Craig Bailey on Microsoft

This Wed at the Sydney Business & Technology User Group (SBTUG) we're lucky enough to have Bob McGilvray and Tatham Oddie presenting.

When: This Wed 25 June 2008

• Time: 6pm (until approx 8:30pm)
• Where: Microsoft, North Ryde
• Contact: Craig Bailey : 0413 489 388
• Cost: Free (Pizza all provided)

Plus:

• Prize: Full version of Visual Studio 2008 Standard & Windows Server 2008 Enterprise
• Details: full details on the SBTUG site

Details of presentations

How to manage Outsourcing by Bob McGilvray
In this presentation Bob covers his experiences with outsourcing large software projects to overseas development teams. Bob will be covering the benefits, problems and techniques for managing an outsourced development.
Bob will present some basic facts about Outsourcing of development staff worldwide, and will give you some insight into the advantages and pitfalls of using overseas development staff, based on his own experiences to date.

About Bob
Bob left the British Army in 1986 and set up as a one man band developing database systems in the UK for HIV and Drug & Alcohol Treatment Clinics. Working in Clipper then Foxbase, Bob's very limited technical and programming experience resulted in an offer of help from  Bulgarian IT firm JEI being readily accepted. 6 months later, JEI attempted to double its charging rates overnight and was was promptly fired - and Bob's firm then individually hired the developers from JEI, all of who work for Bob's firm Coomasis Ltd.
Coomasis has a support base in England, its development team based throughout Bulgaria, and is managed from Batemans Bay. It is on the UK's major suppliers of systems for Drug & Alcohol agencies with over 200 agencies using its products.

Overview of ASP.NET MVC by Tatham Oddie
MVC Framework In this session Tatham introduces the MVC design pattern and then explains Microsoft's ASP.NET implementation. The presentation will be high level, covering where MVC is beneficial, where it is inappropriate, and why you would consider it in your business.
Here's the full description: The release of Microsoft’s ASP.NET MVC framework is rapidly approaching, and now is the time for businesses to start evaluating how it can be applied in their organisations. Come along for an interactive discussion around the benefits that MVC brings to the table, the differences between MVC and Web Forms and the ongoing roadmap for each.

About Tatham
Based in Sydney, Australia, Tatham divides his time between his role as a Senior Consultant with Readify, and working on his own businesses.

Facebook

Don’t forget, if you haven't already, you can join the SBTUG group on Facebook.

And please RSVP for Wed night’s event here. This helps us know how many people are coming (for catering).

Twitter

Last but not least, you can always follow us on Twitter here.

A big thank you to Aaron Saikovski for presenting on Groove and Catherine Eibner for demo-ing the MERGE keyword in SQL 2008.

Andrew Coates and Roger Lawrence looked after us with their usual passion and generosity (and Rog videoed the demo).

In case you didn't know we post the news (and presentations if possible) on the SBTUG site - they are there going back to May last year.

But, following Justin King's lead I've extracted the news links from last week's preso and listed them here:

General Microsoft news

•Demos Happen Here

•Microsoft & Yahoo still searching for a sale

•Microsoft World Wide Telescope

•Live Mesh

•Released:

–Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Beta

–.NET Framework 3.5 SP1 Beta

–ASP.NET MVC Preview 3 released

More Microsoft news

•Microsoft IE8 Beta 2 not coming until Q3

•Windows 7 details aren’t appearing...

–Sinofsky interview on Windows 7

•Live Search Cashback thingo

•Exchange hosting to trend up

•Microsoft Office Live 1.1 Update

•Microsoft adding 10,000 servers per month

•Microsoft Touchwall

Technology news

•Web 2.0 fails to produce cash

•Borders returning to online retailing

•The internet is about giving up control

•Facebook platform going Open Source

•Yandex – 3rd largest search engine in Europe

•Cloud computing growth rates

•Data portability wars start

•Google Health launches

Buying spree

•Comcast buys Plaxo

•Conde Nast buys Ars Technica

•CBS buys CNET

Tool of the month

•Foxit PDF Reader

See you next month.

This Wed at the Sydney Business & Technology User Group (SBTUG) we're lucky enough to have Aaron Saikovski along to bring us up to speed on all things Microsoft Groove related. Oh, and check out the prizes...

When: This Wed 28 May 2008

• Time: 6pm (until approx 8:30pm)
• Where: Microsoft, North Ryde
• Contact: Craig Bailey : 0413 489 388
• Cost: Free (Pizza all provided)

Plus:

• Prize: Full version of Visual Studio 2008 Standard & Windows Server 2008 Enterprise
• Guest: Special guest appearance by a little rubber version of the Channel 9 guy
• Details: full details on the SBTUG site

Details of presentations

Aaron Saikovski (Senior Solutions Specialist with Strategic Data Management) will introduce Microsoft Office Groove 2007.
Groove is a way of allowing collaboration in your enterprise without having to rely on SharePoint. In this presentation we talk about how to integrate Groove into your enterprise and what is needed and how it can be used effectively for both connected, disconnected and even remote users. We discuss the architecture, security and the business benefits of the product.

Catherine Eibner will be giving a 10 minute demo of her favourite Microsoft 2008 stack feature during our Member Spot.

If you are still happy to continue on after our pizza break then :-)

Craig Bailey (Technical Director at Elcom) will be giving part 2 of a high level overview of the Microsoft 2008 Stack including Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008. He will be outlining the business benefits of each product (as opposed to just a feature review) including examples of how Elcom has gained from using them.

Facebook

Don’t forget, if you haven't already, you can join the SBTUG group on Facebook.

And please RSVP for Wed night’s event here. This helps us know how many people are coming (for catering).

Twitter

Last but not least, you can always follow us on Twitter here.

We've had a last minute change to tonight's meeting.

Unfortunately Mitch Denny has had to pull out (due to illness), but in his place Richard Banks will be presenting.

His session will be covering Agile Project Management.

Richard is a Principal Consultant at Readify and a Certified Scrum Master.

Full details are available on the SBTUG site here.

(Note: my session on the 2008 Stack remains unchanged)

As an added incentive to attend tonight we will have some great prizes. Schnubbs will handing out the following:

• A copy of Vista Ultimate
• A copy of Windows Server 2008 Enterprise + Visual Studio 2008 Standard
• 2 Microsoft Exam vouchers

This Wednesday 30 April 2008 at the Sydney Business & Technology User Group (SBTUG) we've got another great meeting organised.

This month: The Evolution of Enterprise Software Development presented by Mitch Denny.

• When: This Wed 30 April 2008
• Time: 6pm (until approx 8:30pm)
• Where: Microsoft, North Ryde
• Contact: Craig Bailey : 0413 489 388
• Cost: Free (Pizza all provided)

Plus:

• Prize: Full version of Visual Studio 2008 Professional & Windows Server 2008 Standard
• Guest: Special guest appearance by Schnubbs
• Details: full details on the SBTUG site

Sessions

Mitch Denny (Principal Consultant at Readify) will be leading a discussion on The Evolution of Enterprise Software Development. Current forces in the industry are challenging our traditional (and even not so traditional) approaches to developing software to meet business requirements. In this session Mitch will introduce one way that he has been approaching some internal systems development problems at Readify and looks how this approach could be used within your organisation to deliver greater business value through technology.

Craig Bailey (Technical Director at Elcom) will be giving a high level overview of the Microsoft 2008 Stack including Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008. He will be outlining the business benefits of each product (as opposed to just a feature review) including examples of how Elcom has gained from using them.

Prizes

We have some great prizes this meeting and in upcoming meetings. This month we have a full version of Visual Studio 2008 Professional and Windows Server 2008 Standard to give away!

All you need to do is hand in your business card and we'll be picking a winner at the end of the night.

Member spot

Plus, we’ll have a quick ‘Member Spot’ – this is a new item each meeting where we get to meet one of the SBTUG members and find out a bit more about who they are and what they do.

Schnubbs

Schnubbs will be attending - make sure you come along and get your photo with him.

Facebook

Don’t forget, if you haven't already, you can join the SBTUG group on Facebook.

And please RSVP for Wed night’s event here. This helps us know how many people are coming (for catering).

Twitter

Last but not least, you can always follow us on Twitter here.

I'm heading home from the US of A today, which sees me arrive back in Sydney (hopefully) on Thursday morning 24 April.

CodeCampOz

The next day I head down to Wagga for CodeCampOz. That finishes up on Sunday (27 April) and I fly back to Sydney that night.

Elcom

On Monday I'm back in the office, ready to start spreading the good news to the team (within NDA guidelines of course - the best comment I read on Twitter regarding disclosure was this: What happens in Seattle, stays in Seattle).

It's going to be an interesting week. We've been working through the Elcom strategy lately, and it's time to change gears a little. The MVP Summit couldn't have come at a better time.

SBTUG

Next Wednesday (30 April) we've got the Sydney Business & Technology User Group (SBTUG) on. Mitch Denny is presenting on the Evolution of Enterprise Software Development. This will be interesting for all attendees since Mitch is such a thinker as well as accomplished developer. More details here.

Perhaps not quite so interesting (and hence why I'm presenting second - you can leave after half-time pizza if you like) will be my presentation on the Microsoft 2008 stack. I say 'perhaps' because if you have been caught up in all the recent launch events then you'll know pretty much everything I'll be covering.

It'll be a high level overview of Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008. It'll be focused on business benefits of these products, as opposed to just highlighting features, and I promise not to get caught up doing marketecture fluff. It'll be looking at things like the differences between Windows Standard and Web Server editions, the benefits of IIS7, What it means to 'target' different Framework versions, Why spatial data types are important and things like that.

At our last meeting there were a number of people who requested more information on the stack, so my session aims to introduce it all. In future meetings we'll drill into a little more detail.

But make sure you come for Mitch Denny's session.

This Wednesday we’ve got another great Sydney Business & Technology User Group (SBTUG) lined up.

This month: Unified Communications: What is it, and why does it matter? Presented by Craig Pringle.

• When: This Wed 26 March 2008
• Time: 6pm (until approx 8:30pm)
• Where: Microsoft, North Ryde
• Contact: Craig Bailey : 0413 489 388
• Cost: Free (Pizza all provided)

Sessions

Craig Pringle (Unified Communications Practice Leader at Gen-i Australia) will be explaining why Unified Communications (UC) is getting so much attention right now.

Microsoft is making a big push into the UC space, and this session will give you an overview of what UC is, why it matters and how it applies to your business. He’ll also be covering some of the pitfalls with adopting this latest technology. More details...

Wave Launch recap

Prior to Craig’s talk I’ll be giving a quick recap of the Microsoft 2008 stack launch that happened around the country (and the world) these past few weeks. I’ll quickly cover what was included in the release and the main benefits as they apply to various businesses.

I’ll then be opening the meeting to discussion about how we shape SBTUG for the remainder of the year. Speaking with many of you lately there’s plenty of great ideas flowing. So, I’m asking for your help in organising the group better as we proceed.

Plus, we’ll have a quick ‘Member Spot’ – this is a new item each meeting where we get to meet one of the SBTUG members and find out a bit more about who they are and what they do.

And as usual we’ll be having our monthly News roundup from 6pm.

New SBTUG web site

Check out the revamped SBTUG web site.

We’ve made it into a Wiki, which means anyone can edit the pages (after simple Registration). Please feel free to contribute to the site.

Facebook

Don’t forget, if you haven't already, you can join the SBTUG group on Facebook.

And please RSVP for Wed night’s event here. This helps us know how many people are coming (for catering).

Twitter

Last but not least, you can always follow us on Twitter here.

We've been working on a new site for SBTUG. Check it out here.

The new site is a Wiki and allows anyone to make changes (simple registration required). The aim over the coming months is to build into a much more community driven site (to date it has been static and updated by me once a month). But there's so many smart, generous people in the group who have useful stuff to share that we wanted to allow that side of the group.

Our next meeting is on 26 March 2008 with Craig Pringle presenting on Unified Communications.

The site uses the most excellent ScrewTurn Wiki.

btw want to see something funky? Resize your browser once the site has loaded - yep, weird huh?

Another monster meeting at SBTUG this month.

Presentations

Our first presentation has Mike Culver (Amazon Evangelist) talking about Amazon Web Services. Come along and learn how more than a quarter of a million developers are taking advantage of building applications on the back of Amazon's infrastructure.

Following Mike will be Steve Riley, Senior Security Strategist with Microsoft, talking about all things security related in Windows 2008.

[This month's meeting is combined with the Sydney .NET User Group]

Details

Date: Wed 27 February 2008

Time: 5:45pm

Venue: Microsoft, 1 Epping Road, North Ryde (Map)

Contact: call me on 0413 489 388 if you have any questions

Further details

• Facebook event
• Facebook group
• SBTUG web site 
• The 'Convince Andrew Coates to join Facebook' group :-)

Last year the wonderful Laurel Papworth blew us away at SBTUG with a presentation on Social networking.

In the course of her presentation she mentioned the whole mesh network concept (eg Meraki). I truly had tingles down my spine when I heard about the concept.

Thanks to Laurel for this post in which she highlights the news of mesh networks coming to Sydney real soon. See http://blog.freesydneywireless.com/