User Group

Regina Technology Community Launch: Sept 16th – SQL 2008 R2 and Project Madison

Gary Pronych — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 12:12:54 GMT

The Regina Technology Community welcomes Nick Nastic!

Topic: SQL Server 2008 R2 and project codename "Madison"
SQL Server 2008 R2 is the next generation of the Microsoft SQL Server database platform, planned for release in the first half of 2010. SQL Server 2008 R2 expands on the value delivered in SQL Server 2008 to help organizations improve IT and developer efficiency with:

new and enhanced tools for the management of applications and multiple servers
master data services
complex event processing

Nick's presentation will cover the new Self Service Business Intelligence (BI) capabilities that empower end users to access, integrate, analyze and share information using business intelligence tools they already know - Microsoft Office. Nick will also discuss the "Madison" Project and the Microsoft Data Platform roadmap.

Speaker: Nick Nastic
Principal Technical Solution Professional for Microsoft Data Platform, Western Canada
Location: University of Regina
Event: Classroom building, room CL 126 (North-West end of campus)
Map: pdf
Date: Wednesday Evening, September 16th, 2009
Cost: Free

Schedule:
5:30 pm: Food and social - please register if you are joining us for dinner
6:00 pm: Welcome and opening announcements
6:15 pm: SQL Server 2008 R2 and project codename "Madison"
8:15 pm: Closing

Registration:
We need to know how much pizza to order! :) If you're joining us for dinner, please register through the Regina Technology Community website.
Registration deadline is Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 12:00 pm.

Sponsors:
A big thank you to our Facilities Sponsor, the University of Regina!
We've just begun our sponsorship drive for the 2009-2010 season. Want to invest in your community? Check out our sponsorship page.

Regina Technology Community: Many Technologies. One Community.

Gary Pronych — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 12:08:08 GMT

I am happy to announce the launch of the Regina Technology Community.
The Regina Technology Community has formed from a consortium of local special interest groups:
• .NET User Group
• IT Pro User Group
• SQL Server User Group
• SharePoint User Group

We recognize that no technology is an island. We work in technological ecosystems that requires an understanding of many disciplines. Having one community allows us to deliver a wide spectrum of content to our members. It also provides the forum for additional topics such as development methodologies, business analysis, project management and information technology management.

The Regina Technology Community is organized by a team of local volunteers. We currently have over 300 members and are growing. The community is composed of developers, analysts, testers, architects, administrators (systems, applications, servers, databases) and students. Many different industries and local organizations are represented.
The community is scheduling monthly events in the above disciplines for IT professionals.

We encourage people interesting in the community and our events to join our newsletter at our website
http://www.regina-technology-community.ca/

Special thanks to Carlin Pohl and Chantal LaPlante that have been champions in developing this new community.

Regina Events

Gary Pronych — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:55:13 GMT

We have been busy organizing a number of community events.
I would like to share some events Regina.NET has been working on and other community events.

All the below events are free and open to the public.

Regina.NET
Date: April 8th @ 6 PM

Speaker: Rod Paddock
Topic: JQuery with ASP.NET

Web 2.0 is here to stay. jQuery is a JavaScript library that abstracts away all of the gory details of working with JavaScript for web applicatons. This session will demonstrate how to add jQuery to your ASP.NET applications today. This session will focus on proper uses of jQuery including how to organize your JavaScript code, how to use selectors in jQuery and how to manipulate your web content dynamically. Along with uses of the standard jQuery library, time will also be spent exploring some of the most useful jQuery plugs-ins.

More details and registration
http://reginadotnet.blogspot.com/2009/03/rod-paddock.html

Thanks to DevTeach we will be giving away a conference registration worth $1249 CDN!

-----------------------------------
TechNet
Date: April 21th @ 6 PM

Speaker: TBD
Topic: From the Client to the Cloud

Windows 7. Windows Live™. Windows Azure. The Microsoft-based platform presents a bevy of opportunities for all of us. Whether you are an IT Manager, Developer, or IT Pro knowing how these will impact you is critical, especially in the new economic reality.

This session will allow you to understand Microsoft’s Software+Services vision through a combination of presentation, demonstration, and discussion. Learn how you can collaborate more effectively and take your small and mid-sized business to the next level and accessible from virtually anywhere using the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite. You will see Windows 7 in action and gain insight into how you can harness it in your environment. We will demonstrate how Windows 7 and Windows Live allow you to connect and collaborate with friends and family in ways you may not have thought of before. Find out how to develop applications that take advantage of Windows Azure Services providing new levels of scalability. Finally, discover how bringing together the power the Desktop with the flexibility of the Cloud will provide amazing opportunities for you to solve some difficult challenges ahead.

From the Client to the Cloud is your opportunity to learn how to harness the power and flexibility of the Microsoft-based platform from the client to the cloud.

Registration Information
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032405565&Culture=en-CA
Community Link
http://reginadotnet.blogspot.com/2009/02/technet-community-event-energizeit.html

-----------------------------------

Regina.NET
Date: May 5th @ 6 PM

Speaker: Uwe Schmitz
Topic: Introducing SOLID Object-Oriented Design Principles and Microsoft Unity

SOLID is an acronym for

Single Responsibility Principle,
Open/Closed Principle,
Liskov Substitution Principle,
Interface Segregation Principle, and
Dependency Inversion Principle.

In this session, we’ll introduce SOLID principles which help developers to

simplify the implementation,
minimize the impact of change, and
facilitate testing

by emphasizing high cohesion and low coupling using techniques centered around abstraction, inheritance and polymorphism. In addition, we’ll introduce the Microsoft Unity Application Block, a lightweight, extensible dependency injection container for applying the Dependency Inversion Principle.

More details and registration
http://reginadotnet.blogspot.com/2009/04/uwe-schmitz-solid.html

Regina.NET Event January 22nd: SQL 2008 Community Launch

Gary Pronych — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 02:32:12 GMT

Regina.NET is participating in the INETA SQL PASS sponsored SQL 2008 launch.

We have 2 sessions at this years event on January 22nd at the University of Regina.

What is a community launch?

Microsoft and others provide registered speakers with Web Casts, PowerPoint, code sample and / or hands on labs for a number of areas in the promoted product.
The beauty of this type of event is that ANYONE can qualify to be a speaker. As a registered speaker, you are provided guidance in the launch topic.
Speakers can provide the sessions verbatim, but the samples are often from beta software may be to general or specific for your needs. I typically get ideas from the web casts and create my own schedule.
Occasionally Connected Systems (OCS) is something that adds value to me personally and I can see it being very useful to others, so that is my topic of choice for this event.

These launch events have been great for small communities that do not have access to many local speakers such as my community, Regina.NET.
Regina.NET and Regina IT Pro participated in the Windows Server 2008 / SQL 2008 / Visual Studio 2008 community launch back in May 2008; it was an excellent cross community event.

Regina.NET SQL 2008 Launch

For the SQL 2008 launch, we are holding 2 sessions.
Vance Petriew and I have been invited to give these sessions at the Saskatoon .NET user group; we haven’t confirmed any dates yet.

ADO.NET Sync Services using SQL 2008 and Visual Studio 2008
Presented by: Gary Pronych .NET User Group Leader (Me)
Abstract:
Do you have client applications that are not always connected to the network? Do you develop using smart clients?
Do you have large tables that contain static data or Slowly Changing Dimensions? What methods do you use to cache this data?

There are time consuming manual methods you can implement to replicate data to these systems but then you must also handle conflicts and sharing cached data.
In this presentation, we will discover how we can use SQL CE 3.5 in standalone and smart client development.
We will advance this topic and discover how SQL CE allows us to develop occasionally connected systems and synchronize changes from the client cache back to the source database.

What's new in SQL Server 2008 for DBAs
Presented by: Vance Petriew, SQL Database Analyst
Abstract:
In this session we will provide an overview of the important new features found in SQL Server 2008.
Then we will dive into feature examples including data compression, encryption, filestream objects and spatial indexes.

How to find Events in your area?

There is a listing for SQL 2008 Launch events located here http://www.microsoft.com/sql/experience/Events.aspx?loc=en
For the previous community launch there was a web site that you can search for an event in your area, it was to the point and easy to use.
I think they dropped the ball this time, the site is quite painful to use and they missed my submission somehow (Bastards!).
Coordinating international events can be difficult so I can give them some slack.

Helpful Links

If you are interested in great SQL 2008 material here is another resource I found; you just need to skip through the cheesy ‘Get on the Case’ theme.

http://www.isvinnovation.com/SQL/Challenge.aspx

Gary Pronych

Community Launch Post-Op

Gary Pronych — Sun, 04 May 2008 14:21:19 GMT

April 30th Regina.NET and Regina IT Pro held the hereos community launch event.
As far as I know, this was going to be the largest locally run (local speakers, facilities and sponsorship) IT community event.

We booked 3 - 100 person classrooms and we had 3 speakers providing sessions that run concurrently, then repeated.
The schedule looked like this

	Windows Server 2008; Room X	SQL Server 2008; Room Y	Visual Studio 2008; Room Z
6:30	AD, Hyper-V	New Datatypes, Resource Governer	LINQ, AJAX
7:30	AD, Hyper-V	New Datatypes, Resource Governer	LINQ, AJAX

We had 80 people sign up online and at least that many actually attend!
We worked on this event for weeks, when it came to game time, this event was a lot of fun.

At 8:30 we all got together in a larger classroom and we gave away Xbox toys, retail copies of Vista and 3 technet plus subscriptions.
Will Craddock who hosted Regina's community connection event came through with a lot of these prizes; he had a lot of left over launch kits so we gave these away at the end of the event.

Post-Op

I provided the Visual Studio 2008 sessions; I had a lot of fun sharing what I learnt. The number 1 problem I had was that I demonstrated a product that I had very little experience with.
I had been playing with LINQ and AJAX for a couple weeks so I felt confident in my abilities, where I stumbled at times was implementing the correct syntax. I recovered by referring to my cheat sheet and explaining the 'gotcha' I hit and explaining what that feature did.
The evaluation forms where also favorable; comments included too much material, not enough time.

Running concurrent sessions then duplicating was an interesting idea; after reviewing the material feedback was 50% positive.
My first session had approximately 40 people attend; my second session had 20 people so I saw a sharp drop off. I suspect people who wanted to attend my session came first, the second session included people that had a secondary interest in VS 2008.
I will definitely be interested in hosting an event like this again; we had Developers, DBA's and SysAdmins attend 1 event. A number of people showed up early and there was a lot of networking going on. A comment I received was 'Man, I haven't seen Dave in months, he is always at his client site. It was good to chat'.

Some comments included 'start on time!'; we didn't allocate anytime for a break. When attendees changed sessions some people ended up hanging out in the hallway, Q & A was extended, etc; Note taken, allocate at least 15 minutes between sessions or else bring a cattle prong.

Below is a picture taken during setup; we had great facilities at the University of Regina, built-in projector, screens, instructor stations.
The U of R has been going through some major renovations due to growth, so parking was definitely an issue.
As a result, feedback from attendees is that this location is inconvenient (50% or so) and I agree. The facilities were donated by the U of R, I cannot do better than that so I will have to work to make this convenient. Maybe reimburse parking fees or use the education building which is closer to parking.

As a personal post-op; this event was a lot of fun!
1 hour sessions where great for me as a first time public speaker.
If there is anyone out there that wants to share your knowledge in a field, 'Just do It'. Contact your local user group and I am sure they would love to assist you in anyway.

Going forward, I am thinking about providing a deep dive in the fall; attendees loved the material presented in my sessions. My focus was to hit a number of areas where attendees can easily take advantage of VS 2008 today. Hopefully in the fall more developers will be using VS 2008 so the deep dive will be relative for them.

Regina, SK: Spring Seminar

Gary Pronych — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 01:18:43 GMT

CIPS Regina has done an incredible job setting up a 2 day seminar May 13 - 14th in Regina, SK.
This seminar has Tech, Business and Student tracks on the first day; Tech and Business tracks on the second day.

Dr. Venkat Subramaniam, is the feature presenter at this seminar.
Dr. Venkat Subramaniam, founder of Agile Developer, Inc., has trained and mentored thousands of software developers in the US, Canada, Europe, and Asia. He has significant experience in architecture, design, and development of software applications. Venkat helps his clients effectively apply and succeed with agile practices on their software projects. He is a frequent invited speaker at various international software conferences and user groups.

Dr. Subramaniam will be providing these sessions:
- Test Driven Development (TDD)
- The Business Value of Test Driven Development (TDD)
- Practices of an Agile Developer

Other sessions include:
Jeff Sandquist, Microsoft Evangelist - Working in a Changing IT World
Richard Baker - Information Security Trends

A full session listing can be found on the CIPS brochure
http://www.cipsregina.ca/assets/files/CIPS-SSBrochure2008.pdf

Registration and Costs:
Costs range from $200-300 for CIPS members and $325-425 for non-members

To register or for more information, please visit the CIPS Regina website at
http://cipsregina.ca/springseminar2008.html
Registration deadline is May 9th.

This is a great opportunity learn skills to adapt in a changing IT World.
If you are in the Regina, SK area, I hope to see you there.

Community Launch Hits Regina, SK

Gary Pronych — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 03:37:04 GMT

WoW, it took a couple weeks to get everything in order; but we are excited to be hosting Heroes Happen {Regina} April 30th in Regina, Sask, Canada.
I worked with the local IT Pro user group to create this night of community run technology sessions.

What is interesting, is that we are holding 3 sessions concurrently, then we are running the same session again so attendees can participate in 2 of our 3 sessions.
They layout will look like this

	Windows Server 2008; Room X	SQL Server 2008; Room Y	Visual Studio 2008; Room Z
6:30	AD, Hyper-V	New Datatypes, Resource Governer	LINQ, AJAX
7:30	AD, Hyper-V	New Datatypes, Resource Governer	LINQ, AJAX

We thought about doing it code camp style; 3 session rooms, 2 unique sessions.
We decided against this because attendees are often torn 'Man, I want to be in room Y but room Z sounds sweet'.
Stress no longer my friends.

Will Craddock will be providing the Windows Server 2008 sessions.
Vance Petriew will be providing the SQL Server 2008 sessions.

Yes, I am trying to hide my session since this will be my *first* public presentation; I might be a little nervous and possibly a lot drunk. ;)
I will be providing the Visual Studio 2008 sessions.
I am pretty excited actually, I am hoping to provide a couple more sessions this year.

If you are in the local area, I hope to see you out.
Registration can be found here
http://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=127735

Cheers

IT Employee Shortage or Not?

Gary Pronych — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 01:15:00 GMT

During my local Microsoft Community Connection event, one of the key topics was the IT labor shortage.
Local IT PRO user group leader and MVP, Will Craddock recently described the IT shortage and added some perspective from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Clearly, there are more jobs available now then ever, but why are these jobs going unfilled?

I am a .NET user group leader in my community; in my role, I have been exposed to some of the employee / employer challenges.
In the past 1 year, I have had 2 recent graduates contact me looking for employment opportunities. They had short term employment and had troubles finding development position in the local market.
I referred these developers to employers in need.

How did their interviews turn out?
<quote>
Sorry, we are looking for someone able to hit the ground running.
</quote>
As a result, these developers were forced to leave the local community to find employment in other markets.

I have been in interviews as the interiewer and interiewee when this expectation is voiced by the employer.
Look at any job posting, you will likely find the tag 'x years experience required'.
If employers are limiting their criteria by those with experience, there will be no new talent.
The same developers with experience end up revolving around the industry.

I believe this is in part because development shops typically run at 110%.
Once they hit the 120%+ mark they will likely say
'Holy crap, we are paying a shitload of OT... we need another developer stat!'
Running a development shop at 90% means 10% wages are going towards non-billable activities; which looks bad on your employers bottom line.

My advice to these employers is to make an investment in your employees.
Spend the 10% slack time on internal projects or training activities.
It is likely your organization has a number of legacy applications (Brownfield applications) that could use some TLC.

So before the IT industry starts screaming 'The Sky is Falling!!' they should consider opening up their employment strategy.
As developers, we are constantly looking for ways to be agile; maybe employers can take note.

Regina Community Connection Event: Post-Op

Gary Pronych — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 11:45:34 GMT

As D'Arcy shared on his blog last night, Will Craddock and Rodney Buike hosted a Community Connection event sponsored by CIPS and Microsoft in Regina, Sask, Canada.
We had a great turn out, expected 175 people, I would assume 100+ attended although I did not get the final numbers.

This event type was certainly new to our market; it followed the idea of Open Spaces that has been all the rage in the community.
What I was most impressed with, is the fact that Microsoft made an effort to enforce community and bring new ideas to market.
Our learning circle topics where
1) Impact of virtualization on the IT industry
2) Application lifecycle
3) Importance of security – Data, management, privacy
4) ICT skills shortage and declining interest in ICT careers.
5) Software plus services and the impact on the industry.

For each topic we had a host that gave each topic some guidance.
4 principals are a part of open spaces

Whoever comes are the right people
Whatever happens is the only thing that could have
Whenever it starts is the right time
When it's over, it's over

D'Arcy hosted the 'software plus service', or SOA (Service Oriented Architecture), track which I attended.
Our group had about 10 attendees with mixed experienced with SOA; a couple attendees had no experience.
At first we attempted what SOA means to us by defining it.
They we talked about the benefits, challenges and how to implement an SOA.

My only caveat is each group needs to have at least 1 individual with some knowledge or experience to give the conversation some credibility; which may challenge 'whoever comes are the right people' principal.
In technology, there is often no silver bullet, and often no less than a dozen ways to complete the same task; which is why I agree with this principal.

As a user group leader, I plan on offering similar events to my local user group because of this positive experience.

For all my readers, I highly recommend that you can attend the community connection event, or similar events in your area.
You do not have to be an expert to attend, all you need is interest in the topic and you qualify.

I wanted to give special thanks to D'Arcy Lussier for attending our event and hosting one of the learning circles; even though he is from Winnipeg; the home of the Grey Cup champions, and Ridernation, welcomed even a lowly 'pegger.
D'Arcy, in my opinion, has gone out of his way time and time again to build and assist user communities.
Mad props D.
Takeaways;
- Always bring a camera to user group events (for user group leaders)
- Pilsner beer is king on the prairies
- Should I fear or embrace the igloo of love? TBA

Burdens of a Small Market User Group Leader

Gary Pronych — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 16:18:48 GMT

All .NET developers should know that there are a number of Launch events across Canada in the coming months.
US and International developers can use this link for registration information.

Larger cities are hosting big splash 'Launch and Technical Readiness' events which are the big bang marketing events for Microsoft.
The big cities and smaller cities will have a 'Community Connections' event which is a typically a more user group community orientated event.

Being a user group leader of a community with 150+ members I can understand we do not qualify for a big bang event; I am more than content with a community event.

My frustration is that everything you do in small market is an up hill battle.
- Limited Sponsors
- Limited experts to assist with events
- Advertisers avoid your region because of size

I can't speak for the large markets, but personally I would have an easier time coordinating events with additional resources in this area.

As Community Connection events are selling out nationally, I haven't even been able to confirm my event location; I just confirmed my speakers with 18 days to my event.

My point is that the Microsoft user group model supports large communities; for me it resolves to the old cliché 'The rich get richer, the poor get poorer'.

I can't decide what my call to action is here, I have shared my voice with my fellow developers at a DevTeach Summit and Microsoft Developer Evangelist to no avail; I just continue to climb the uphill battle.

Challenge 1 of Infinity