A brand new .NET user group, Balto MSDN, met for the first time tonight. They meet at System Source in Hunt Valley. Their first speaker was a bit dubious, but they had about 20 people there and everyone enjoyed the networking and discussion.

Next month, Lonnie Wall from RDA is talking about service-oriented architecture. Lonnie is one of the author's of Microsoft's new Enterprise Development Reference Architecture (EDRA). The EDRA describes a possible transport-independent service-oriented architecture that supports separating different technical concerns into orthogonal aspects. That's a lot of big words that mean it provides a maintainable way to structure your enterprise-class applications. The EDRA includes an extensible application framework, four QuickStarts, an application template, and supporting documentation. The Global Bank Reference Implementation (GBRI) is also available. The GBRI is a sample application that uses patterns & practices guidance (including the EDRA) in an online banking scenario.