We are less than 2 weeks away from the single largest activity for us this year - the launch of Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005 and Biztalk Server 2006.  (www.microsoft.ca/launch2005)  The team is heads down preparing to make the cross-Canada tour the best Developer and IT Pro event in Microsoft Canada history.

 

As part of the launch we decided early on to make blogging a major part of our communication with the community and the attendees.  Not only did we feel that hearing directly from the presenters and other members of the team would provide everyone with even more information, but we felt it would be a great way to maintain an open and active dialogue with the community.  So far our RSS feed has been accessed 30,000 times!  (http://blogs.msdn.com/canadian_launch_tour_2005/rss.aspx)

 

From the blogs we have heard several questions regarding the distribution of software at the events.  We know that the Developer and IT Pro communities are eager to get access to the final versions of the products and getting the software into your hands is a priority for us.  The Launch Team is pleased to confirm that Special Edition copies of Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 will be made available to everyone who attends the launch events.  This is full functional "non-evaluation" software.

 

 

These Special Edition copies will be in addition to all of the other materials (like the presentations, code samples, etc) that each attendee will receive.  Everyone who attends will also be able to mingle with some of Microsoft Canada's technical experts and will be eligible to win some awesome prizes.

 

Hopefully this clarifies any confusion around the software.  We are looking forward to seeing you on the Canadian tour!!

 

One of the biggest projects for my team this year is the Launch of Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005.  We have established a blog to give everyone a "behind the scenes" view of the preparations for the cross-Canada tour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have had a lot of requests for my slides.  I have created a OneNote file containing the slides.

 

 

Why OneNote you ask?  Well, a couple of reasons…. It's a kick ass way to take and share notes.  Second, I don't really want my raw PPTs floating around the blogsphere.

 

Don't own OneNote?  Well, you can try it for free - http://www.microsoft.com/office/onenote/prodinfo/trial.mspx 

 

Simply expand the zip into your "My Notebook" directory.

 

Enjoy.

 

 

Kevin is a general manager in Microsoft Research and is working as part of the staff traveling with BillG to the various schools.  He is writing some "behind the scenes" entries - http://spaces.msn.com/members/kevinonthejob/PersonalSpace.aspx

 

I am heading to the event in the morning.  I will let you know how it goes! 

 

 

An interesting, although biased, view on PDC and the upcoming Launch.

 

Some exciting news from our work in academia - BillG is coming to town!

 

"Bill Gates will visit the University of Waterloo on Oct. 13, as part of a six-stop campus tour encouraging students to pursue careers in computer science and technology."

Bill will be speaking to a group of faculty and a large group of students.  If you are on campus, Bill's talk to be broadcast into the Student Life Centre.  It gets started at 10:30am.

 

I'll be in Waterloo that day, so I will be sure to let you know how it goes. 

 

If you are UW student, let us know if you are planning to attend!

 

I have to side with Rick on this one.  Web 2.0 is just a little too "fashion" and not enough "substance" for me.

 

It starts with Scoble - http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2005/10/01.html#a11315

 

He is just hot and heavy about this phrase.  Don't get me wrong, I love the technology.

 

It moves on to this thread about Scoble buying a company - http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2005/10/01.html#a11324

 

It goes on to talk about a series of "Web 2.0" tools - http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2005/10/02.html#a11331 (not many of which are even built with .NET, which is a shame)

 

And then here - http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2005/10/02.html#a11332

 

This love fest only can last for so long however.  I think my good friend Mr. Segal sums it up well - http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2005/10/03.html#a11345

 

I have to agree with Rick.  These technologies, while awesome, are evolutionary.  Yes, there impact on how people use technology is potentially revolutionary, let's not create a mystical label for it all.

 

 

I returned back from Ottawa the other day and I haven't had a chance to follow-up from the Venture event I attended there.

 

I have to applaud the organizers (OCRI - http://www.ocri.com/) for putting on a great event.  This was my first time attending and I have to say that the overall quality of the event was excellent.  Good speakers, quality attendees and great logistics.  It was definitely worth the investment in time to attend.  I wish all of the venture related events in Canada were run this well (they aren't).

 

It was great to get exposure to what is going on in Ottawa.  It is just a hotbed of activity and although it has traditionally been known for more "hard-science" such as chips and equipment because of the telecommunications roots (i.e. Nortel) there are now more software companies than ever.  It was also great to see so many US VC firms attending the conference.

 

I talked about "Enterprise Software" opportunities with a gentleman from Cisco.  My main message - there is a ton of opportunity in the Microsoft ecosystem for ISV partners to find the "white space" that we don't occupy.  i.e. vertical solutions, niche solutions and extensions of our platform.

 

Maybe the biggest surprise was the list of Microsoft based software companies that presented during the conference.  It was just awesome to see such great innovation happening around our platform.

 

Some of those companies included:

 

Silect - http://www.silect.com/

Longview - www.longview.com

Ambercore - http://www.ambercore.com/

Gridiron - www.gridironsoftware.com

 

The only downside to the event… it was at the Casino and I lost $100 :-(