DDD

DDD6 - now open for registration

Liam Westley — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 01:50:51 GMT

DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper 6 - Saturday 24th November, Reading, UK.

Get your registration in now, it tends to book out quite quickly;

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032357828&Culture=en-GB

Not sure if my CIFactory talk has been voted into the agenda. Not sure whether my speaking would make you want to head off to Microsoft's UK HQ, or ensure you had essential early Christmas shopping to complete.

DDD6 - 24th November - You have until 19th October to get your vote in

Liam Westley — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 22:04:14 GMT

Voting now open on DDD6 here, http://www.developerday.co.uk/ddd/votesessions.asp, so get your 10 votes in to make sure it's the conference you want it to be.

Those who are eagle eyed will note that my bribes to the organisers were obviously well received as my yap about CIFactory has appeared at the top of the voting table .....

DDD5 - thanks to the organisers for another top event

Liam Westley — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 20:38:39 GMT

Saturday saw me off to Microsoft in Reading for DDD5. The first DDD where I didn't inflict myself on the delegates; unless you got caught in the taxi with me to and from the station.

Not preparing any presentations made it much easier to mingle and have a chat with other delegates. It's always impressive to see people giving up a day off to come and see a bunch of real developers talking on such a great range of topics.

I was well impressed from a developer from Northern Ireland who I chatted to in the taxi heading back to Reading station. Only finding out on Thursday that he was off the wait list and was going to the event, he had to book a last minute flight to Stanstead and back on the day. Now that is dedication.

Top talks for me were the Team Foundation Server overview from Richard Fennel who confirmed my prejudice that this is still a scary product to install and manage; and Agile Methods for ISVs from Gary Short which was great fun, filled with humour as well as real world experience of agile methods applied to both the Enterprise and ISVs.

Roll on DDD6 ...

Technorati tags: ddd5, ddd

DDD5 - registration now open, get signed up

Liam Westley — Tue, 29 May 2007 19:01:56 GMT

The premier community .NET developer event is back on 30 June 2007. You can find out details here, and register for the event at the Microsoft events site here.

And if you needed an incentive to sign up ... my session hasn't been voted in so it's a Liam free event.

Technorati tags: ddd5, ddd

DDD5 voting now open - get your mouse clicking

Liam Westley — Mon, 07 May 2007 20:00:29 GMT

Vote for your favourite seesions for DDD5 here and set the agenda yourself.

OK, I've got a session in there, but it is very old style programming (Windows services !!!) but there's some great up to date techie talks as well as the more interesting (in my opinion) fundamentals presentations which tend to provide a more personal view to sofware development.

Technorati tags: ddd5, ddd

WebDD, 3 February 2007 - Another excellent community event

Liam Westley — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 09:38:00 GMT

Having spoken at the normal DDD community events in the UK I was looking forward to the combined nature of WebDD which was aimed at both developers and designers interested in web technologies. Similar to DDD Microsoft UK hosted the event in their UK headquarters in Reading, and provided a quality lunch and refreshments, and the excellent bonus of a fully licensed version of Expression Web for every attendee.

The hope for a 50/50 split between developers and designers wasn't quite achieved, developers did appear to outnumber designers. However, it's the first event, and with Scott Guthrie speaking in four out of the five time slots it was inevitable that developers would be quite keen to attend.

I have worked in broadcast television for over 15 years, and I'm very used to collaborating closely with graphics designers for on screen content. I can't wait for them to get closer to both web and application development (see Microsoft Expression highlight below), so that the programmers can stop designing user interfaces from hell. And I include myself in that group of programmers.

The most interesting development I saw was with Expression Design and Expression Blend, the new tools for creating designer lead applications, and the announcement of a new product Expression Media (previously iView MediaPro) for asset management and video encoding. When I saw demonstrations of Expression at TechEd 2006, I was stunned that anyone at Microsoft could believe it was a suitable product for graphic designers as it was clearly still a developer tool. Seeing the current versions clearly marks out Design and Blend as tools for graphic designers, and that these are applications aimed at creating Windows Applications for the initial releases. They will only target web applications when WPF/E is fully formed. I'll be blogging more detailed thoughts of the Expression product range in the next few days.

In summary, a very enjoyable day out and great to see some new faces among the usual suspects. Talking of which Guy Smith Ferrier took time out to record a pod cast on my opinion of WebDD so keep a lookout for that gem of modern broadcasting inflicted on an unsuspecting population. Hopefully my terrible cough didn't come across on the recording. Which reminds me, apologies to those who may have sat near me in any of the sessions if I had a coughing fit near you. Let's hope I didn't drown out any interesting parts of the sessions.

DDD3 resources now available on line

Liam Westley — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 15:46:00 GMT

Apologies for the delay but you can now access all the materials from my DDD3 Presentation, 'How to start your own Software Development company for £5000' on line;

Not really a powerpoint is here.

My original spreadsheet (not as interesting as the final one) is here.

And the spreadsheet with input from the DDD3 audience which went £34 over budget is here.

Thanks again to the DDD3 audience for making what could be a dull topic so much fun.

Liam Westley

Developer Day 3 (DDD3) - Another great community event

Liam Westley — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 05:29:00 GMT

This was the third time this event has been held at Microsoft's Reading HQ in the UK and yet again it was a top event allowing developers to get together, scoff some free food and get excited (hopefully) about presentations from their fellow developers.

A big thank you to the DDD organising committee (you know who you are), Melita Watson and all the guys from Microsoft who ensured that the day ran smoothly. There was a great response from the attendees who gave up a gloriously sunny Saturday to get technical. If only we could have an outside festival-like stage with a massive screen … maybe not … let’s be honest .NET is not the new rock’n’roll.

I hope that some of the guys who attended my presentation, ‘How to start your own Software Development company for £5000’, remain undaunted by the boring business issues and were inspired to get out there and start their own company creating great software. A special thanks to the audience member who added a ‘multi function scanner/fax device’ to the list of start up requirements. Without him we would never have broken the £5000 barrier (in my defence, only by £34). This ensured that everyone got to see a ‘LIAM LIED !!!! - IT'S OVER £5000’ message appear in big red letters on the Excel spreadsheet.

For those eager to get the £5000 spreadsheet, complete with URLs, I’ll be tidying it up tonight (Monday 5^th) ready for posting on http://www.tigernews.co.uk and the DDD web site http://www.developerday.co.uk. Feedback is always appreciated so if I’ve missed something out that was in the presentation, do let me know. It’s the first time I’ve given a presentation without a PowerPoint slide deck so it is taking me a while longer to tidy up the notes into a coherent whole.

Final thanks go to Ian Cooper and Benjamin Mitchell (both DDD committee members). Ian runs the London .NET users group (http://www.dnug.org.uk) and provided a funky t-shirt for me to wear. He was also the person who encouraged me to get into speaking at DDD in the first place. Secondly, Benjamin inspired me to give a presentation solely from a single Excel workbook and no PowerPoint slides. Benjamin was the first person I’ve seen give an hour long chalk and talk completely from Notepad and get away with it (on Team System at last years’ VS2005 launch road show).

See you all at DDD4.

UK DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper 3 - 3rd June 2006

Liam Westley — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 20:00:00 GMT

Well I've submitted my suggested session, 'How to start your own Software Development company for £5000'. See it in all it's glory with other proposed topics in the agenda section of the DDD3 site, http://www.developerday.co.uk.

So get voting - remember, if you vote for my session, you're voting for no powerpoint and you get to contribute what you would put on a checklist for starting your software development company.

What do you think you need to start a UK software development company? Can you do it for under £5000 with all startup costs factored in (including hardware and software licenses)?

DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper Day 3

Liam Westley — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 16:23:00 GMT

OK, a bit late with the plug for the DDD3 on 3rd June 2006, but as I was on holiday when the date was announced, and the registration hasn't opened yet I don't feel too guilty. Find out more at http://www.developerday.co.uk. If it's as good as the previous events it'll be well organised, cover a broad range of subjects and have a lively atmosphere making it a great day out.

I haven't yet decided whether I'll be presenting another session, possibly time to give other's a chance. Being a developer who has a broad knowledge and doesn't specialise highly it's a bit tricky sometimes to get a topic to which I can do justice (and answer tricky questions from the audience).

I could take this problematic situation as a topic of course and deal with the issue of being a developer in my position. I run my own company and either working on my own or in very small teams of two or three people. I create bespoke software, as well as in house products. Unlike general contractors I never work for one client more than three days a week. The key bit of running a company like this is that it is essential to maintain a professional development ethos more common in larger teams (in which I used to work). This means using a central file server, using source control, securing regular backups, embedding comprehensive error reporting for debugging faults, writing proper documentation, and using known development models rather than just churning out code as fast as it comes. The end goal - quality software that's easy to maintain with negligible support costs.

... but what's the title? (suggestions very welcome)