PDC Birds-of-a-Feather

PDC09 BOFs a Great Success!-Feedback Wanted

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 09:16:19 -0500

Thanks to all the hosts and volunteers who collectively made the Birds-of-a-Feather sessions at PDC09 a huge success!

Also, thanks to those of you who provided feedback on how to make the sessions even better next time.We’ll work on reaching more people, maybe a somewhat larger room and getting the content out to the community at-large.

If you have another thought post-PDC please leave a comment here.

We’ll be holding BOF sessions at Tech North America June 7-11, 2010 in New Orleans. Stay tuned to details.

Have a great Thanksgiving holiday.
The BOF Team

BOF Sessions: Wed 11/18/2009

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:21:43 -0500

We had some great sessions on Tuesday, opening day, many of which were SRO so arrive early today.

Wednesday 11/18

11:30 am-12:30 pm Developers on Better Design, User Experience and Why It Matters Co-Hosts: David Kelley and Jason Beres
1:00-1:45 pm BOF @Lunch ASP.NET MVC – Share Your Stories From The Trenches Fishbowl Panel
2:00-3:00 pm Shoud I Use Silverlight, MVC, or Web Forms for Web User Interface Development? Co-Hosts: Ben Hoelting and Todd Anglin
3:15-4:15 pm Is Open Source Old News? Co-Hosts: Miguel de Icaza, Joseph Downey, Sara Ford, Peter Galli, Jackson Harper, Joseph Hill
4:30-5:30 pm Exception Management – Handling and Reporting Exceptions Effectively Host: Paul Sheriff

See the complete list of sessions for all the PDC09 BOFs.

Community Roundtable Adds Twitter I/O

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:30:00 -0500

We are excited to announce that the Community Roundtable on Tue 11/17 6:00-7:00 p.m. which has an outstanding group of expert panelists will be accepting questions via Twitter during the event.

In addition, several community volunteers will be tweeting live during the event so you can follow the discussion even if you are not able to attend PDC.

Follow the session at http://twitter.com/PDCBOF

Post questions to @pdcbof

BOF Sessions: Tue 11/17/2009

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:29:32 -0500

PDC is just getting started and we kick off w/ the following BOF sessions today.

Tuesday 11/17

11:00 am-12:00 pm How to Build and Enrich Your Technical and Local Communities Co-Hosts: Joseph Guadagno, Chris Woodruff
12:30-1:15 pm BOF @Lunch Will Cloud Computing Change Your Life? Co-Hosts: Simon Guest, David Pallman, Eugene Shustef, Aaron Skonnard, and Michael Stiefel
1:30-2:20 pm Agile — Tales of Triumph, Tribulation, and Teams Co-Hosts: David Starr, Mike Vincent
3:00-4:00 pm Tooling on Agile Teams Host: Joel Semeniuk
4:30-5:30 pm Behavior-Driven Development vs. Test-Driven Development: What’s What? Host: Dennis Doomen
6:00-7:00 pm Special Event: INETA BOF Community Roundtable
Join David Chappell, Scott Hanselman, Patrick Hynds, Fritz Onion, Miguel de Icaza, and Sara Ford for an open discussion on anything technology related. Carl Franklin will moderate the discussion and be recording the event as a .NET Rocks show.

See the complete list of sessions for all the PDC09 BOFs.

[BOF Session] DSLs and Modeling Behaviors with Oslo

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:00:14 -0500

Announcing another timely and relevant BOF topic, this one on Oslo (renamed SQL Server Modeling after this topic went to press).

DSLs and Modeling Behaviors with Oslo

Oslo provides capabilities for modeling data using “M”, but in addition using the DSL tools available to us with MGrammar should provide a good framework for modeling behaviors and business rules in our applications. Have you tried using Oslo to model behaviors or other aspects beyond modeling data? Or do you hope to do so? In this session we will discuss different approaches.

Host: Kevin D. Wolf

See the latest list of sessions for all the PDC09 BOFs.

Community Roundtable Panelist Spotlight: Fritz Onion

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:00:00 -0500

Bring your questions for Fritz to the INETA BOF Community Roundtable on Tuesday, 11/17 from 6:00-7:00 pm at PDC 2009. Get there early for a door prize drawing.

URL: http://www.pluralsight.com/community/blogs/fritz/default.aspx

Passion:
Fritz is keenly interested in several aspects of development including MVC, Silverlight, AJAX, and Sharepoint. In his free time he is dabbling in Silverlight and WPF as well. However his real passion is classical guitar.

Bio:
Fritz is a co-founder of Pluralsight where he focuses on Web development with ASP.NET, Ajax, and Silverlight. Fritz is the author of the books ‘Essential ASP.NET’ and ‘Essential ASP.NET 2.0’ published by Addison Wesley. He is a regular speaker at industry conferences including the PDC, TechEd, and VSLive!. Microsoft recognizes Fritz as an MVP for his contributions to the ASP.NET community.

Community Roundtable Panelist Spotlight: Patrick Hynds

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:00:00 -0500

Bring your questions for Patrick to the INETA BOF Community Roundtable on Tuesday, 11/17 from 6:00-7:00 pm at PDC 2009. Get there early for a door prize drawing.

URL: http://www.patrickhynds.com

Passion:
Patrick’s passion is taking nothing more then an idea and turning that in a solution that supports a business. Patrick observes that as the industry changes, the more it stays the same. “The tools change and even the technology changes, but the need for people who can architect real solutions and the companies that deliver them will only increase as the world automates lesser tasks.” Patrick’s technical focus is on .NET Security.

Bio:
Patrick Hynds, MCSD, MCSE+I, MCDBA, MCSA, MCP+Site Builder, MCT, is the Microsoft Regional Director for Boston, the CTO of CriticalSites, and has been recognized as a leader in the technology field. An expert on Microsoft technology (with, at last count, 55 Microsoft certifications) and experienced with other technologies as well (WebSphere, Sybase, Perl, Java, Unix, Netware, C++, etc.), Patrick previously taught freelance software development and network architecture. Prior to joining CriticalSites, he was a successful contractor who enjoyed mastering difficult troubleshooting assignments. A graduate of West Point and a Gulf War veteran, Patrick brings an uncommon level of dedication to his leadership role at CriticalSites. He has experience in addressing business challenges with blended IT solutions involving leading-edge database, Web, and hardware systems. In spite of the demands of his management role at CriticalSites, Patrick stays technical and in the trenches, acting as project manager and/or developer/engineer on selected projects throughout the year.

[BOF Session] Is Open Source Old News?

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:38:00 -0500

Microsoft’s stance on open source has shifted dramatically. Not only is Microsoft releasing an ever-growing stable of open source projects (including the DLR, MEF, and MVC), they’re even contributing back to the Linux kernel. Has the open source movement has moved beyond controversy? In this BOF, we’ll find out. What are the new battles? Who won the old ones?

We will discuss:
●    How you use (or when you avoid) open source in your work, and why.
●    When to have an open source strategy.
●    Where do we take open source from here?

Co-Hosts: Miguel de Icaza (Mono Project-Novell), John Downey (Software Developer, Purdue University), Sara Ford (Microsoft), Peter Galli (Microsoft), Jackson Harper (Mono Project-Novell), Joseph Hill (Mono Project-Novell)

For more sessions, go to the latest list of BOF sessions for PDC09.

Community Roundtable Panelist Spotlight: Scott Hanselman

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:00:00 -0500

Bring your questions for Scott to the INETA BOF Community Roundtable on Tuesday, 11/17 from 6:00-7:00 pm at PDC 2009. Get there early for a door prize drawing.

URL: http://www.hanselman.com

Focus: .NET

Bio:
My name is Scott Hanselman. I work out of my home office for Microsoft as a Principal Program Manager, aiming to spread good information about developing software, usually on the Microsoft stack. Before this I was the Chief Architect at Corillian Corporation, now a part of Checkfree, for 6+ years. I was also involved in a few Microsoft Developer things for many years like the MVP and RD programs and I’ll speak about computers (and other passions) whenever someone will listen.

Before Corillian and Microsoft I worked as a Principal Consultant at a local Microsoft Solution Provider called STEP Technology, speaking, writing, consulting, and very much not getting rich during Web 1.0. Even earlier, I worked at a Car Parts Data Warehouse called Chrome Data, and before that I had a small company that specialized in internationalization and thunking. I’ve also been an Adjunct Professor at OIT, teaching C#. On the side, I created the first PalmPilot Diabetes Management System in 1998 and sold it to a healthcare company five years later. It’s now in limbo, but I’m trying to get it released as Open Source.

What else would you like to know?

I am an early adopter, it seems. I ran Tweak Computer Support BBS, with some success, a very long time ago. I was a FidoNet node. I have nice teeth and love cheese amongst other things. I like Tools, and I’ve co-written some books. I’m diabetic. I like studying Amharic and Zulu/Ndebele and listening to African Music as well as other more diverse music. I know Black Hair and can both braid and cornrow. I have a podcast. I hack on hardware and waste time. I do Open Source. I have a large forefive-head. I am good at Excel and keep my resume mostly up to date for no reason. We speak Sign Language to my son and my wife speaks Ndebele. I have a great family and have had great teachers and a fantastic wedding with a great Cake Topper. I don’t sleep too much. I write a lot. I’m trying to raise $50,000 for Diabetes research.

Pluralsight Joins as a Community Roundtable Sponsor

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:33:00 -0500

We are pleased to announce Pluralsight as a sponsor for the INETA BOF Community Roundtable on Tuesday, 11/17 from 6:00-7:00 pm. Pluralsight will be donating a handful of Pluralsight On-Demand! training free week trials.

Pluralsight is a Microsoft .NET training provider offering classroom and On-Demand! training. Pluralsight has some exciting new features and course roll-outs targeted for launch at PDC09 – be sure to check out their website for more information at http://www.pluralsight.com

Eugene Shustef Joins as Host for BOF @Lunch Cloud Computing Session on Tue 11/17

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:00:00 -0500

We are pleased to announce that Eugene Shustef will be one of the expert hosts for the BOF @Lunch: Will Cloud Computing Change Your Life? on Tue 11/17 12:30-1:15 pm.

Eugene Shustef is a Chief Engineer for Global Technology & Offering Development (GTOD) at Xerox Global Services, where he has worked in various roles since 2004. His current assignment is to lead the GTOD Advanced Technology Team responsible for:

· Incorporation of emerging technologies into current platforms
· Delivering preview version of the future technology platforms
· Development of advanced software services and components

Eugene is a graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology with a BS degree in Computer Science and an MBA in Finance.

Community Roundtable Panelist Spotlight: Sara Ford

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:00:00 -0500

Bring your questions for Sara to the INETA BOF Community Roundtable on Tuesday, 11/17 from 6:00-7:00 pm at PDC 2009. Get there early for a door prize drawing.

URL: http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford

Focus: CodePlex, VS Tips

Bio:
Sara Ford is the Program Manager for CodePlex, Microsoft’s open source project hosting site. Sara joined Microsoft in 2001 as a software tester on the Visual Studio Core team. After 3 versions of Visual Studio, she left software testing to work on the Visual Studio Power Toys. The power toys were among the first projects on CodePlex when the site launched in 2006. Sara joined the CodePlex team shortly afterwards. Sara’s life-long goal is to become a 97-year-old weightlifter, so she can be featured on the local news.

[BOF Session] How to Build and Enrich Your Technical and Local Community

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:00:00 -0500

How to Build and Enrich Your Technical and Local Community

Whether you are involved in a strong vibrant community or want to start one we can all share our experiences. Here are some of the topics that we will cover.

How to Build a Technical Community
How to Enrich that new community
How to Enrich Society with the Technical Community
Open Discussion

Co-Hosts: Joseph Guadagno, Chris Woodruff

For more sessions, go to the latest list of BOF sessions for PDC09.

Community Roundtable Panelist Spotlight: David Chappell

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:00:00 -0500

Bring your questions for David to the INETA BOF Community Roundtable on Tuesday, 11/17 from 6:00-7:00 pm at PDC 2009. Get there early for a door prize drawing.

URL: http://www.davidchappell.com

Focus: Cloud Computing

Bio:

David Chappell is Principal of Chappell & Associates in San Francisco, California. Through his speaking, writing, and consulting, he helps people around the world understand, use, and make better decisions about new technology.

David has been the keynote speaker for conferences and events on five continents, and his seminars have been attended by tens of thousands of developers, architects, and decision makers in forty countries. He has also spoken at many universities, including the National University of Singapore, Moscow State University, and Sweden’s Uppsala University, and taught in the executive program of Duke Corporate Education.

David’s books have been published in a dozen languages and used in courses at MIT, ETH Zurich, and other educational institutions. He is Series Editor for Addison-Wesley’s award-winning Independent Technology Guides, and he’s been a regular columnist for several publications. In his consulting practice, David has helped clients such as Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft, Stanford University, and Target Corporation adopt new technologies, market new products, train their sales staffs, and create business plans.

David’s comments have appeared in The New York Times, CNN.com, and many other publications. Earlier in his career, he wrote networking software, chaired a U.S. national standardization working group, and played keyboards with the Peabody-award-winning Children’s Radio Theater. David holds a B.S. in Economics and an M.S. in Computer Science, both from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

[BOF Session] Tooling on Agile Teams

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:54:00 -0500

The PDC BOF team is happy to announce another compelling Birds-of-a-Feather session. Find an updated list of all BOF sessions here.

Tooling on Agile Teams

Agile practices focus on customer value and team interactions. There is a significantly growing and important set of tools that work to help Agile teams be more “agile”. In this session, we would like to hear what you have to say about tools for Agile teams? What tools work? What tools don’t work? What tools are missing in the industry? What tools can you not live without? Come join the discussion or simply listen to what your peers have to say.

Host: Joel Semeniuk

Community Roundtable Moderator Spotlight: Carl Franklin

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 08:00:00 -0500

Bring your questions for the Panel to the INETA BOF Community Roundtable on Tuesday, 11/17 from 6:00-7:00 pm at PDC 2009. Get there early for a door prize drawing.

URL: http://www.dotnetrocks.com/

Focus: VB.NET

Bio:
Carl Franklin has been a figurehead in the VB community since the very early days when he wrote for Visual Basic Programmers Journal. He authored the Q&A column of that magazine as well as many feature articles for VBPJ and other magazines. He has authored two books for John Wiley & Sons on sockets programming in VB, and in 1994 he helped create the very first web site for VB developers, Carl & Gary’s VB Home Page. He now teaches hands-on VB .NET classes for his company, Franklins.Net. He has taught developers from Citigroup, Aetna, Fidelity Investments, Fleet Bank, Foxwoods Casino, UTC, Hubbell, Microsoft, Mohegan Sun Casino, Northeast Utilities, to name a few. Carl is co-host of a weekly talk show on his website for .NET programmers called .NET Rocks! Carl is MSDN Regional Director for Connecticut.

[BOF Session] Silverlight Development Tools - Picking the Right Ones

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:01:00 -0500

The PDC09 Birds-of-a-Feather team is pleased to announce another great BOF session. We’ve got an excellent collection of topics all around, so check out the updated list of all BOF sessions.

Silverlight Development Tools — Picking the Right Ones

The list of tools for Silverlight is bewildering: Prism, MVVM, RIA Services, ADO.NET Data Services, MEF, Reactive Framework and the list goes on. What are the core tools for being successful? Let’s get together and talk about how to select the right tools for the right job. Perhaps more importantly, let’s also talk about how to avoid picking the wrong tools for a project.

Host: Eric Mork

Community Roundtable Panelist Spotlight: Miguel de Icaza

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:00:00 -0500

Bring your questions for the Miguel to the INETA BOF Community Roundtable on Tuesday, 11/17 from 6:00-7:00 pm at PDC 2009. Get there early for a door prize drawing.

URL: http://tirania.org/blog/

Focus: .NET on everyting not Windows

Bio:
Miguel de Icaza, co-founder and CTO of Ximian, is one of the foremost luminaries in the Linux development community and one of the world’s most prominent advocates for Free Software. Before co-founding Ximian, Miguel was instrumental in the development of Linux for SPARC systems and the Midnight Commander file manager. Miguel is the founder and President of the GNOME Foundation. He was also the first recipient of the prestigious MIT Innovator of the Year award in 1999. Miguel has galvanized Ximian’s efforts to make Linux accessible and available to the average computer user, and continues to reach out globally by working with international organizations such as eMexico to introduce affordable technology alternatives, like Linux, to other nations.

TechSmith Joins as a Community Roundtable Sponsor

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:00:00 -0500

We are pleased to announce that TechSmith as a sponsor for the INETA BOF Community Roundtable on Tuesday, 11/17 from 6:00-7:00 pm. TechSmith will be software books for door prizes at the event.

Founded in 1987, TechSmith Corporation provides practical business and academic software tools and services. TechSmith’s solutions enable users to capture, record and enhance digital content from their computer screens so they can share information and knowledge in compelling multimedia formats, and allow others to observe, analyze and learn from their experiences. TechSmith products are used by 99 percent of the Fortune 500. Visit http://www.TechSmith.com for more information.

[BOF Session] Agile -- Tales of Triumph, Tribulation, and Teams

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:00:00 -0500

More and more development teams are turning to agile methodologies like Scrum, Lean, XP, FDD and others to improve their effectiveness. This session encourages learning from each other by sharing experiences on issues like:

What methodologies teams are using and how they are working.
Shedding old habits and the redirecting organizational commitments for success.
Development techniques like TDD, mocking, BDD, Continuous Integration, TFD, and automation
Experiences that have proven useful in your practice.

Co-Hosts: Mike Vincent http://www.mvasoftware.net and David Starr http://pluralsight.com

For more sessions, go to the latest list of BOF sessions for PDC09.