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What a Year It Was |
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It’s hard to believe that we’ve reached the end of yet another year. I think
it’s fair to say that 2009 has certainly been an adventure for most of us.
During the year we have seen a large number of new groups form, targeting a variety of interests as well as an increase in attendance as people turn toward their local communities as a valuable learning resource. Our peers continue to be one of the best learning and motivational resources available to us.
With 2010 comes a new wave of technology releases from Microsoft including Visual Studio 2010 and an associated new release of Microsoft
.NET 4.0, forcing us all to continue learning. We’re looking forward to a number of exciting opportunities for local speakers and communities to get involved in launch events and other activities.
As we reflect on where we are and where we are heading, I just want to take a minute and thank everybody for the contributions they make in supporting both INETA
and the local user group communities that we strive to support, both of which
are made possible only through countless volunteer hours. To everyone involved,
thank you! We also could not do without our valued sponsors, both large and small. Thank you for the support you give us as individuals and through your organizations.
On behalf of the entire INETA North America Board of Directors, I would like
to wish you a happy and safe holiday season, and we look forward to sharing an exciting 2010 with you!
Sincerely,
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Birds-of-a-Feather Sessions @ PDC09 a Resounding Success! |
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Many of the Birds-of-a-Feather (BOF) sessions at the Microsoft PDC09 were standing room only and there was lively discussion on a wide variety of topics, which can be viewed here. The BOF discussion sessions are organized entirely by volunteers from the community and our thanks go out to this year's volunteers that helped make these sessions a huge success! In addition, the community members who acted as hosts to lead the discussions did a great job and we thank them for their interest and time as well.
INETA will be organizing BOF sessions at Tech·Ed next June 7-11, 2010, in New Orleans so watch the INETA newsletter for details on submitting a session proposal and volunteering to help organize the sessions.
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Community Champion Deadline This Month |
 | Just a reminder that you should submit your entries for Community Champs. The fourth quarter draws to a close at the end of this month. Don't miss your chance to be recognized for all you do for your local community. Or nominate your local community hero. Enter your tasks at the Champs website.
The deadline is December 31, 2009 and covers your activities between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2009, meaning you can submit everything you have done for your user group community during this time period. |
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PDC 2009 |
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Thanks to INETA, I was able to experience my first big conference this year at Microsoft's PDC. I really didn't know what to expect. I asked other developers before I left but nothing quite prepared me for the hugeness of the experience. Even the conference center itself was monstrous as it is over 400,000 square feet. About 1000 or so people came to the keynote the first morning, we learned about some of the new initiatives coming from Microsoft, such as their Dallas project - a data repository, and a lot about the latest advances in cloud computing in Azure. I was glad to hear that Azure was now supporting SQL Server, and surprised to hear that they were now supporting MySQL and Postgres.
The Expo center was an interesting place to visit. There were booths from all sorts of developer tool and book companies, such as Infragistics,
Dev Express, and O'Reilly. I found the best part of it, however, were the
product team booths where folks who worked on the frameworks and languages that
I use daily were available to answer any questions. This level of
accessibility was great and I got many questions answered. They also
hosted chalk talks in the Expo hall, which were an awesome way to learn something in a small group of other people and to have close interaction with the speakers.
The larger talks happened in the rooms throughout the conference hall. I attended a few of these including a very interesting MEF talk by Glenn Beck, however, since these are put online immediately after the conference I focused more on the things that were onsite. The BOF sessions were great to watch. I saw a few of those and saw some great debates.
In the end I met all three of my goals: I learned about what was upcoming, and I finally grok F# and MEF and know their applications. I loved this experience, and can't wait until next year.
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More Azure Resources |
Windows Azure Platform
Videos
- “What is Azure?” whiteboard videos
Training Kit
Online Resources
Windows Azure
SQL Azure
Online Resources
Windows Identity Foundation (formerly Geneva)
Training Kit
- Go to Vittorio Bertocci’s informative blog posting Windows Identify Foundation Training kit – http://bit.ly/WIFinfo
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Tech·Ed North America 2010 Returns to New Orleans |
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Upcoming Speaker Bureau Events |
| .Net Gold Coast Users Group of South Florida | Boca Raton | FL | Tim Huckaby | 12/04/09 |
| SouthBayNet Users Group | Richmond | CA | Claudio Lassala | 12/08/09 |
| WNC .NET Developers Guild | Arden | NC | Jason Bock | 12/08/09 |
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Contacting INETA North America |
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