- Update on MicroISV Evangelism
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For the past 4 years I have had the enjoyable task of being the MicroISV Evangelist for Microsoft. Recently based on some organizational changes and task assignment realignment, I have begun to focus my attention full-time on other efforts and thus, effective now, am no longer tasked with MicroISV-related responsibilities.
If you are a MicroISV and are interested in working with Microsoft, I'd highly recommend checking out the BizSpark program and the Microsoft Startup Zone http://www.microsoftstartupzone.com/pages/home.aspx
I may get the opportunity to attend SIC this year but it's looking increasingly unlikely. If I can swing a speaker slot at TechEd EMEA, I'll be visiting ESWC '09.
I thank all of the members of the MicroISV community for their interest and support and look forward to all your wonderful products which I, and millions of other Windows users, continue to enjoy each day.
- Update on Microsoft Blueprints
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Most of you who read this blog know that for the past 3 years I’ve been driveing a project that was first called Project Glidepath, then Software + Services Blueprints and finally Microsoft Blueprints.
You may have also noticed recently that the Codeplex project where we were distributing the bits has been closed and wondered what’s up.
We are making some changes around Blueprints. Blueprints were an important incubation whose purpose was to explore process guidance and automation. They helped us gain a better understanding of requirements for this kind of technology through customer and partner feedback.
Recently, however, we took down the Blueprints project on CodePlex and the Blueprints home page on MSDN. We did this in order to focus on the incubation internally. This work includes determining how best to support process guidance and automation capabilities in a manner aligned with Visual Studio Team System product direction.
Since February, I also have moved from focusing on evangelism to spending my time working more closely with the Visual Studio team and am looking forward to seeing what comes from that collaboration.
- Lang.Net 2009 is underway
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Missed it last year but I did manage to attend Lang.Net 2009!
Very interesting to hear what programming language designers and implementers are thinking in this brave-new-web-world.
Check it out for yourself: http://www.langnetsymposium.com or follow #langnet or langdotnet on Twitter
- Multi Tenant Data Access (MTDA) S+S Blueprint Now Available
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The MTDA (Multi Tenant Data Access) S+S Blueprint is now online.
You can get more details by watching the Channel9 interview I did with Eugenio Pace: http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/MichaelLehman/MultiTenant-Data-Access-MTDA-SS-Blueprint-Released/
Download either using the S+S Blueprints Manager or from codeplex: http://www.codeplex.com/mtda
- Silverlight Blueprint for Sharepoint (Beta 2) available
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The Silverlight Blueprint for SharePoint is now online on Codeplex: http://www.codeplex.com/sl4sp
This latest update works with Silverlight 2 Beta 2.
- New CodePlex site: Silverlight Blueprint for SharePoint now live!
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The new CodePlex site for the Sliverlight Blueprint for Sharepoint is now live!
Currently the code for this S+S Blueprint is in beta and we are actively revising it to work with the recently released Silverlight 2 Beta 2.
Head on over to http://www.codeplex.com/SL4SP for an FAQ, a link to a screencast about installation and discussion forums where you can ask questions to the developers and make suggestions.
- Got myself a cool new gig - Senior Architect for S+S Blueprints and Software Factories!
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Just after I joined Microsoft, nearly 4 years ago, I had the opportunity to learn about a super exciting brand new(at least to me) concept called Software Factories. At the time I was fortunate to be working in a group that enabled me to spend a small portion of my time digging in to the factories concept. In October 2004 I got the chance to work on a full-day OOPSLA tutorial with Jack Greenfield and Keith Short who, along with Steve Cook and Stuart Kent, wrote the definitive book on the subject, and found that while there was a strong theoretical foundation there was very little implementation. After OOPSLA I started a small "skunk works" project to try to build something concrete but then put that on hold when I moved to Seattle in March of 2005.
For the past 3 years I have been on the Platform Evangelism Team as a Technical Evangelist and have been on-point for an interesting stream of technologies and audiences:
- VSTA - Visual Studio Tools for Applications (the C#/VB next gen app scripting engine)
- VSTS - Visual Studio Team System
- Compilers targeted at the CLR
- Shareware/MicroISV developers
- Software-plus-Services Blueprints
as well as on-going work as part of the Channel9 team doing audio and video podcasting.
As part of the work I did as the MicroISV evangelist I created Project "Glidepath", a lightweight Software Factory system which delivered guidance, code and tools helping developers move their applications to Windows Vista. While this was a fun thing to do, building Software Factories wasn't really part of my job description!
A year ago I got the opportunity to lead an effort to create something we eventually named Software-plus-Services Blueprints. For this I adapted the Project "Glidepath" engine to enable a rich UX for delivery of the blueprint contents, essentially creating a branded collection of Software Factories helping people build S+S applications.
Now, due to a fortunate series of serendipitous events, (including Jack moving to the Platform Architecture Team, an unexpected re-org, etc.), this week I moved to the Platform Architecture Team and will finally be working directly with Jack responsible for both S+S Blueprints and Software Factories!
Final note, I am still the guy on-point for MicroISVs. I'll see everyone, as I have for the past 3 years, at the Software Industry Conference in Boston this July and at the European Software Conference in Berlin come November.
- You are invited to the S+S Blueprints and Software Factories Focus Groups at TechEd 2008
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Next week, June 5th and 6th, I will be holding two focus group sessions at TechEd 2008 in Orlando. If you are interested in S+S Blueprints and/or Software Factories and would like to help Microsoft chart the future direction in either of these areas, please click on the email link and let me know which session you would like join.
YOU WILL GET SCHWAG YOU CAN'T GET ANYWHERE ELSE AT TechEd!
Here's the description and details for each group:
S+S Blueprints Focus Group (max 20 attendees)
Orange County Convention Center N329
Thursday June 5, 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Building Software-plus-Services applications involves combining multiple platforms and technologies. As new technologies and architectures evolve Microsoft is building more Software-plus-Services Blueprints to help bridge the gap between vision and technologies, reduce friction and show you how to build great S+S applications. We will also be sharing our expanded plans for Software Factories and how they relate to S+S Blueprints.
Software Factories Focus Group (max 20 attendees)
Orange County Convention Center N329
Friday June 6, 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Software Factories help reduce the cost, time and risk in building complex applications. Designed to help harvest and reapply development knowledge, provide patterns and apply best practices they deliver guidance, code and tools.
Microsoft is expanding its Software Factories Initiative to cover more of the application life cycle, to include more guidance and tools to help in building factories as well as developing more factories to help build Software-plus-Services applications. We will also be sharing our plans for new Software-plus-Services Blueprints and discussing how they relate to Software Factories
Hope to see you there!
- Planning for TechEd Developers US - June 3-6
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UPDATE: S+S Blueprints and Software Factories Focus Groups annoucement. Come help us plan the future!
Today I'm finalizing my plans to bring S+S Blueprints to the US version of TechEd 2008 for Developers which will be in Orlando, Florida on June 3rd through June 6th. It will be one of your last chances to see Bill Gates before he moves on to working full-time at the Gates Foundation starting July 1st.
There will be two new blueprints (and maybe more) to introduce at TechEd and I'd love to connect with developers and architects who have used the existing S+S Blueprints and talk about what you like, don't like and would like to see in future blueprints.
Use the email link to contact me to setup a meeting.
See you in Orlando!
- Steve Gillmor thinks out loud about Live Mesh
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My long time friend and co-conspirator in the software business for almost 20 years, Steve Gillmor, comments about Live Mesh and it's implications.
I think he got it partially right and, of course, based on his limited publically available information, partially wrong.
The future will be, as always, interesting.
- RoboChamps is Live!
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Marc Mercuri, one of the hardest working and smartest people I know, just launched www.RoboChamps.com
RoboChamps is, in Marc's own word:
"...a league, and like sports leagues, will have a regular season comprised of a series of challenges. As RoboChamps is based in simulation, we can provide you with access to environments and robots most people could never get access to - from a trapped filled maze, to city populated with driving cars and working trffic lights, to a city struck by an earthquake, a huge soccer stadium - even the surface of the planet Mars! We'll conclude the season with a single elimination tournament, where we'll continue until we've found four finalist and.... well, I'll talk about that more later in the season, but I'll give you a hint, it involves real robots and a major event."
Check it out!
- Live Mesh application development
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Today at Web 2.0 Expo, Ori Amiga presented the first public view of the Live Mesh developer experience.
Writing code in Iron Python as well as C#, Ori demonstrated, as in his Channel9 video, how easy it is to write apps against the Mesh Operating Environment (MOE).
- Live Mesh coverage from the Webware blog
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Martin LaMonica posted some great information about Live Mesh on the Webware group blog: Microsoft Live Mesh platform takes on Google, Adobe
- More Live Mesh - Follow the Live Mesh group blog
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For great on-going information about Live Mesh follow the Live Mesh group blog.
In particular, I'm keen on the Live Mesh as a Platform post.
- Live Mesh rocks! - Technical Preview Opens Tomorrow
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Last night @ 9PM Microsoft announced the existence of and first technical preview of Live Mesh!
Both Scoble (Ray Ozzie Delivers with Live Mesh) and Mary Jo Foley (Ten Things to know about Microsoft's Live Mesh) are excited and, in my opinion, justifyably so.
The first preview of the combination platform/service opens tomorrow and the developer story/kits will come later which will enable a whole raft of interesting application scenarios.
There a a bunch of videos on Channel9 as well as an interesting walkthrough of the technology from a developer's point of view narrated by Jeremy Mazner you can watch now.
The official announcement also included this list of links:
For more information, go to LiveMesh.com.
You'll be hearing much more about Live Mesh on this blog in the future
