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 | | | From the Board | |
I have been asked to write this month's "From the INETA Board" column. Who am I? I am the newest board member, and the Vice President for Membership, Mark Rosenberg. I have been a software developer for over 10 years, and currently work as a trainer for Quickstart Intelligence in Los Angeles, CA. I also am deeply involved in the developer community. I book speakers for two user groups, help organize 2 code camps per year, and was also the membership mentor for Southern California.
It was great to spend so much time at Tech-Ed with so many user group leaders, user group members, and influencers. There was even an "In-between" event over the weekend between Tech-Ed Developer and Tech-Ed IT Pro. The event was by the community, for the community, and that is what made it so great.
There is a lot going on in membership. We have accepted a large number of new groups as members. To those of you who have recently joined, welcome. We are also reaching out to Dot Net Nuke groups, virtual groups, Sharepoint groups, and other non-traditional .NET groups for membership in INETA.
I look forward to helping make INETA even better in the coming months Mark Rosenberg VP of Membership, INETA |
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| | | asp.netPRO Teams with INETA North America | Have you always wanted to be published? Do you have a keen interest in writing? If so, you will
definitely want to read the following press release about an exciting new opportunity involving INETA and asp.net PRO Magazine June 10, 2008 (Sacramento, CA) -- asp.netPRO is teaming with members of INETA North America to provide the very best solutions for the many challenges faced by today's developers. Every month, beginning with our November 2008 issue, asp.netPRO will spotlight the work of a different member of the INETA developer community. Providing real-world tips, tricks, and techniques, this column will be from developers, for developers. By partnering with INETA, asp.netPRO can extend and expand its reach into the ASP.NET development community - and bring INETA members' expertise to the pages of asp.netPRO.
asp.netPRO is the premier information resource for the ASP.NET developer community. It teaches by example. By showing valuable programming techniques in action - through real-world apps and code - asp.netPRO helps professional software developers build, deploy, and run the next generation of dynamic, distributed Web applications quickly and easily.
INETA (International .NET Association) represents the very best in the .NET community. INETA North America has more than 275 user groups, with about 300,000 members. INETA provides structured, peer-based organizational, educational, and promotional support to the growing worldwide community of Microsoft .NET user groups. INETA offers assistance and resources to community groups that promote and educate their membership in Microsoft's .NET technologies. INETA welcomes all facets of the .NET user community, from developers and architects to project managers and IT professionals.
ASP.NET is a crucial component in Microsoft's .NET vision of interconnected Web services. asp.netPRO is the developer's premier resource for converting this vision into practical, running Web applications today.
For more information on asp.netPRO, please view our media kit:
http://www.aspnetpro.com/advertising/asp2008_mediakit.pdf |
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| | | Community Champion and Community Excellence Awards | |
Please note: Submission deadline is July 14th If you are hearing about the Community Champs and Community Excellence awards for the first time, you are in for a treat, so be sure to read on. If you are already familiar with these Reward and Recognition programs by INETA, be sure to submit all of your contributions for the period of July1st, 2007 to June 30th, 2008 some time over the next two weeks
(July 14th is the last day) so that you will have an opprotunity to be recognized for your contributions to the User Group Community. What are the Community Champions and Community Excellence awards? The
Community Champions award is a way to reward leaders in our user group community. Each quarter, INETA will recognize the leading contributors as "Community Champions", which includes a letter of commendation, certificate of achievement, online recognition and other valuable prizes like an MSDN Subscription and XBox.
If you have been very active in the User Group Community over the past year, you may be recognized in a very high profile way!!! The
INETA Community Excellence Award is given to individuals for their extraordinary efforts and prolonged contributions to the user group community at both the local and national levels. Through their commitment and passion, these people have made profound impacts that will be sustained for years. In honor of their accomplishments, the Community Excellence Award is a one-time award of recognition that will last a lifetime.
If you know somebody who has demonstrated this level of dedication to the user group community, nominate them so that they may be officially recognized. Please note that to qualify for either of these awards for the current quarter ending June30th, you must submit all of your contributions and/or nominations by
July 14th. |
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| | | User Group Above and Beyond - This Month: Joe Kunk | |
This month we recognize Joe Kunk, President of the Greater Lansing (MI) User Group for .Net (or
GLUGnet ), and his team for delivering an over the top experience in their first CodeCamp. Unlike any CodeCamp that I have ever heard of, they involved more than just techies, but included a closing keynote by the Mayor of Lansing and coverage by two local TV News stations. Continuing with his style of going above and beyond, Joe has written an article for this month's newsletter on what it takes to run a successful CodeCamp. About Joe Kunk: Bio: Joe Kunk serves as President of the Greater Lansing User Group for .Net (GLUGnet) with independent monthly meeting locations in both East Lansing and Flint MI, co-founder of Listen IT Solutions (a mortgage software company), board member of the Lansing IT Networking Council (LINC), Senior Consultant at A. J. Boggs, Inc., and a great supporter of the .Net community. Joe has 25 years experience in the IT industry and wrote his first for-hire application on the Commodore Pet. |
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| | | The Lighter Side of INETA | |
We are proud to present a bit of Silverlight Humor from one of the funniest guys on the planet, Billy Hollis Those top ten ridiculous reasons for rejecting Silverlight by Billy Hollis
10."I *
love* writing JavaScript.""
9. "Because Macs rule, dude! What, it runs on a Mac too? I didn't know that."
8. "I love writing *lots* of JavaScript."
7. "Dim t As New TextBox'? What does that do?"
6. "I *
really* like debugging JavaScript."
5. "Flex will predominate over Silverlight because of Adobe's installed base. Yes, I still use WordPerfect, Lotus, Novell, and Delphi. Why do you ask?"
4. "It's named after some guy in South Florida."
3. "I'm waiting until they release Silverlight on Rails."
2. "It doesn't support COBOL for code-behind."
1. "I really prefer the concept of "Flash". No, I'm not a web developer. I'm a pervert."
By Billy Hollis
Billy Hollis is co-author of the first book ever published on Visual Basic. NET, VB.NET Programming on the Public Beta, from Wrox Press, as well as numerous other books and articles on .NET. Billy is also a member of the INETA (International .NET Association of user groups) speaker's bureau and speaks at user group meetings all over the country. |
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| | | INETA is spreading it's wings | |
This month, INETA would like to recognize the following individuals for new positions that they have specialized in as part of their leadership roles in INETA. Each has been selected based on their passions, hard work and dedication to the User Group Community. We are very excited to welcome aboard the following individuals: Mark Rosenberg
Border of Directors and VP of MembershipMark is our newest Board member as well as the VP of Membership for INETA. Mark Rosenberg has been a software developer for the last ten years. He has been working as a trainer for Quickstart Intelligence since April of 2007. Mark has been active in the local user group community for the last two years booking the speakers and being on the board for two user groups. He has been active in setting up and running two code camps per year, one in Orange County, CA and one in San Diego, CA. He has also been presenting talks for local user groups and at code camps for the last two years. Mark was influential in organizing the INETA Southern California Community Leadership Summit held in late September, 2007.
Ken TuckerMembership Mentor of FloridaKen is our new Membership mentor of Florida. If you are not already familiar with Ken, he is the President of the Space Coast .Net User Group and a frequent speaker at Florida Code Camps. Ken is also a Microsoft MVP in Visual Basic
Shawn WeisfeldDirector of Volunteer Recruitment
Shawn is our new Director of Volunteer Recruitment and will be working with the many volunteer teams in INETA. Shawn has held many roles in the community from past Membership Mentor to user group leader. Shawn is a Sr. Developer at an Orlando FL based fortune 100 company. There he specializes in intranet & smart client development for internal line of business applications. Besides his day job Shawn also is an Adjunct Professor at The Florida Institute of Technology and Seminole Community College. He also does freelance software development work for local small businesses and training. In his free time he volunteers as the President of the Orlando .NET users group and at other local charities and has earned the Presidents Volunteer service award, two years running. Shawn started his career at his family business in Port St. Lucie FL while working on his undergraduate degree in Business Administration at the University of Central Florida.
Teresa HennigDirector of Live ContentTeresa will now officially working with INETA Live and our User Groups in setting them up with LIVE accounts as well as helping them to record meetings for INETA LIVE. Teresa is also the president of the Pacific NW Access Developers Group and the Seattle Access Group. she run 24 meetings a year, publishes 2 monthly newsletters, maintain SeattleAccess.org, and does presentations. Her meetings offer technical & professional developments, networking and community support. Her philosophy is that "It's exciting to help others learn about Access and have opportunities that they otherwise would not have."
Chris WilliamsDirector of User Group RecruitmentChris Williams is a Technology Evangelist for Magenic. He is the founder of several .NET User Groups on the east coast, and most recently the Twin Cities XNA User Group and Twin Cities Developers Guild, both in Minneapolis, MN. He is a rabid blogger at BlogusMaximus.net and owner of www.ILoveVB.net. He's also a VB.NET MVP, MCT, MCSD (.NET) Early Adopter, MCAD, freelance game developer, occasional author, tech editor, code camp & user group speaker, vintage arcade game collector and plays a pretty mean guitar in Rock Band.
Stephen RoseINETA Project ManagerStephen Rose has spent the past 15 years working both as a trainer and consultant. I am a firm believer that a good teacher does what he teaches. He have taught for both private companies as well as state universities, is an MCSE for Windows 2003, 2000 and NT and specialize in network infrastructure design and server virtualization. You can read more about him at his
tech blog or his my
Fast Company blog |
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| | | UGTV | |
Be sure to watch the latest episode of UGTV. It covers the latest that is going on in the User Group Community including an interview with the leaders of INETA. There is no shortage of corny jokes, but IMHO they keep getting funnier. If you are new to User Group Television (UGTV
pronounced YOU GEE TEE VEE). It is a monthly video show dedicated to bringing informative programming to User Groups worldwide while providing Microsoft the ability to introduce up and coming information to user group communities as well as highlight our engagement with them. This episode includes more bad jokes from our anchors, interviews with UG leaders, a recap of April's MVP Summit and an interview with
INETA. (INETA's mission is to offer assistance and resources to community groups that promote and educate their membership in Microsoft's .NET technologies). And...the crème de la creme - introducing a new segment coming to UGTV. Next Month's show will include a recap of TechEd (and more corny jokes). UGTV is hosted by Michelle Fleming Toure and Alan le Marquand. Got Feedback? Email
ugtvplan@microsoft.com. Got Ideas? Email
ugtvidea@microsoft.com |
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| | | Finding and Keeping Volunteers | We are fortunate this month to have an article on Volunteering, written by Greg Low, who is world renowned as an authority on running successful user groups. Enjoy... I endlessly hear organizations complaining that they can't seem to find volunteers to help. A wise old saying is that the first step is to ask them. While that's true (as most people won't just volunteer themselves without prompting), I believe it's even more important that you have a clearly defined task for the volunteer to tackle. So rather than saying "we always need volunteers so if you want to help please call", you'd be better off saying "We need someone to process bounced emails. It's really important for us not to lose touch with our members. They really appreciate it when we go the extra mile for them. Typically this takes about one hour per week and helps us build our membership base by not losing existing members."
In other words, tell them what you need them to do, tell them how much effort is required and tell them why it matters in the first place. Importantly, you need the volunteer to also share your "big picture" of where you want the organization to go. It's much easier to get people to help you if they agree with where you're going.
About Greg Low Greg is an internationally recognized consultant, developer and trainer. He has been working in development since 1978, holds a PhD in Computer Science and a host of Microsoft certifications. Greg is one of only three Microsoft MSDN Regional Directors for Australia. Greg also hosts the popular
SQL Down Under podcast, organizes the SQL Down Under Code Camp and co-organizes CodeCampOz. He has been elected as a board member of PASS (the Professional Association of SQL Server). He is also the author of
"The Rational Guide to Building Technical User Communities", considered by some as the best resource out there for anybody running a User Community. |
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| | | TechEd Developers 2008 Birds-of-a-Feather Sessions a Success! | |
TechEd Developers 2008 Birds-of-a-Feather Sessions a Success!
A BOF discussion session
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Wednesday evening BOF Event food and "beverage"
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The "crew" at the BOF Raffle on Thursday
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The energetic BOF attendees vying for raffle prizes
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Once again INETA organized the community-led Birds-of-a-Feather Sessions (BOF) at TechEd Developers 2008 which were a resounding success! In case you are not familiar, BOF sessions are informal discussions on specific topics led by a volunteer moderator. At TechEd there were 38 BOF sessions including topics such as "Microsoft Silverlight vs. AJAX", "Going Solo", "Dynamic Languages and the DLR", and more. Wednesday June 4th was the special BOF Evening Event including 18 sessions, a great buffet dinner, and "beverages". This year Just-In-Time-BOF sessions were introduced at the Wednesday evening BOF Event where a designated room had six discussion areas for spur-of-the-moment topics. The BOF week was capped off by a raffle Thursday 6/5 at the INETA booth where an energetic crowd vied for a 28 great raffle prizes from our sponsors (Microsoft, INETA, Telerik, Infragistics, O'Reilly, Wintellect, and Addison-Wesley/Sams). Thanks to our 27 hosts and 33 moderators who volunteered their time to make Birds-of-a-Feather Sessions at TechEd Developers 2008 a success! The BOF Team (Stuart, Bob, Nancy, and Chris)
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| | | The Inetian presence at TechEd | |
The Inetian Presence at Tech EdEven before Tech Ed Dev week officially began, you could tell that the Inetian were making an impact - surpassing that of the Orlando heat. The kickoff was the Leadership Summit on Monday evening. Opening with great food and plenty of cold beverages, we quickly began making new friends and sharing tips. Then, Rob Zelt guided us into a new summit format. Each table got to identify a "challenge" for user groups. And wouldn't you know it, we then had to come up with strategies for solving the challenge and report back to the group. What a great way to optimize the expertise in the room! A dozen simultaneous brainstorming sessions! So, in less than one hour, we were able to come up with great ideas --- not only for those who were present, but that will be shared with all INETA members!
Of course, we also have the benefit of meeting representatives from several INETA sponsors, getting a few goodies, and teaming up to head out to Party with Palermo. Err ... but only after we hauled all the material down to the INETA lounge to be ready for the opening of Tech Ed - at a bright (literally) if not so early, 8 AM. And, that brings us to the popular INETA lounge, the hub of INETA Tech Ed presence, resting spot for volunteers, and a great place to network, learn about community and check on your schedule for booth duty and for BOF sessions. It was so skillfully managed by Nancy Mesquita, that it was truly the place to be, surpassed in popularity only by the MSDN bean bag lounge!
And, what would Tech Ed be without BOF? From rather stinted beginnings relegated to late night meetings, Bird of a Feather have flourished into requested and highly acclaimed sessions that are an integral part of the Tech Ed schedule. We had 40 sessions with over 70 BoF Moderators and Hosts! And these are all VOLUNTEERS! This isn't done for speaker fees and all expenses paid - these sessions were by the community and for the community! But, you already know, that's what INETA is all about!
Now, I gotta tell ya, one of my favorite highlights of this year's Tech Ed, was not only being a BOF host, but I got to step in and moderate a session when a speaker was unable to make it! What a blast! I so want to be a speaker and moderator next year! And, you could be to! That's the wonderful thing about INETA. The experience will be as great as you make it. Just get involved, and you learn that you can do anything! There's no need to wait for BoF sessions next year, you can volunteer now for any number of teams. What ever you do, be sure to look for INETA and user group communities as all the events, such as DevDays, MSDN, and Microsoft Launches. Stop by, say hi, learn more about the developer community. In addition to connections to great tech tips and resources, you just may walk away with new "friends for life."
Cheers
Teresa Hennig
Director, Live Content INETA
Microsoft MVP
President, PNWADG
President, SAG
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| | | Upcoming INETA Speaker Bureau Local Events | | Location | City | State | Speaker | When |
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| Oklahoma City .NET User Group | Oklahoma City | OK | Mark Dunn | 07/07/08 | | Florida .NET - Miramar | Miramar | FL | John Papa | 07/08/08 | | Dallas/Fort Work Connected Systems User Group | Irving | TX | Mark Dunn | 07/09/08 | | Philly .NET User Group | Dresher | PA | Billy Hollis | 07/16/08 | | San Gabriel Valley .NET Developers Group | Monrovia | CA | David Yack | 07/16/08 | | Boise .Net Developers User Group | Boise | ID | Kathleen Dollard | 07/17/08 | | San Diego .Net User Group | San Diego | CA | Caleb Jenkins | 07/22/08 | | Tech Valley .NET User Group | Clifton Park | NY | John Papa | 07/22/08 | | Wisconsin .NET Users Group | Madison | WI | Jeffrey Palermo | 08/12/08 | | Iowa .NET User Group | Des Moines | IA | Paul Sheriff | 08/13/08 | | TRINUG (Triangle Net User Group) | Cary | NC | Jeffrey Palermo | 08/13/08 | | Northwest Arkansas .NET User Group (NWADNUG) | Fayetteville | AR | Jeffrey Palermo | 08/14/08 | | Nashville Visual Studio .NET User Group (Nashville DevLink) | Nashville | TN | Ted Neward | 08/22/08 | |
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| | | Upcoming Regional Events | |
Second Life .NET User Group
When: Every Saturday, 3:00 EST
Where: In Second Life
Event URL:
http://www.sldnug.net The Second Life .NET User Group meets every Saturday. Can't make it to a local user group meeting? Don't have a local user group? Check their site for a list of topics -
http://www.sldnug.net/
Ann Arbor Give Camp
When: July 11th, 2008
Where: Ypsilanti, MI
Event URL:
http://annarborgivecamp.org/
Ann Arbor Give Camp is a unique weekend developer event designed to allow developers, designers, DBAs and web enthusiasts to donate their time and talent to developing applications for charities. Register today!
CodeStock When: August 9th, 2008
Where: Knoxville, TN
Event URL:
http://www.codestock.org
CodeStock's mission is to bring the best and brightest code experts to East Tennessee for a one day conference open to all developers. This is not a trade show with slick salesman giving prepared demos - this is a gathering of real programmers learning about the latest in technology from each other. Sign up now to learn how you can join us for CodeStock 2008! 
devLink 2008 conference
When: August 22 - 23, 2008
Where: Nashville, TN
Event Free Pass URL:
http://www.devlink.net/GetMyPass/tabid/89/Default.aspx
The devLink Technical Conference provides technical content of interest to Software Developers, Solution Architects, Database Administrators, Project Managers, Business Analysts, Technology Executives and IT professionals looking for the latest and greatest content. You will have the opportunity to learn from industry experts from around the world. You'll get cutting edge techniques to solve your development challenges today and build the next generation applications of tomorrow.
Get your pass today!
HDC08 - Minneapolis
When: September 28th, 2008
Where: Minneapolis
Event URL:
http://www.heartlanddc.com/
HDC08 is back again, bigger than ever, and is now in Minneapolis too! HDC (Heartland Developers Conference), the nation's largest independent professional Microsoft development conference is back for its 5th year anniversary! HDC has been a model for conference across the country and since its inception has been run and grown user group members in the Mid-West. Expecting nearly 1000 attendees this year, HDC is open for registration for both events. HDC is like PDC for the region providing national speakers, multiple networking events, and top class treatment just like the big boys. This year, in addition to the extremely successful Omaha,NE event, HDC is also throwing an event in Minneapolis for developers and community members in the Northern Mid-Western states. More information on both events can be found at
http://www.heartlanddc.com. HDC08: Minneapolis is scheduled for September 28th-30th, and HDC08: Omaha is slated for October 15th-17th. Sign up today before both events are sold out! |
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| | | A Word from the Marketing Team | |
TechEd has just passed and I hope that many people reading had an opportunity to attend. It was a tremendous event, IMHO. In past newsletters, we spoke about the many benefits of events like TechEd, specifically the networking opportunities that present themselves at the many parties and social gatherings. This month the word to remember is opportunity. One of the beautiful aspects of events like TechEd and PDC is that you can make your own opportunities. For example, if you want to start your own User Group, you have all of the people that can help you with that right there in the flesh. If you are interested in a venture that may involve Microsoft, some of the top people at Microsoft are at the conference. If you want to write or get published, you will find some of the top people at the most well known publishing companies that you can speak with. In short, if you have an idea, the opportunity to speak with the people that are in the best position to help make it happen is there for the taking. These types of situations don't happen everyday, so be sure to keep them in mind the next time a big event is in your calendar. The good news is that PDC and devConnections are right around the corner. If you want to make it happen, you certainly can! David Silverlight VP of Marketing, INETA |
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| | | Contacting INETA North America | |
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