PDC Birds-of-a-Feather

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.