General Interest

GiveCamps

Chris Williams — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:33:23 GMT

Since the new issue of Code Magazine is hitting the stands any day now, I'll go ahead and post my article on Give Camps from the previous issue.

GiveCamps

Chris Williams

This month I’m going to take a brief departure and talk about the growing phenomenon in the developer community known as GiveCamps. If you’ve never heard of these, keep reading (you better keep reading either way, bub).

What Exactly Is a GiveCamp?

GiveCamps are the brainchild of Microsoft Central Region Developer Evangelist Chris Koenig. A quick trip to the GiveCamp.org FAQ says that GiveCamps are “a weekend-long event where software developers, designers, and database administrators donate their time to create custom software for non-profit organizations.” This sounded like a pretty cool idea to me, so I reached out to a few of the folks that have organized GiveCamps recently and got their take on the how and why behind their events.

How Do You Host a GiveCamp?

There are three key factors to hosting a GiveCamp. You need one or more charities in need of help, a group of volunteers (this includes developers, DBAs, designers and possibly more depending on what you’re making) and you need a place to host the event. Sponsors are nice too, but not absolutely essential.

Some of you may cry foul on this last comment, and say sponsors are absolutely essential. That’s fine if you can get them, but don’t let lack of sponsorship keep you from moving forward. People can always come up with their own lunch, just like they do every other day of the week.

Let me go into a little more detail on the three factors I just mentioned:

Charities Surprisingly, finding a charity to benefit from your efforts isn’t as easy as you might think. Not everyone understands what you’re trying to accomplish or has a need that can be addressed in three days. Still, with persistence and a lot of legwork you can usually find at least one charity that is excited to work with you. For those of you who like numbers, here’s an interesting one: in Dallas alone, nearly 60 charities over three years have been served with new Web applications. If you look at all the GiveCamps across the U.S. that number jumps to over 200!
Volunteers You’re going to need a lot of people to pull this off successfully. Not just IT folks either. An event like this takes a lot of coordination and it’s definitely not a one person show. You need someone to contact the charities, someone to coordinate the volunteer effort, someone to locate a place to have the event and all the logistics that go with that. You need people to promote the event and of course you need lots and lots of people to do the actual project development work.As I mentioned above, you’re going to need designers, DBAs and (please forgive me) developers, developers, developers! You might also benefit from a business analyst or two to make sure you are actually building something that resembles what the charity expects.Also, and this is important, remember you are dealing with volunteers. Sometimes work life or even good weather can wreck the best of plans. You’re going to have some people drop off at the last minute, so aim for more people than you need and you just might end up with enough. (Extra people can always find SOMETHING to do.)
Location You can have charities coming out of the woodwork and volunteers lined up around the block, but if you don’t have a place to hold your event then it’s a bust. When looking for a location, there are a handful of things to keep in mind. You need a place where people can work comfortably for long hours (remember this is often a three day - all day event) so proper lighting, ventilation, decent chairs, etc., are a must. White boards are also handy. If you are fortunate enough to have multiple teams working on projects for different charities, then you may also need separate spaces. Finding all of these requirements for free can be difficult!Try your local training centers, colleges, consulting companies and of course Microsoft. If at all possible, this should be one of the first details you nail down, before even approaching the charities and volunteers.

Why Host a GiveCamp?

If you’re looking for something to do that potentially has a huge impact on other people, you really can’t go wrong with hosting or supporting a GiveCamp.

By making it easier for charities to help other people, you’re really getting a maximum return on your efforts. Not only do you get a chance to do something good for your community, but the charities are also immensely grateful as well. (Let’s be honest, charity work doesn’t look bad on the old resume either, no matter whether you’re organizing or volunteering.)

I’d like to thank Chris Koenig, Chris Woodruff and Donn Felker for their invaluable insights into GiveCamps, which made writing this article possible.

For more information on GiveCamps, please visit http://www.givecamp.org

Devs For Wendy

Chris Williams — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 15:53:06 GMT

If you're in the NYC area, please consider donating to or participating in Devs For Wendy. (http://devsforwendy.com)

If you aren't in the NYC area, please consider donating anyway to this good cause.

You've got questions? These guys have answers...

Chris Williams — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 03:47:54 GMT

I'm sure most of you reading this have heard of, seen or actively used Stack Overflow. If you're like me, you probably thought to yourself... this would be such a great resource for other stuff... like games.

Fortunately, that's exactly what www.SmarterGamer.com is. Quite literally, it's StackOverflow for gamers. It doesn't matter if you're into board games, video games, card games, minis games or those weird games you used to play with your older cousin when your mom wasn't home (ok, maybe not THOSE games...)

Whatever your game, SmarterGamer is the place for you to ask questions and get answers.

Much like StackOverflow, there is a system of point rewards, badges, reputation, etc. It's good stuff. After all, why mess with a system that works?

UGSS / INETA .net user group support kits have arrived

Chris Williams — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:07:57 GMT

After a lengthy break, the user group support kits from Microsoft have resumed. FedEx dropped off a big white box this morning, so if you are still awaiting yours... it should be there when you get home from work (or maybe in the next couple days.)

User Group leaders didn't have the option of picking and choosing the contents for this cycle (or any future cycles, I would assume...) but don't fret, the contents are quite good. Assuming all the "Dev Group" kits are identical, this is what you can expect:

5 copies of Windows 7 Ultimate
3 copies of Office 2007 Standard
1 (180 day trial) of Windows Server 2008 R2
3 Arc Mouses (mice? meese? mooses?)
3 Silverlight 3 books
3 Developing Service Oriented AJAX Apps books
1 Microsoft Online Services offering
1 Free Camtasia License (couldn't actually find this in the box)
1 BI Resource Kit
1 Microsoft Directions book
1 Word of Mouth Marketing book (which I am REALLY excited to read)
1 Building Technical User Communities Book
miscellaneous buttons and pins

So, like I said... some good stuff!! I look forward to hearing your thoughts about it.

What's new in VB 2010

Chris Williams — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:35:30 GMT

Hello VB Folks,

These sessions are designed to be a primer for getting started using various features in Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0. (Yes, some have already occurred... you can still watch them, just not live.)

·         Nov 3rd 10:00-11:00AM -Getting Started with IntelliTrace (formerly the “Historical Debugger”) by Habib Heydarian and Justin Marks
·         Nov 4th 10:00-11:00AM - Getting Started with SharePoint Development in Visual Studio 2010 by Boris Scholl
·         Nov 5th 9:00am-10:00am - A Lap Around Visual Basic in Visual Studio 2010 by Lisa Feigenbaum
·         Nov 5th 10:00am-11:00am - Getting Started with Managed Extensibility Framework by Glen Block
·         Nov 6th 10:00-11:00AM - Getting started with Design and Discovery Tools (Architecture) by Mark Groves

All times listed are PST and all these sessions will use the same LiveMeeting connection information.

LiveMeeting:
https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/0000000379_103/join?id=76P755&role=attend&pw=p%2C%2Fzk2K%7CM

Conf call:
Toll Free (US Only): 866-500-6738
Toll: 203-480-8000
Participant code: #198585

WPF / Silverlight Tooling Quick Poll
Finally, Mark Wilson-Thomas put together a few follow-up questions after last week’s WPF / Silverlight tooling session. If you would like to volunteer answers to these questions please email Mark at mwthomas@microsoft.com. And as always, lots of great WPF/Silverlight designer discussions taking place in the forums.

1.       Do you see yourself using Visual Studio 2010’s WPF and Silverlight tooling to build a line of business application in the next 6-12 months?
2.       Do the features for building these applications make sense to you?
3.       Is there anything clearly missing from the tooling in Visual Studio 2010 for getting the job of building line of business applications missing that you would like to see? If so what is it?
4.       Do you intend to try the Beta 2 release? If you’ve already tried it, what did you make of the WPF and Silverlight designer features?

Mark would love to hear your answers!

Worldwide numbers for the Extra Credit Homework
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Dublin (Non-VoIP):+353 1247 5443

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Milan:+39 027039 2888

Japan
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Seoul:+82 2 531 4999

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Japanese Bug Fights

Chris Williams — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 14:08:03 GMT

What's that, you say? You've never heard of Japanese Bug Fighting? The Bumfights of the Insect world?

Imagine this... 30 ROUNDS (yes, that's right THIRTY ROUNDS) of 1 on 1 fights to the death... all building up to the FINAL BATTLE!!

Check it out: http://www.japanesebugfights.com

If this isn't the coolest thing you've ever seen, well... then I want to see what is.

I bet the PETA people just love this (and if they don't care... then I guess they're hypocrites... I dunno.)

Geek Cruise - Floating Tech Conference

Chris Williams — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 22:04:14 GMT

I'm throwing this post out here for you folks to think about and provide me some input/feedback.

I'm considering putting together another event: A Geek Cruise... Somewhere between Code Camp and Conference, on a big ship, with large fruity drinks and foreign port visits.

Here's what I have so far:

Duration: 3 days
Location: Caribbean
Depart From: Miami, FL (probably)
Date: TBD (probably fall... these things take time to plan)
Speakers: TBD (but I have a few volunteers so far)
Cost: TBD (hopefully < $500)
Speaker Benefit: TBD (maybe free cruise, maybe subsidized)

Typically, a 3 day cruise will have at least two port visits (not counting departure and return port.) When we're in port, everyone can go off and do whatever they want (some planned and unplanned excursions will also be available) When we're out to sea, at least part (most) of the time, we'll have sessions running on a variety of topics.

Most cruise ships also have plenty of things for family members to do while your off learning about (insert topic here) so bringing them along is certainly worth considering and just might earn you enough brownie points to compensate for that trip to vegas with your friends.

It's still VERY early in the planning stages, but I think there is a lot of potential here... if we can find the right balance between cost and value.

I'm really interested in what people think about the idea and I'm totally open to suggestions, so please leave your comments (publicly, so others may respond to them) If you're interested in speaking, sponsoring or attending I want to hear from you.

eXtreeeeeeeme Project Management

Chris Williams — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:41:44 GMT

In addition to learning WWF (that's Windows Workflow Foundation, Paul) I'm also reading a book given to me at the client, titled: eXtreme Project Management.

I haven't read any PM books before, and I've only just started this one. The intent is for me to read, discuss and learn, so I figure why not open it up to a broader audience and see what you think too...

1) Have any of you read this book? It's by Doug DeCarlo, published in 2004.

2) If you have, what did you think?

3) Whether you have or not, if you know a thing or two about eXtreme Project Management vs Traditional Project Management... feel free to speak up as well.

Thanks!

edit: AaronE has a relevant blogpost here that is worthwhile reading.

Kansas City Day of .NET

Chris Williams — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:35:53 GMT

If you're in the Kansas City area and you haven't heard about Kansas City Day of .NET (or KCDODN) then you're missing out.

KCDODN is Saturday, December 6th at the Centriq Training center. (Go here to register...)

Looks like 4 tracks of .NET Developer goodness, including a session by yours truly. GWB'ers Jeff and John will be there as well... so come say hi if you're there.

Kansas City Day of Dot Net
	Development	Architecture	SharePoint	Special Interest
8:00am - 9:00am	Registration & Breakfast
9:00am - 10:15am	Russell Ball Increasing developer productivity with ReSharper	Raymond Magness The Idea Exchange: Managing Features By Inspiring Customers	Michael Lotter Building and deploying custom SharePoint Application pages (_layouts) with Visual Studio 2008	Timothy WrightUsing JQuery
10:30am - 11:45am	Chris Williams XNA Development That Rocks	Troy Tuttle Continuous Integration: The "Original" Best Practice	Todd Kitta SharePoint and Silverlight	Jeff Julian Developing Multi-Touch Applications for Windows 7
12:00pm - 1:00pm	Lunch
1:00pm - 2:15pm	Rob Reynolds Inversion of Control with Windsor Container	Dru Sellers & Chris Patterson Message Based Application Development with MassTransit	Becky Isserman Cheap and Easy Wildcard Search	John Alexander Developing for Microsoft Surface Applications
2:30pm - 3:45pm	Rob Kraft SQL Injection: How it works and how to stop it	Yair Segal Entity Framework versus Linq to SQL	Steve Walker Team Development using SharePoint	Muljadi Budiman Parallel Programming for Managed Code Developers
4:00pm - 5:15pm	Lee Brandt Your Code is Trying to Tell You Something: Reading Static Code Analysis Metrics using NDepend	Van Ice Adding Silverlight to your Enterprise Applications	Todd Bleeker Sharepoint custom membership provider	Shawn McCubbin Microsoft Dynamics
5:30pm - 6:30pm	After Party & Giveaways

new gig

Chris Williams — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:30:19 GMT

I've been pretty quiet the last week and a half (at least in my blog... I'm still twittering plenty.) The reason for this is that I've started a new gig with Magenic and I've been really, really busy.

This new gig has me traveling from Minneapolis to a smallish town named Mitchell, SD and back each week. Between work and travel (and spending most of my nights getting up to speed on new stuff and new concepts) I haven't had much time to blog regularly.

So, I'm going to try to make a conscious effort to reverse that trend. I still have a few more of my NINE Questions interviews in the can, so I'll be putting those out there, and I'll try to provide some updates on the fun experiences I'm having learning about Windows Workflow (among other things.)

(Besides... D'Arcy is starting to catch up with me and well, we can't have that...)