Archive for the ‘Developer Community’ Category

Community Megaphone Podcast – Speaker Horror Stories

Posted on July 29th, 2010 by Kevin

Back in June, I was able to sit in with a panel of fantastic speakers and talk with Dane and Andrew on the Community Megaphone Podcast. In this episode, I shared the story about Joel Cochran and I trying to get to CodeStock, and running out of gas on I-81. It’s definitely worth a listen. Here are some of the awesome people that shared stories:

Miguel Castro – http://dotnetdude.com/
Michael Eaton – http://mjeaton.net/blog/
Rod Paddock – http://blog.dashpoint.com/
Rachel Appel – http://rachelappel.com/
John Petersen – http://www.lostechies.com/blogs/johnvpetersen/
Jennifer Marsman – http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jennifer/
Joel Cochran – http://www.developingfor.net/
Brian Prince – http://brianhprince.com/
Roger Heim – http://www.aremaitchconsulting.com/
John Baird – http://twitter.com/jbaird_pa

Click here to Listen Now
I’m A MVP!

Posted on July 2nd, 2010 by Kevin

Someone over at Microsoft must like me, because they decided to award me with a Microsoft MVP in Client App Dev. This is a huge honor for me, as it proves that people really notice the work you put into the community. I’ve had such a blast working with all the talented men and women I’ve met in the community. From my very first user group meeting in Richmond, VA to recently being selected for multiple sessions at DevLink, my experiences in the community have been awesome.

Working in the community really has been a labor of love for me. The experiences I’ve had have impacted me as a professional, and will continue to shape my professional directions in the future.

Really, I couldn’t have done a fraction of the stuff I’ve done without the help of several people: First, my wonderful wife for putting up with all my community stuff. The crew in the Richmond developer community for bringing me in and treating me like family. Roanoke Code Camp for giving me my first opportunity to speak. The Hampton Roads developer community for helping me prove that it could be done. Microsoft developer evangelists for giving advice and promoting my professional growth. Antech Systems, my employer, for giving me the time to travel and improve myself. Finally, Microsoft for producing technologies that make me excited to be a software developer.

Here’s to a great year of trying to be a better professional and helping others be better professionals.
CodeStock Postmortem

Posted on June 29th, 2010 by Kevin

Another CodeStock has come and gone, and it seems that we can;t go to an event without having some stories. CodeStock has provided in so many ways. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights

Can I Get A Push?

This year for CodeStock, I drove up with my friend Joel Cochran. Knoxville is about 9 hours away from my area, and I had to drive through Joel’s city in order to get to Knoxville. It only made sense to stop and hitch a ride.

This particular story starts around the Virginia and Tennessee border. We were cruising along, and I glanced over at Joel’s gas gauge. The exchange went as so:

Me: Joel, it looks like you’ll need gas. Might want to stop.

Joel: Ah, yeah. If we get gas in the next half hour or so we’ll be fine.

Fast forward…. 25 minutes. We pulled into a gas station. It was a small mom and pop gas station. An older gentleman was blocking Joel, and slowly limped into the gas station. Joel decided that it wasn’t worth the time to wait and said, “We’ll just go up to the next exit.”

Half way to the next exit…

Joel: The accelerator’s not responding.

Me: What?

The car sputtered and coasted. We rode it on the shoulder for as long as it would go. Eventually, we pulled to a stop on the side of the road.

Sitting on the side of the interstate gives you sometime to think. For example, I was thinking about why they put gas indicators on dashboards. Also, why do I choose to ride with Joel when I know that something is going to happen (just kidding)?

What did we do instead of just walking to the gas station? We decided to push the car the mile and half towards the exit. Did I mention we had to go uphill and it was about 105 degrees in the sun?

Moral of the story: don’t ride with Joel, and obey the gas light.

The CodeStock Experience

CodeStock was in a new venue this year, the UT Conference Center. Not only was the venue terrific, but the conference hotel was directly across the street! For those who’ve never been, CodeStock is a two day event. Unlike most code camps, CodeStock requires a nominal fee (less than $100) for attending. However, what you get is worth more than what you would get at Tech-Ed.

My session was on the second day, and I presented on jQuery. I got a lot of good feedback and I really hope people enjoyed it. In addition to my talk, I attended talks on Multi-touch, embracing my failures, how to run a great conference, etc.

I spent a little bit of time in open spaces this year, less than normal. Overall, I was disappointed with Open Spaces at CodeStock this year. For being in a central location of the conference, it was relatively under attended. Instead, most of the great conversations happened in the atrium outside the open spaces room.

Lunch was awesome. Instead of a single lunch session, there were two lunch sessions. This worked very well seeing as there was no rush to get food. Going through the line took a matter of minutes, and then people went to sessions. Conference catering rocked, and was delicious!

Rachel Appel gave a great keynote on Friday night. Listening to her, Andrew Duthie, Jennifer Marsman, and several others talk about community made me feel extremely proud to be a part of something so awesome (like 10 million hot dogs awesome).

After Parties

The best part of the conferences happen after the conference ends for the day. Thursday night we hung out in downtown Knoxville. I was able to meet several people I only knew through Twitter. We had great conversations and truly brought the experience together. Friday night we hung out in the hotel and played guitars. Saturday night we hung out at Alan Steven’s house for PostStock. If your going straight home after the conference, you’re missing half the fun!

CodeStock was a blast, and I can’t wait to go back next year. Next year I’m flying.
Introducing Blend-O-Rama

Posted on June 21st, 2010 by Kevin

Silverlight and WPF are starting to pop up all over the place. XAML is on the web, on your phone, and soon coming to other devices. Developers are starting to embrace this technology, but tools such as Expression Blend are still not being fully embraced by designers and developers a like.

My good friend, Joel Cochran, is what you would call an Expression “freak”. Seriously! In Joel’s mind, Expression Blend is the greatest thing since the AS-400. Many times we’ve joked about Joel doing a single day of nothing but Blend related talks. He was *this* close to getting that wish at the last Richmond Code Camp.

A few weeks ago, I decided it was time to give Joel his dream. Using the resources of the Hampton Roads .NET Users Group, we’re presenting Blend-O-Rama. During the week of July 19th, we’re going to present 5 “lunch and learn” web casts on Expression Blend. Joel will take you from zero to hero in 5 days.

There is plenty of room in the LiveMeeting. If you want get in on the action, head over to http://blendorama.eventbrite.com and register now! We’ll use this registration to let you know the URL of the LiveMeeting.

Still not sold? Check out this agenda:

July 19th – An Introduction to Expression Blend
Microsoft Expression Blend is the premier GUI editor for WPF and Silverlight applications.In this presentation you will receive an introduction to the Blend UI and how to use it to quickly and easily build an application interface. Topics will include Configuration, Layout Controls, how to leverage Blend with Visual Studio, and more.

July 20th – Data Binding in Expression Blend
Data Binding is one of the key features of WPF and Silverlight. This presentation demonstrates and explains the Data Binding tools and features of Blend. Includes discussions of Data Context, Value Converters, Element Binding, Sample Data and more. With these tools you really can bind anything to anything.

July 21st – Templating in Expression Blend
An introduction to using Microsoft Expression Blend to leverage Templating in WPF and Silverlight applications. Templates provide a powerful way to enact GUI changes in the application presentation layer without requiring code behind manipulation. The power of Templating provides unlimited potential for enhancing your GUI.

July 22nd – Animating Business in Blend
Discusses how to use animation to enhance line of business applications and demonstrates how to create and employ them in Blend. Topics will include Animations, Triggers, Events, and the Visual State Manager.

July 23rd – Advanced Topics in Blend
Discusses how to take Blend to the next level. Topics will include Behaviors, Graphic manipulations, Audio and Video, Theming, and more.

REGISTER NOW!
.NET Rocks Roadtrip #DNR_Roadtrip

Posted on May 27th, 2010 by Kevin

This blog post is a long time due. A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to spend some time with Carl and Richard, better known as the .NET Rocks guys! Here’s a quick overview of the what happened: Carl and Richard jumped into an RV, and started driving across the country. Along the way, they stopped at several cities and did .NET Rocks live in front of an audience. At each stop, the guys picked up a ride-along to go with them to the next city.

Fast forward to Richmond.

I was in Richmond early that afternoon because I was on my way home from the CMAP .NET Users Group. I met up with Kevin Hazzard, and hung out at the venue where the roadtrip was going to be. I was later approached by both Kevin Hazzard and Andrew Duthie, encouraging me to be the ride along for the trip to Raleigh. I agreed, and the guys put on a great show.

My roadtrip almost didn’t happen though. As it turns out, I needed to be in Reston, VA on the following Friday morning (Richmond was Wednesday night). The conditions of the roadtrip was that they would fly me home the morning after next event. I would not have had enough time to be in Reston by the time that happened. After a little bit of back and forth, Richard offered to not only fly me to Reston on Friday morning, but also fly me home the following Saturday. I couldn’t say no to that!

The drive was awesome. It took about 3 hours to complete. We had just enough time to stop at the hotel before heading over to Duke University. The guys put on another great show, and we spent the evening having a few drinks at the pub next to our hotel. The fun couldn’t last though, because I was at the airport at 5:00 the next morning.

I’d like to give a big thanks to Carl and Richard for taking me on a ride. Also, thanks to Kevin Hazzard and Andrew Duthie for backing me for the ride along position. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t had been considered at all.

Enjoy a few of the pictures I took below!
Richmond Code Camp 2010.1 THIS WEEKEND! #RichCC

Posted on May 20th, 2010 by Kevin

Back by popular demand, Richmond Code Camp version 2010.1 is happening this weekend, May 22nd, 2010.

From 7:30 am to 5:00pm, you’re promised to learn tons from over 40+ sessions. That’s 9 tracks throughout the day. Industry influencers and enthusiasts all coming to together to share knowledge and discover technology.

How much does all this cost?

ABSOLUTELY FREE! We’ll even feed you breakfast and lunch. The WiFI is even free!

What’s the schedule look like?

You can look at the schedule right here. (Note: some sessions are subject to change.)

Wow. Where do I sign up?

There is still time to register, go here and register right now!

Will you be there, Kevin?

Yup! I’ll be giving my award-winning introduction to jQuery. Check the schedule for time and location.
Azure Boot Camp – Virginia Beach

Posted on May 3rd, 2010 by Kevin

Tell your friends! On July 7th and 8th, the Hampton Roads .NET Users Group is hosting it’s first major event. We’re lucky to have David Makogon leading us in a 2-day Azure Boot Camp. If you’ve been looking at Azure as an option for developing next generation web application, then this event is not to be missed!

And this event is 100% FREE OF CHARGE! All you have to do is show up!

Event registration for Azure Boot Camp – Virginia Beach, VA
Silverlight 4 Business Application Development

Posted on April 12th, 2010 by Kevin

Do you write LOB applications?

Do you work Silverlight or wanna make the move to Silverlight 4?

Are you a beginner?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you might want to check out Silverlight 4 Business Application Development: Beginner’s Guide from Packt Publishing. One of the authors, Frank LaVigne, is a good friend of mine and a great resource in the Mid-Atlantic community.

I just received my copy of the book, and I can’t wait to dig in and learn with Silverlight 4 has to offer. Look for my review in the weeks to come. In the meantime, go and check out the book and let me know what you think!
Southern Maryland Give Camp Recap

Posted on March 30th, 2010 by Kevin

On Friday, March 19th, 102 geeks ascended to Southern Maryland to help 19 non-profits use technology to promote and grow their organization.

“How did you hear about Give Camp?”

This is a question I was asked numerous time throughout the weekend. Jim Pendarvis, is a friend of mine, and fellow user group leader in the Mid Atlantic region. The idea of give camp in the Mid-Atlantic started a little less than a year ago. Several of us had heard about the success of give camps in other regions, namely Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor. In fact, there was a conference call between all interested community leaders to work together to bring give camps to our respective areas. Those plans, as most do, went by the wayside. Jim didn’t wait. He continued his plans, and last week it all came together.

My Charity

I had the pleasure of working with the Spring Dell Center. They were lucky to already have a web presence, but the issue we saw was that the page was difficult to maintain and expand.

My partner, Mike Thomas, and I sat down with Thomas Hoffman from the Spring Dell Center and hatched out a game plan. We equipped ourselves with a copy of SiteFinity from Telerik.

Here’s a video of our presentation:

What We Did Right

Using a CMS

I would say that choosing a CMS over custom building was the best decision we made. Another group at the Give Camp decided to custom build a solution from the ground up. It’s a notable effort. By custom rolling an application, you can provide exactly what the customer wants. However, no matter what your skill level is, the custom solution is not feasible within 48 hours.

On the same note, I was brought on to assist the group during the final hours. They had made progress, but in the end didn’t have a product the charity could sit down and start working with.

If you’re looking to volunteer at a GiveCamp, bone up on several CMS solutions. You’re going to be most likely using one.

Scope control

Our charity had a decent list of things they would have liked to have seen in the end product, and I would say we hit 95% of the list. Near the end of Saturday, we came to a request for an online employment application. SiteFinity does not (currently) have a form builder built into it, so the process would have to be custom. However, looking at the employment application (all 6 pages of it), we identified that it would be a bit much to tackle in the weekend. Thanks to some consulting from Andrew Duthie and Jim Pendarvis, we convinced the charity that this wasn’t a solution we were comfortable attempting.

What We Could Have Done Better

Preparation

We used SiteFinity, but I had never used it until the first day of Give Camp. It took us about 3 hours to get something to start working with. Then I walked around to help other groups get SiteFinity up and running on their machines. This was time that we could’ve just *been working*.

Know the Product

SiteFinity is a great product. My lack of knowledge of the feature set of the product kept me from being able to solve really simple problems. It took until the second day, and chatting with other groups to realize the potential of the product we were using. The truly best projects from the weekend were by people that knew the product well enough to just use it. This gave them more time to spend of customization and enhancements.

What Was Awesome About Give Camp

The Food

I have never seen so much junk food in my life. You would have though Jim hijacked a Little Debbie truck, and rerouted to Give Camp. We had a supermarket-worth of soda and water. I drink a ton of water, and there was enough to last until lunch on Sunday. Catered breakfast, lunch, and dinner each night added to the awesomeness.

The Volunteers

“Who wants caffeine?” was a common question asked during the weekend. Volunteers routinely went to get us sodas or 5 Hour Energy’s. The prepped breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The cleaned up after us. The volunteers made it easy for us to do our job, and we couldn’t have done it without them.

The Haircuts

Enough said:

Conclusion

Give Camp was the most rewarding experience of the my professional career. The looks and emotions of some peoples faces during the end presentations made it worth the drive and the sleep lost. I will definitely be back next year, and I encourage everyone to attend a give camp that is near you. Can’t find one? Ask me and I’ll help you find one or help you start one.
If You Reach Just One Person

Posted on March 29th, 2010 by Kevin

After giving a talk, it’s really difficult to judge if you reached any of the attendee’s. Normally, you get the occasional “good job” or “thanks, that was a big help.” Today I got a small mention by Johnathan Bracken, who was sitting in my jQuery From The Ground Up talk at Roanoke Code Camp. This means a lot, because it shows that my talk stayed in Johnathan’s head past the end of the talk.

He just started blogging, and mentioned me in his entry I Will Not Run from JavaScript No More. This is very cool to see. I wish Johnathan the best of luck in his jQuery adventures! And I expect him to give a jQuery talk at next year’s code camp.