Tag: Community Page 4 of 8

Deeper in .NET 2008 – Planning

On November 19, 2007

So, if you’re a .NET developer in southeast Wisconsin, or if you’ve read my blog for a while, you may know that I am the president of the WI .NET Users Group (UG). You may also remember that in spring 2006 we had a day-long conference called Deeper in .NET 2006. It was a great event, with several hundred attendees and five nationally recognized speakers. Best of all, since the UG is sponsor supported, Deeper in .NET was completely free for all attendees.

Well, after a hiatus in 2007, we are currently planning Deeper in .NET 2008 right now. While no plans have yet been finalized and everything in this blog post is tentative, I wanted to share some of what we have in mind to get community feedback.

Currently, we are planning to have DiDN08 on April 5, 2008. The format will be similar to previous years, and we will have 5-6 sessions over the course of the day. As usual, we will be trying to attract the top speaking talent we can find to present of the topics that are the most interesting in the Microsoft development world.

Although we are already in contact with a few potential speakers, I’d like to give everybody this opportunity give their ideas for both speakers and topics. Have a burning desire to hear your favorite speaker or author right here in your own backyard? Let me know. Really want to find out more about Microsoft’s latest and greatest product that will meet the impossibly difficult business need you are facing at work? Leave a comment. Have any other ideas about the conference, or about the UG in general? My ears are open. While I can’t promise miracles, I will promise that we will review every suggestion and try to make this conference what our members want it to be.

Also, if you’re a past or present sponsor of the UG and are interested in finding out how you can get involved with this thriving community, let me know. I will be sending out some e-mails over the coming weeks to those that have sponsored or expressed interest in the last couple years, so be sure to watch your inbox.

As time gets closer, more and more info will be available on the UG site. In the meantime, I’ll be sure to post anything here on my blog tagged with DiDN. If you’re a blogger, by all means, blog about it, and trackback to this post, and/or tag it DiDN. And if you blog, be sure to check out our Evangelist program.

WI .NET Users Group Holiday Party

By Scott

On November 17, 2007

In Uncategorized

Ho, ho, ho! I’ve got an early Christmas gift for those of you who are .NET developers near the Milwaukee area.

Microsoft and the WI .NET Users Group are teaming up to throw a little holiday party this year. Many of the details are still in the works, but plan on having a lot of fun. We’re trying to arrange some extra prizes and perhaps some better food than we have at our normal meetings — not that there’s anything wrong with pizza, though. We’re also checking the possibility of having an XBox setup for some gaming that night.

Also, and this is pretty exciting, in addition to the fun and food, bring your computer and you will have a chance to install the RTM bits of Visual Studio 2008.

Yes, Microsoft will be providing licensed versions of Visual Studio 2008 for those who bring their computers and install right then and there. Once they’ve installed VS2008, we will take their contact info and Microsoft will ship them a licensed version in the coming weeks.

The date has been set for December 11, and we will probably be meeting at the Waukesha Microsoft office. Please register now if you plan to attend. Microsoft would like to get a good head count to make sure we are prepared with everything.

So, tell all your friends, your co-workers, your boss, your family members, your neighbors and the waiter at your favorite lunch establishment about it. And blog about it. You can link back here or to the "official page" at http://www.wi-ineta.org/holiday. Who knows, maybe we’ll have another Evangelist blogging contest?

Keep watching my blog and the event page for updates as more info is available.

Official Press Release from INETA NorAm

By Scott

On October 12, 2007

In Uncategorized

###

For Immediate Release

INETA North America Membership Division Announces: New Membership Mentor — IL, IN, WI
Scott Isaacs, Milwaukee, WI, USA
From INETA User Group: Wisconsin .NET Users Group

Bellevue, WA — October 12, 2007 — INETA North America Vice President in charge of the Membership Division, Chris Wallace, announced today the new Membership Mentor for the territory Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin — Scott Isaacs.

“INETA is proud to announce that Scott Isaacs is now our Membership Mentor for Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin” Wallace said. “Scott comes highly recommended by those who know and recognize him for his tremendous work with our developer community. We are proud to call Scott one of our Membership Mentors.”

Isaacs is now taking over the important INETA volunteer position of Membership Mentor and the duties that have been the responsibility of Scott Spradlin. “We thank Scott Spradlin for the volunteer service to INETA as one of our Membership Mentors” Wallace continued. Spradlin will remain an active participant in our user group world in his other capacities. “We thank our former Membership Mentors for their volunteer activities with us and wish them well. Spradlin has taken the position of INETA Sponsorship Director.”

“Please welcome Scott Spradlin to this new position and extend every courtesy in working to succeed in our challenges ahead as we work together to build a stronger developer community. Good luck, Scott!” Wallace said.

About Scott Isaacs — Born and raised a stone’s throw from California’s Silicon Valley, Scott Isaacs discovered an early interest in computers. As with many other 30-somethings in IT and software development, it started off with the Commodore 64 and BASIC. Having gone to college for Applied Mathematics, software was primarily a hobby for Scott until the late 90s. That’s when Scott took his first software development job at the Department of Education. Since then, Scott has developed software for dot com companies, news/media corporations and financial institutions, as well as a number of other businesses on a consulting basis. Currently, he is working at another startup, building an RFID-based security system. As the first version of the .NET Framework was released in early 2002, a new users group was being formed in Wisconsin. Scott attended the first few meetings, and when a call for volunteers was made, he signed up to help out however he could. In 2005, Scott became the president of the WI .NET Users Group (www.wi-ineta.org). Since that time, membership has grown by about 50% to over 2500 total members, and average meeting attendance has nearly doubled. Additionally, a second, independently-run group (Madison .NET Users Group) was formed out of the WI .NET Users Group to better serve the growing number of members in the region. Scott moved to Wisconsin in 1999, and now lives in a Milwaukee suburb with his wife and daughter. He blogs at www.tapmymind.com, and can be contacted from that site.

About INETA — INETA is a not-for-profit volunteer led organization whose mission is to provide services, resources, and networking opportunities to user groups and individual member’s interest in .NET technologies. The INETA focus is on face-to-face interaction through local user group meetings as well as larger regional, national, and worldwide events.

The INETA worldwide team is a collection of five regions working together to foster the global goals of INETA through independently operated locally focused culturally personalized organizations under the INETA name. Currently, INETA supports more than 250 user groups that represent more than 150,000 developers in the United States and Canada, plus about four times that many in total worldwide.

The INETA NorAm Membership Division is the exclusive internal organization that provides complete membership services to the INETA NorAm association members plus internal and external entities to the association. Membership Mentors act as advisor, counselor, guide, tutor, teacher, and guru of Membership to INETA member user group leadership and user groups.

Supported by Microsoft Corporation and other sponsors, INETA is an independent volunteer organization run by user group leaders and developers, http://www.ineta.org.

###

Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter …

By Scott

On July 27, 2007

In Uncategorized

So I have accounts on a million different social networking sites, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace, Orkut, Spoke (are they still around?), Ryze, and the list goes on and on and on and on. You name it, and if it was ever even slightly popular, I’ve probably been a member.

Do I use them? Almost never. Sure I create accounts, maybe add a couple friends, a bookmark or two, etc. But I don’t use them because I don’t get any value out of them. All of the “friends” I add are friends I already have (NOTE: when I say friends here, I mean business contacts, family and friends — basically any relationship). Why do I need 10 copies of my friends? With 10 copies of their contact info? And 10 copies of their picture? And 10 places for me to “find out what’s going on in their lives”? And 10 places to get spammed?

Recently I’ve signed up for Facebook and added a couple friends just to see what all the hype is. I found the answer — it’s hype. Plain and simple. Sure, it can be entertaining, and there is definitely value in that, but that’s all the real value I’ve seen from these sites. I have used LinkedIn once or twice for something productive, but I could have just as easily accomplished the same task from a different angle.

So anyway, if you’re on these sites, feel free to add me. If I know you at all, I’ll definitely “accept” the connection. Prove me wrong. Make me appreciate them.

That’s just me. Does anyone agree or disagree?

On the flip side, there is really only one website that I can think of that is indispensable to me: iGoogle. 99% of my iGoogle usage is search, but I like having my bookmarks and search history readily available.

Community Server Theming Contests

By Scott

On May 8, 2007

In Uncategorized

As you may or may not know, I use Telligent’s Community Server as a blog engine here, as well as for photos and forums elsewhere. Well, they are having a Theme Extravaganza — a contest for making custom themes. Prizes include MacBooks, XBox 360s and Amazon gift cards.

Dan Bartels, a Milwaukee area local, works for Telligent, and he contacted me the other day with this offer:

While I cannot enter the “public contest” I’d be willing to give some help to some folks to get them started, point them in the right direction, ect… So please extend this offer to anyone you see fit.

Further, we are having in “internal” contest; here is where I could use some help… I could use some PSD’s and or artwork from a community member (I will give them full credit and linkage for the design)…

If you’re interested, please contact Dan, either via his website or by e-mailing him at dbartels AT telligent DOT com.

Good luck!

CodePlex TFS Down?

By Scott

On April 12, 2007

In Uncategorized

I went to CodePlex to see what’s been going on with a couple projects since the last time I was there, and it seems that the Team Foundation Server is down. I noticed it last night and it still seems to be down now. I got a couple different error screens, depending on what I was trying to do. This one when trying to view issues:

And this one when going to the Source Code screen:

Anyway, there’s no real reason for posting this other than to post something. So there. I posted again. Twice in one day.

Telerik — The Quest?

By Scott

On April 12, 2007

In Uncategorized

So, what is it?

I added my piece, but it’s in a lousy location. You can’t even really tell it’s there. Five points* to the first person to find it!

* Points have no cash value and cannot be redeemed for anything with any cash value. Basically, I might as well have offered five billion points — you’re not really going to get anything for it. However, you do have the privilege of saying that you got the points, and that’s worth something in and of itself.

(via Sahil Malik)

I’m Making a Difference…

By Scott

On March 29, 2007

In Uncategorized

I don’t IM much these days due to work load, but I still do every now and then. When I do I primarily use Windows Live Messenger (aka MSN).

Well, I just saw this program today and figured, why not. Just by adding a few characters to my personal message, Microsoft will donate some amount to the charity of my choice (from a list of charities). I’m sure it’s not a ton of money being donated per IM conversation, but since it doesn’t take any more effort on my part, I might as well have my IMs make a difference. It would be nice to see how much is being donated to each cause. I wonder if that is something Microsoft would be willing to share?

So, anyway, if you’re a WLM/MSN user, why not take 60 seconds that could end up donating at least a few bucks to some worthy cause?

Happy Birthday To .NET

By Scott

On February 13, 2007

In Uncategorized

Today is .NET’s fifth birthday. Five years ago today, on February 13, 2002, Microsoft launched Visual Studio .NET and the .NET Framework. I was at the launch event at Navy Pier in Chicago with my buddies Steve Ballmer and Don Box, and what seemed like 50 million other developers.

What many people may not know is that was also the birth of the WI .NET Users Group. I first became familiar with the group about a month or so later, and then I attended our first meeting in May 2002, with Doug Seven presenting.

Well, tonight, on the fifth birthday of all this goodness, the WI .NET Users Group is meeting. Larry Clarkin will be presenting ASP.NET AJAX, but before that, we’ll have just a little celebration. With our pizza, provided by Northwods Software, we’ll have some birthday cake, as well as a small “prize” for everyone (courtesy of Dave Bost at Microsoft).

Come and celebrate with us tonight. As always, the meetings are free, but registration is encouraged so we make sure to have enough food. Find out more about the WI .NET Users Group and this meeting at www.wi-ineta.org.

Upcoming Users Group Meetings

By Scott

On June 13, 2006

In Uncategorized

We have two great meetings on the schedule for the WI .NET Users Group.

The first is tonight, June 13: Regular Expressions with Dave Wanta.

In this presentation, Dave Wanta will present an introduction to Regular Expressions, commonly known as Regexes. This presentation will cover the basic Regex operators, metacharacters, and pattern matching. From there, we will move into advanced groupings, replacing, and logic branching. Come prepared to learn, as most of this presentation is performed writing Regexes, rather than simply talking about them.
About Dave
Dave Wanta is the founder of www.123aspx.com, the first and largest ASP.NET directory site, and www.kbAlertz.com, the only site available to update you about Microsoft’s latest KB Articles. A veteran speaker and instructor, Dave has also co-authored The ASP.NET Bible for Hungry Minds. Topic Areas are: ASP.NET, ASP.NET Caching, ADO.NET, Patterns, TCP\IP and Network Connections in .NET.
Register online here.

The next one is Tuesday, July 11: An Introduction to Grid Computing with Chad Albrecht.

Have a power hungry application on a machine that just can’t handle it? Don’t buy a faster machine, steal the cycles you need! In his presentation, Chad Albrecht will discuss the basics of grid computing using .NET technologies. Grid computing provides an interesting means of distributing applications across any number of machines. Learn the fundamentals of grid computing, data grids, basic SQL Server scaling out and a few other tricks. Those in attendance will be able to use their laptops as active grid nodes, so make sure to bring it along!
About Chad
Chad Albrecht is an engineer with 15 years experience developing connected applications. His domain knowledge includes business analysis, communication systems, embedded design, database architecture and mobile computing in the Microsoft and Linux environments. Chad has worked as an independent consultant for much of his career and services clients in the Milwaukee and Chicago markets.
Register online here.