What is the PDC? It's a glimpse into my tomorrow. I love technology and software, I don't plan to hang up my keyboard anytime soon. Therefore, anything discussed at the PDC applies to me and my peers. It took 5 years for my life to catch up with what I was shown at PDC 2000. In fact, I am just now beginning to look into BizTalk and some of the things that were mentioned there. Longhorn, Avalon, WinOE, WinFS, XAML, Team Systems, Indigo - that's alot to swallow! These terms are new to me. In 5 years, they will be what I do. I am very psyched to look into that crystal ball!
I am intensely interested in Microsoft's Team Systems but I haven't any spare time to test drive or prototype it. I currently use a custom, Windows-Forms-based build application that integrates with Visual Source Safe and nAnt (Open Source Build Tool). Recently we migrated to a new internal framework and intensified our corporate need to version assemblies. I am petitioning for time to make that extension to the application. I hope it is the last one I have to make. I hope to be migrating to Team Systems ASAP!
First impressions persist for a long time. I was fortunate enough to attend the PDC in 2000. Microsoft announced the details surrounding .Net. I was giddy with excitement and having a hard time containing my emotions. When a reporter shoved a microphone in my face and asked me some questions, I answered eagerly and with the frankness of a 2 year old walking into Disney World. What she used was this. While it was not inaccurate to say migration would take a while, my statement wasn't printed in context and therefore sounds like I had reservations. The truth is that we did implement a year later and have been dedicated to .net ever since. I've even started...
Two years ago, I regularly attended the Atlanta ASP.Net User Group, but felt myself longing for a good C# (C Sharp) focused community. Stuart Dickerson, the founder of the Asp.Net user group, helped me to start The Atlanta C Sharp User Group. It started small. We met at New Horizons Learning Center, then Michael Earls stepped up and started making things happen. The next thing I knew, we were INETA sanctioned and meeting at Microsoft's Atlanta campus. Doug Turnure of Microsoft took an active and effective role in helping to grow the group. I ran the group for nearly two years, until about six months ago, when I passed moderation of the group to Paul Lockwood and then he passed it to Keith Rome. All of these individuals have done amazing things with the group, it now regularly brings more than 30 attendees to each monthly meeting (I don't have an exact count but its enough to make you feel intimidated when winging a presentation). In May 2005, the CLR team, Brad, Claudio, Kit, and Jason met with us, turned us into CLR experts, had dinner with us, and left us feeling closer to the mother
This little story illustrates one point: As a community, we grow. That is why Microsoft wants us to blog about them. That is why we have the Atlanta C Sharp User group. Every tiny individual plays a crucial role in the larger picture. We're all bound by profession, by passion and by interest. Those who insist that they are the elite just get left behind. Those who share and remain humble get to see the future.
In the near future, I may once again take responsibility for the group again (Keith has asked for help, and he's really done a great job with it). I would like to meet the right people, ask the right questions and learn the right topics so I can share with the Atlanta community. The PDC would be a gooooood place to make that happen, wouldn't it?
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