Betsy Aoki's WebLog

Attention American comrades. You want to know what the most embarassing thing you can endure for your country? Sit around with a bunch of folks from Europe - including the likes of Clemens Vasters , Christian Weyer, and Ingo Rammer as they discuss...

Well Eileen and I made it to Amsterdam in one piece – even after the revels that was the Microsoft UK company summer party. Shoutout to my boss Sandy Khaund – I am having serious party coolness envy! They had Madness , Basement Jaxx and Norman Jay...

Ok, so a rounding sound of appreciation for the patient UK user group folks who had to put up with my Webcast today - the phones didn't work at first, my laptop cut out of live meeting and then Eileen's would and she'd use mine - and I'm just enough of...

Well, Eileen Brown came and rescued me at Heathrow. It was touch and go whether I'd arrive -the American Airlines connection in Chicago was late, AND they told me the wrong gate, so I arrived at the British Airways terminal minutes before takeover. Gin...

Note: This post has been edited to reflect Doug Seven's inherent greatness. His site was actually the first .NET Web site in the world prior to Gotdotnet in July 200 - Microsoft's first .NET Web site was Gotdotnet in November 2000. Hugh MacLeod of...

Channel 9 has a new video that, if not a Sundance contender, continues the fine urinal tradition of the "See you at Tech Ed" series put together by Scott Hanselman and has actual plot ominously being set up in this first installment. I have to admit...

So I have been remiss in posting some key TechEd Orlando photos. One was a situation I really wish I had seen - but can share thanks to Jason McCullough of the CCT team (his camera) and Brandon Blazer, whose name is the coolest and who actually took...

So, just got back from Sara Williams' sendoff. It was good to see her happy for her next adventure but sad too. Sara was the last person in my interview loop, and the final say as to whether I got to work at MSDN or not. She's the one who made the...

I've been thinking a lot about courage lately while I was at TechEd. The DJ at the party I was at last night kept urging people to absorb more "liquid courage" so they could get up and sing some intensely bad heavy metal karaoke. :P While I applaud...

So I'm watching the guys closing down our time at the booth...I fly out tomorrow and so this is my last note from TechEd Orlando. Tonight is the final party for me (not for others) and so I have this feeling of nostalgia and burning desire that my shirt...

TechEd Day 3 was the result of mishap and endurance training: 4 hours of sleep, lost wallet, found wallet, sore feet, the final smart decision to BRING party clothes TO the booth so I am not caught dancing in my Microsoft logowear (I will say I was one...

Well, so I get to the booth, my latte is not even a third consumed, and the guys tell me that people are already looking for me. "Blogs is down!" they say. Thank God for the fresh Sharepoint donuts that are being handed out. :) So I toodle over to...

So I'm here on the other side of the country surrounded by guys in Hawaiian shirts throwing a beach ball around. No, I'm not by the pool - I'm at TechEd Orlando. The INTEA folks have strategically planted an inflatable fish between us and them, and...

Ok, so I will be a Lounge Lizard or a Booth Babe, however you want to describe it, at TechEd Orlando next week. I will essentially be at the Microsoft.com Community Lounge June 6 - noon to 7 p.m. June 7 10 a.m. - 7 p.m. June 8 9 a.m.- 5pm...

So, it's with great pleasure that I introduce the new, and the not-blogging-yet member of the Gotdotnet team, Pete Coupland. He used to run the PAG lab as a vendor and is now charged with the fiery flamed ops torch of Gotdotnet - that is, keeping the...

So this one will be short, mostly because there's a lot on my plate tomorrow and it's been a long day, but we had the 6th? Drinking about Community and I touched base with Josh Ledgard about tagging. His ideas are sound - enable Community Server to...

So I will admit my Blog Queen dander is up. Mostly because I haven't had a sane work week since last year, and some of that's been Gotdotnet, but of late it's been blog work, working with Telligent on bugfixes and features that Microsoft employee bloggers...

Hi all, I didn't make it on the presentation roster for Orlando, but I've been honored with the opportunity to speak for two sessions at TechEd Amsterdam about blogging. The first is a breakout session on the Community Server and .Text software that...

Josh Ledgard, like many Microsoft bloggers, has a feature list a mile long he wants done on the blogs.msdn.com and blogs.technet.com blog sites. I was looking at his blog trying to figure out what he wanted from his email, when I got completely sucked...

I have to hand it to my man Hugh at Gapingvoid.com - he can sum up the spicy essence in clear cartoonery . I do actually disagree with him in one way, which is that he feels A - the company's internal dialogues, rants and mumblings and B - the public...

This post is not actually about the symposium, though it is written while still at it (I'm overhearing a birds of a feather about what is identity and culture in the online space). This post riffs off Chris Sells' recent post about Robert Scoble. I...

Ok, so not only did I actually run counter to Microsoft culture and take a weekend (*almost* getting by without checking my work email but still the habit was too strong), but I added insult to injury by going to the Social Computing Symposium and missing...

Sometimes on days that will live in irony I refer to myself as the Blog Queen here at Microsoft. It's wryly said because really I just run around and enable everyone else - I don't read everyone's blogs every day, like Scoble, nor do I have a super-secret...

Gotdotnet as mentioned in a previous post, tends to bring out strong emotions in people. It of course brings out strong emotions in its current program manager (me) because its my sworn duty to answer all email, fix all Workspace bugs, and look suave...

Microsoft bloggers, you know who you are. And why I am posting this. :) Betsy