New Devs4Devs Video released! Silverlight - What, Where and How?

This one is all about Silverlight, one of my favorite topics. =) I'll cover why I think it is so important, where the platform is headed and why you should be checking it out if you haven't already. If there is one thing I see time and time again in talking with people it is the confusion out there around why we created Silverlight. I hear things like.. "To compete with Flash".. "To take over the web with windows!".. or "You mean another web technology, but I just learned AJAX!"

My hope is that after watching this video you will have a clear understanding of where the Microsoft Platform is heading when it comes to NextWeb and presentation technologies as well as how we got there. There has been a lot of great new technology and tools that have just come out in the past few months. Stuff that will really change the way you think and work with user experiences and I try to touch on that. At the end, you should also feel comfortable creating Silverlight content in both VS2008 and Blend and how you can use it in your projects today. I know I definitely had a blast coding with it. =)

Some of the topics covered:

• - Why Silverlight? What is Microsoft up to?
• - Web Development today - the need for User Experience
• - What is this XAML stuff? WPF?
• - Good Overview and hands on with Expression Blend
• - What you need to get started today and where you can get it. Does it cost anything?
• - 1.0, 1.1, 2.0 - Is this stuff even done? Should I wait?
• - Demos sprinkled throughout to help reinforce concepts
• - I take you step by step in creating your first Silverlight application.
• - Storyboards, images, setting properties, firing/capturing events, using the VS2008 Tools, even adding Ink support.
• - Just for giggles I also show how easy it is to put the new control inside a Vista Gadget.
• - Lots of links to additional resources and where you can get more help.

Check them out on Channel9 here:

Part1:

http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=387614

Part2:

http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=387623

Part3:

http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=387654

Don't forget to stop by the Devs4Devs group on Facebook. With a couple hundred members now it is a great way to meet developers from all over the world including your local Microsoft folks!