Hi…
MGX or Microsoft Global eXchange is a yearly conference in the US. It is done for the field organizations from all over the world (and I mean ALL OVER THE WORLD!!!). This year it is in Atlanta… well, somebody prefers a hot and wet locations every year… Atlanta, New Orleans, Orlando in the summer...
As an technical evangelist by heart I am totally aware that I am part of a marketing (and sales but more marketing) organization. At the MGX I do always realize that beside the fact that Microsoft has more than a thousand people working as evangelist all over the world we are a small part of the whole thing. Baby, it is simply huge!!! I expect about 13,000+ people there…
Most people outside Microsoft asking me what the MGX is I simply say: Do you know the “Developer Developer Developer” Video?? That is MGX… To be honest when I was on my way to my first MGX (five years ago…oh boy!!!) I was a bit reluctant to the idea of a CEO of a company like Microsoft going berserk on stage. Since then this is my personal highlight!! It really is… This man is so energetic… once in his kind.
This year MGX for me is more than a MGX. I won a prize. Or should I say my team won and I am the lucky guy to carry it?? I will try to get something back for them. Oh, by the way: The price is called Circle of Excellence Platinum. Beside having a real nice hotel I will have a dinner with Steve Ballmer… stay tuned here I will report.
So by now I will drink another coffee in the LH lounge at Munich airport. Tickets, passport and smartcard ready to go… Another coffee and then –yeaha - a nine hour flight to Chicago and on to Atlanta. The city of CNN and Coca-Cola…
CU
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Hi…
you can find the content of the 360° Security Roadshow here http://www.microsoft.com/germany/msdn/events/archiv/securitydays2008/default.mspx (German only!!)
It was an interesting experience. I did the keynote and really tried to deliver some insights and backgrounds. At least the direct feedback showed I reached my personal goal ;-)
CU
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…Yes, I work for Microsoft and I am proud of it.
To be very honest he was one of the reasons I joined this company. The people working here are my personal reason to stay…
Microsoft – Change the world or go home!!! We just started…
CU
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hi…
Yieeepieeee… we finally made it!!
Most of the times nobody can see the efforts that are necessary to take to setup something like two conferences in a row. But be sure: There is a LOT of work necessary ;-)
But: We came over the first hills and setup two conferences in a row:
Technical Summit: It is all about Developers, Developers, Developers!!! Something we want to change based on your feedback is relevancy. I personally want this conference to be relevant to the max!! I want to have the perfect mixture of news and best practices, theory and code, networking and learning. Sometimes to follow this north star means to look outside the box. You will be amazed with what we will come up I am more than sure. Some things are still in the making and I am not allowed to talk about now. But I will soon…
XTOPIA: Last year we did an experiment. New name, new concept, new audience, new everything. It showed that the concept works!!! Now let’s enter the second round (and you know that the version number 2.0 has its own magic these days). This time we want to do the same but better ;-) We learned a whole bunch and want to show what we learned…
Well, now it is about time to click on the links above, register and we meet in Berlin, Germany, at the XTOPIA (16.-18. November) and/or at the TechSummit (19.-21. November)
CU
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Hi…
I did a directx webcast series long, long time ago ;-) That time there was no XNA and we did some managed directx (we mean Dirk Primbs at my side).
Since then I get a question once a week: Where are the demos??
For me this means there are still people out there watching the webcast series!!
Thank you!!!
It is a shame but the demos are no longer where they had been the time we recorded the webcasts. I have placed them on my private server which you can find in my older blog entry here:http://blogs.msdn.com/frankfi/archive/2007/03/19/directx-demos-oldies-but-goldies.aspx
So, keep on coding… but maybe have a look on the predecessor XNA, too ;-)
CU
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Hi…
I just planted my tree. Its name is a reminder of a place which was very influential in my life…
And here it is:
Mein Baum in CARBON GROVE – Jeder Baum zählt.
Watch it growing ;-) Or get your own one here http://www.carbongrove.com/
CU
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Hi…
I just found this article http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Application-Development/Move-Over-AJAX-ARAX-is-Here/
First: I am totally behind the fact that JavaScript is not the solution for the next step towards RIA. That’s why my feeling is that AJAX is a nice work around but not more.
There is another approach to AJAX. The idea is to develop in what ever language (for example Ruby) and recompile it to JavaScript. While this sounds reasonable at first I don’t trust it in the end. Recompilation of languages (together with optimization and things) is NOT easy. Specially if you have to target different platforms (let’s face it: Different browsers means different platforms for JavaScript) and things like performance (not only runtime also bandwidth) etc.
So, no, it is not AJAX.
In this article the idea behind the .net framework in Silverlight 2 is reflected. And now it comes:
The DLR can not only run Ruby (ARAX) but also Python (APAX) or – and this is a community project – PHP (APhpAX)… you can go down the line with dynamic languages as far as you can.
THIS IS COOL!!! The thing is that you can run high level language on the client in conjunction with back end services…
Is this the solution for every scenario? Nope. But sorry AJAX is also not the final solution for everything…
CU
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Hi…
as you might know beside being a techie by heart I have a bit of a marketing job to do. Part of my job is marketing developer content. So I have started to combine two things: Technical thinking with marketing… by the way: Excuse me if I am not using the exact academic terms :-)
The question was: If you have a group of developers – say in Germany – how can you segment so that you are able to provide optimal service???
First I must do the distinction between marketing and advertising. This is something I always got wrong when I was the guy up on stage.
The process of marketing is can be divided in x distinct phases:
1. A company discovers a need in a market. This is done by observing and listening to potential customers. Most of the times it is just a matter of asking what the customer misses or would do better.
2. Designing a product. With the knowledge of step 1 go back and start to think about the product, be innovative (which means go beyond what have been done so far but stay realistic), try, improve, try again. Why does WD-40 has this name? Because there were 39 prototypes before the final product. The story goes Dyson made thousands of prototypes. My personal favorite is the process of IDEO. Another very important principle was stated by Henry Ford “If I had asked my customers what they had wanted they would have told me “A faster horse carriage”.” Innovation goes a bit beyond what the potential customer can see but not so far that nobody understands what you are talking about.
3. Build he product. You all know this but it may take quite some time.
4. Bring it to the market. This means your potential customers should become aware, understand the benefits and – hopefully in the end – are willing to pay for your product.
4.a. Restart the circle with 1.
4.b. See how the market adopt the product and try to figure out how you can improve the product by using the current version and add simple things to it. Then start with step 4 on this.
This is my definition of marketing. It is the process of building a product and bring it to market. By the way: Advertising is part of marketing but a tiny one. And yes, today’s companies are all about marketing.
While in the recent past marketing understood their role more in an advertiser way. And advertisement was like hammering on the potential customers nerves. The web changed that. And if there is something Google taught me: Their real innovation was combining search with advertisement by making the advertisement a part of the service. The ads are no longer a thing getting on your nerves. You are searching for hotels in Las Vegas? Here are the results and by the way, here are some ads (or sponsored links) by hotels in Vegas.
This changed marketing in a way that it is no longer only a war on eye balls it is about relevancy. If I can make my offering relevant to you, you are about to listen. And maybe you will tell your friend and so on. The first of all I must ensure that the actions I take to market my product must be relevant, then my product must be relevant and last I can beef up the relevancy of my product if I add tools, tricks and stuff on top. This is especially true if your product is a platform product like an OS. So it is all about relevancy.
This step 4.b. ought to be what is keeping or even increase your product’s relevancy between the product cycles. Do not underestimate this. Just because it is a good example, let’s take Windows XP. Say we would have bought a PC in the very first days of XP and would have locked it away. Today we would buy a modern one and compare them in the sense of the OS. There would be a huge difference. Some evergreen apps on the box would still be there but changed appearance dramatically. New apps beefed up the appearance, usability and functionality of the system. Or take FireFox: The plugins are the live blood.
In the web I found what is called behavioral marketing and it made totally sense to me. But I altered the idea a bit to fit my needs.
So my idea is to try to divide your potential customers in groups that have the same behavior. For me behavior means: The same needs, problems, interests, use the same tools. Then put yourself in their shoes and ask: How can I make our offering (the marketing, the product, the services) relevant to them?? I good way to do that is ask them, go out and spend time working along with them etc. Probably you will find that there are groups of people across company sizes or specializations sharing the same needs.
This will give you a good feeling how to build offerings relevant to them. And it is all about relevancy!! Your marketing must support their daily live. It must be aligned to the behaviors of your customers. And so must be the products. Then you can even go a step deeper and make a selection within your offerings. A selection which is unique to each individual based on a profile. For me this is a two step process. First we need to have offerings which are relevant in the first place. And then secondly you can make them even more relevant by filtering out what is only somewhat relevant.
In the end this is nothing more than common sense but this is what this MBA stuff is all about…
CU
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Hi…
yes, we will try… our first mini-micro-nano-Barcamp. The real story behind it is interesting enough:
We are in the process of doing a security roadshow. Since we had problems getting the locations filled (Developers and security is always the same…) we asked ourselves why not doing something completely different (just as Monty Python said) and came up with this idea:
We call it Sonntag 2.0 and it will take place this Sunday near Munich:
Startseite - Sonntag 2.0 @ mixxt
If you can spare the time, are interested in Security, Web 2.0, people, food, drinks, what not… well, be a part of it… ;-)
CU
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P.S.: I just discovered that the German translation for start page “Startseite” sounds not to bad… would be a good name for an agency or a web company… but sure enough: It will be taken by now anyhow…
Hi…
those of you interested in the XTOPIA event can join our facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=9994582477&ref=nf
CU
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Hi...
like last years there is a PC Design competition going on right now. One of the ideas I like a lot is the Backpacker's Diary:
Next-Gen PC Design | Home
CU
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Hi…
can you feel the electricity in the air?? Yes, it is XTOPIA time again. This time we will combine XTOPIA with a Technical Summit. Idea is to sharpen the profile of XTOPIA and to have a hard core, MS related, developer festival just behind the Designer, Business and UX Developer event – XTOPIA!!!
So, CU in Berlin ;-)
0xff
Hi…
since I was asked at a barcamp some time ago I kept an eye on a project called Community Clip within Microsoft. Now you can find the tool and the clips here http://communityclips.officelabs.com/default.aspx
With the tool it is easy to record from within office your favourite best practice and share your knowledge with others. The tool resemble itself as a recording button. Last time I checked it was .net based. I have to check again ;-)
CU
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Hi…
did you ever have a deja-vu … a flash back from years ??? I just had one…
A colleague of mine – the Master Chief Organizer of the CeBIT fair here in Germany, send me this letter. Babe, this must be somewhat …at least …I would say … 6 years or so…
And yes: I have not shaved since then but yes, I did change the company I work for…
CU
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Hi…
I just saw an article on WebOSes. To give a short definition:
Browser based “OS” which provides basic OS functionality as reading/writing data to a simulated file system, allows multiple windows on the screen and such alike.
First I was really impressed. Then I thought a bit longer … ;-)
What this does is taking the desktop metaphor to the web. The idea of icons and windows, menus and such alike. To be honest this is – while being invented ages ago by Xerox in PARC – the default metaphor of today. There are others which haven’t been successful in the past and others which have their niche (typical example are telling machines).
Certainly it is easy to swallow to transport what we already have to web. Users are more likely to adopt and accept. But is THIS the web it ought be??
While the desktop metaphor has its advantages (otherwise why is today’s dominant metaphor) it is quite old. The time Xerox invented it nearly no computer was equipped to deliver the desktop metaphor. Xerox invented a comprehensive device – IBM called it a serial pointing device in its PS/2 handbook others call it the mouse – to make it accessible.
Today we are even deeper in natural user interfaces (something the web is not really equipped for). But new technologies also changed the way we work and interact with computers anyway. Take the idea of a folder or directory. In the real physical world you can sort things for easy access or you can pile up everything just as I do on my desk. If you need something search for it. At least you know that there is only one pile to search through… In the physical world the size of the pile is somewhat limited. Take the library of the university next to your home. All books on one stack…not worky.
Different in the digital world. Since the dawn of search engines I stopped using folders. Instead I throw anything in one folder and use search to find what I need.
While this not necessarily lead out of the desktop metaphor other things might. And I simply refuse limiting my thoughts to this metaphor. Maybe you too…
CU
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