For many years INETA has been organizing the popular Birds-of-a-Feather (BOF) sessions at TechEd and other conferences. These are informal, open discussions on any technology related topic led by a volunteer moderator.

This year, volunteers from INETA in conjunction with Culminis are organizing what should be a great set of BOF sessions. There will be sessions during the daytime and once again a special BOF evening event on Wednesday 5/13/2009.

Proposals are now being accepted for people to moderate BOF sessions at TechEd 2009 in Los Angeles from May 11-15 ^th. The community will vote on the proposals until 3/21. Take advantage of this great opportunity to lead a discussion on a topic of interest with your peers. Visit https://www.msteched.com/modules/bof/submit.aspx/ for information on how to submit a session proposal. Deadline is Monday, 3/9/2009.

IE 8 RC1 is here.  Are you ready? Joe Shirley, Technical Evangelist from Microsoft gives us another look-see into the upcoming platform for our .NET solutions.

Feeling altruistic but not ready to join the Peace Corp?  Check out the article on Geeks without Borders.

Events in this newsletter's spot light include DevConnections in Orlando, Online session from the Microsoft Patterns & Practices group and MIX09 in Vegas where what happens there will actually be worth taking back with you.

We announce the winners of the INETA Community Champions Awards while reminding folks that nominations are being taken for our board through the end of February.

There is also a survey request from Microsoft and our usual list of Speaker Bureau events from all over. For more information see our contact links at the end of the newsletter.

Over the past couple of years the browser has become one of the most critical components of our daily computing experiences. With Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) Microsoft has invested heavily in a couple of different areas to improve the user experience as well as provide additional features that can be taken advantage of by web site developers.

A couple of examples of these areas include:

• Accelerators: Most people who do anything on the web have become accustomed to copy/paste navigation. For example, you may be looking at a product on Target's site, but would like to know what the Amazon reviews for the product say. The traditional way to do this would be to copy the product name, navigate to Amazon, and then paste the product name in the search box on Amazon and click search. With IE8 when you select any text, a context menu appears with a number of accelerators that will perform all of these steps for you, some of them with previews of the results. Developers can write their own accelerators to help their customers more easily navigate to their web sites. You can find more information about writing accelerators on MSDN.

• Web Slices: Part of many people's web based activities include navigating to the same page/information over and over. It could be keeping up with friend's updates on Facebook or checking the latest bids on an eBay auction. In most cases the user only cares when a portion of the web page is updated. Web Slices live in the favorites bar of IE and will notify the user that the information has been updated. The user can view the changes without actually navigating to the web site itself. MSDN has information on writing your own Web Slices for your site.

As web technologies have grown up over the years, many sites have been written that do not conform to the standards. Browsers were written to account for these sites. With IE8, Microsoft has focused on standards compliance in rendering. This will be good over the long term because it will ensure that most sites will render with any browser instead of specific browsers. From a developer standpoint it will make a life a lot easier because the developers can code to the specification rather than specific browser nuances. However, in the short term, this may cause some sites to render improperly in IE8.

To help with this transitional period, IE8 includes an IE7 compatibility mode to render sites that aren't standards compatible. This can be applied by the end user to specific sites or the web site owner can add tags that force IE to render in compatibility mode. To better understand this and obtain more information see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288325(VS.85).aspx. With the IE8 beta already in the wild, it is recommended that web site developers start understanding if their sites are compatible today and take action.

For more information on IE8 see the following links:

• IE8 Home Page (includes links to download the beta)

• IE8 Team Blog

• IE Developer Center on MSDN

Joe Shirey
Senior Architect Evangelist

Denver, CO | Microsoft Corp.
http://www.joeshirey.com | Microsoft Certified Architect

Calling all web designers and web developers - it's time to show how much you <3 Your Web, and MIX09 is the place to do it.

At MIX, you'll get access to the tools, knowledge, and vision to create the next generation of UX, applications, and web design. You'll also have an opportunity to exchange ideas with fellow designers and developers (representing some of the world's top sites and interactive agencies) and network with Microsoft's thought-leaders in the web space.

New Keynote Speaker!

Innovation Luminary, Bill Buxton, Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research will Keynote at MIX09! Bill has made landmark contributions to the fields of human-computer interaction, computer graphics and the application of technology to design, filmmaking and music! Don't miss this keynote!

Explore MIX09's largest release of new sessions to date! Content is King at MIX09 with sessions covering topics and technologies such as web standards, developer and designer workflow, Silverlight, Internet Explorer 8, WPF, the Microsoft modeling platform, Expression, SharePoint and much more!

Don't miss out on the chance to save $400 on MIX09 registration!  Register by February 13 ^th!

MIX09 Dates: March 18-20, 2009; Pre-Event Workshops on March 17
MIX Location: The Venetian Las Vegas
Learn more:  http://www.visitmix.com/2009

And, there's a special offer for User Group leaders to earn passes. First you have to register to obtain a unique discount code for your group. It's good for $200 off the regular conference price. Register your group by sending an e-mail request to Joan@DevConnections.com. Now, here's the good part. For every 3 paid attendees that register with your group's discount code, your group will earn a free conference pass for your user group. There's no limit to how many you can earn.

Call 800-438-6720 or visit www.DevConnections.com

Coders For Charities - April 24-26, Kansas City, MO

Coders For Charities is a 3-day charity event that pairs charities and local software developers. Charities often do not have the funds to implement a new website or intranet or database solution. Software developers often do not volunteer for charities because their skills do not apply. This event is the perfect marriage of these two needs; software developers volunteering their time to help charities better serve their community though the latest technology!

For more information, contact Doug Butscher ( doug@coders4charities.org) or visit http://coders4charities.org.

There's another new entity on the interwebs, Geeks Without Borders.

Founded by Inland Empire .NET User's Group President, James Johnson, and driven by a renewed sense of volunteerism, Geeks Without Borders is a social network of concerned people who realize the potential and promise of technology, and work together devising unique ways to distribute technology - hardware, software, training and support - to areas of the world less technologically fortunate than where the typical technology worker resides, and generally are taken for granted. As James mentions on the group's web site, " Consider though, how what we have would benefit and improve the lives of those living in areas where the dream of technology is just that - a dream."

While the idea has been brewing in James' mind for years, the Geeks Without Borders website launched in mid-January, 2009, and by the end of the month, 40 people had joined and are contributing to the discussions and momentum of the organization. As a social network, each member brings their own unique experiences, ideas, skills and other references to the mix so the network as a whole becomes a vibrant community. Membership in the organization is not just limited to technical people. Anyone passionate about helping others is encouraged and invited to join, as the group needs members experienced in logistics, non-profit organizations, legal issues, as well as technical training and all things geeky.

Currently the group is working on two projects. The La Medalla Milagrosa Girl's School in Santa Ana, El Salvador, and the Zambian .NET User's Group. The computer lab at La Medalla Milagrosa consists of obsolete equipment and GWOB is collecting late model hardware to upgrade the lab. The Zambian .NET User's Group is the first .NET User Group in Africa, and the members are passionate about learning all things .NET. However the IT infrastructure in Zambia is similar to how the United States was in the 1980's, slow bandwidth and limited online learning resources. GWOB is working to send books and training videos to the group, and is collecting donations for shipments.

For more information, visit the Geeks Without Borders web site at http://www.geeks-without-borders.org

Microsoft has requested our help in running a survey for them. This satisfaction survey is intended to identify what benefits you and your members get from the user group community and how INETA and Microsoft can be as effective as possible in supporting you as a user group leader. This is a good opportunity to tell Microsoft what you think and how they can help you better. We are looking for at least a thousand responses by the end of February from a mix of user group leaders and members, so we would ask that you complete the survey as a user group leader and also get a few of your members to do the same. Note that the survey is completely anonymous unless you specifically enter your contact details.

To complete the survey, which should only take five to ten minutes, please go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=hC3FTQq6J1GWrD4GTq1MzA_3d_3d