
“Good Content Must Suck”, Jared Spool (MA)
Jared gave a great presentation; he was definitely a “keynoter”. His company does research on usability and how people find information that they are looking for on websites. The total presentation was excellent. One of the cool things about his talk was that the concepts could be applied to any technology platform.
Conference: http://www.uiconf.com
Company: http://www.uie.com
Blog: http://www.uie.com/brainsparks
“Starbucks Tribal Knowledge”, John Moore (Austin, TX)
John spent 8 years at Starbucks doing marketing. The content on this talk was excellent. I would highly recommend following up with John, he lives in Austin, TX and his content was very technology neutral. As a presenter, John has a severe stutter (he actually has the stutter when he is just speaking 1:1, not just presenting) I thought that it was neat that John addressed this addressed this at the beginning of his talk, and it was not much of a distraction (it actually helped make his talk memorable). John does his talk in a lab coat and his business cards are “toe tags“. It was one of the best talks of the day.
http://www.triabalknowledge.biz
“Front End Architecture”, Garrett Dimon (Geniant - Dallas, TX)
Garret did a good job presenting. He is a well known presenter, blogger and UI Architect, and works for the same company that I worked for before I joined Microsoft. I thought that the focus of his presentation was very straight forward and a good talk to justify taking time to do a quality UI design; halfway through I went to the “Designing with CSS Session”. I'm looking forward to working with Garrett more, since he's based out of Dallas.
“Design with CSS” Ethan Marcotte (Ventura.com), James Craig (apple)
I just caught the end of this session. Ethan and James did a great job playing off of each other in the presentation. James is at Apple in San Jose now, but he is originally from Austin, TX; I wonder if he'll be able to attend any of the upcoming BarCamps. (The Dallas BarCamp will be at Microsoft in January)
Ethan: http://vertua.com/about/ethan/
James: http://cookiecrook.com/
“Adobe Project Showcase” Scott Fegette
Scott does not call himself an evangelist, but that is the sort of role that he has at Adobe. He was originally at Macromedia, and has we know a couple of the same people from there (Some people from Macromedia now work at Microsoft). I don’t think that I ever saw Scott not smiling. The presentation was a great overview of a lot of the things that Adobe is about to come out with. We looked at Flex2, Spry (Adobe’s AJAX framework), and Apollo.
http://weblogs.macromedia.com/sfegette/
“Becoming a Web Design Superhero” – Andy Budd (UK)
Andy was a great guy to hang out with during the weekend. This presentation was full of bright (cartoony) graphics from AlexRossArt.com. This session was focused on the skills and overall characteristics that are important / common for web designers (and consultants in general). I would love to see a presentation like this again, the content could apply well to developers and designers alike.
http://andybudd.com/Jam06/Super.pdf
“Social Interactive Websites”
This was the last session of the event. Very good, and informal, a lot of fun. The speakers talked about what brings people to your site. They also free form evaluated people’s sites from the audience. They would pull up the site live and discuss it for everyone to see the process of creating sites that bring people. They also gave out Corona’s and Jack shots to anyone that wanted them during the session - what a way to engage an audience!
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