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Happenings Around INETA North America (NorAm) |
INETA is an organization comprised primarily of volunteers that are responsible for the planning and implementation of the services provided to the developer community as well as all the business operations. During the weekend of October 14th I was at Microsoft in Redmond along with NorAm Board members Brendon Schwartz (Technology), Scott Spradlin (Marketing), and Chris Wallace (Membership) for a meeting of the INETA Worldwide Council. The Worldwide Council is comprised of a representative from each of the five INETA worldwide regions who is responsible for setting high level standards and policies for the organization such as brand etc.
During this meeting we did a presentation to the Microsoft representatives that oversee the sponsorship of INETA. In that presentation, among other items, we had a slide summarizing the effort of INETA volunteers over the past year which I have included below.
| | World Region | Average
Number of
Volunteers | Total
Annual
Hours |
| | Asia/Pacific | 25 | 5,000 |
| | Europe | 25 | 5,000 |
| | Latin America | 40 | 8,000 |
| | Middle East/Africa | 20 | 4,000 |
| | North America | 70 | 14,000 |
| | TOTAL | 180 | 36,000 |
Even those of us in the thick of things were surprised at the amount of effort that is contributed to help the developer community. Our profession is quite unique in the passion that people feel about what they do for a living, and the associated effort they are willing to put forth to better the community of their peers. It is a great thing, and why it is so enjoyable to be in the profession.
INETA was founded around this passion of helping others in the developer community and continues to do so today. As mentioned here each month we are looking for several volunteers to assist in the Marketing, Sponsorship, and Technology/Web Site areas for INETA North America. If you have time and are interested please contact our Administrative Director, Nancy Mesquita at
nancy.mesquita@ineta.org.
Chris Pels, President, INETA NorAm chris.pels@ineta.org
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INETA Live Series Continues |
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INETA Live! Monthly webcasts for and by user group leaders and members. Sharing technical and administrative expertise through live webcasts and downloadable files.
Please visit http://live.ineta.org to read about the current topic, register for the webcasts and to download archived presentations. INETA is all about leveraging and sharing knowledge, so please invite your members to join us. And, we are always looking for good topics and new presenters. So, if you have suggestions or would like to volunteer, please email, Teresa Hennig, our INETA webcast host.
Teresa@DataDynamicsNW.com.
Best Practices for Managing Your User Group Web Site
Wednesday, November 8th at 3:30PM EST
As user group leaders we often struggle with similar issues including the challenging task of creating a web presence for our user group that allows us to effectively communicate with our membership, manage event details and attract new members. Join us on Wednesday, October 25th for an exciting discussion on managing an effective website for your user group. This webcast will feature a walkthrough of some great solutions that will get you up and running with a user group website that allows you to achieve your goals for communication with your membership without taking too much time out of your ever so busy schedule.
Intended Audience: User group leaders, members, or community enthusiasts that are interested in learning about some great options for managing an effective user group or community website.
Sign up for this event today at http://live.ineta.org.
Amanda Murphy, Vice President
Community Activities, INETA NorAm
amanda.murphy@ineta.org
INETA and Live from Redmond presents more in-depth webcasts directly from the product teams at Redmond. Go to http://live.ineta.org
for a complete schedule and registration links. Here is a sample list of talks for this fall:
- Introducing the Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions; Oct 19
- An in-depth look at the ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions Update Panel; Oct 26
- Introducing the Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit; Nov 7
- ClickOnce Tips and Tricks and what's new in Orcas; Nov 9
- Smart Client: Offline Data Synchronization and Caching for Smart Clients; Nov 14
- Building your own Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX control extender; Nov 16
- Using the Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX Library with "other" server technologies; Nov 21
- Client Application Services in Orcas; Nov 28
- Microsoft AJAX Patterns - Implementing Predictive Fetch with Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions; Nov 30
- Visual Studio: Developing Local and Mobile Data Solutions with SQL Server Everywhere; Dec 4
- IronPython: Developing agile but rich client applications using Python; Dec 6
- Team development on web applications; Dec 12
Go to
http://live.ineta.org for complete details and check out the links. Registration will
add the event to your calendar and send you reminder emails.
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Mobile Connections |
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Plan to attend the premier event for all things mobile this November 6-9 in Las Vegas.
Mobile Connections
will showcase mobile development technologies for both mobile PCs (laptops, Tablet PCs, Ultra-Mobile PCs)
and mobile devices (Smartphones, Pocket PCs).
View the session list
and register now to take advantage of the early-bird rate.
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Speaker's Corner with Chris Menegay |
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Our friend
Julia Lerman
has uncovered an interesting trend among INETA speakers! In the June INETA Newsletter, INETA Speaker Phil Weber told us that he learned to program by hanging out at the local Radio Shack and playing on their TRS-80. This month's INETA speaker interview is with Chris Menegay, a Team System guru who lives in Texas, also credits his local Radio Shack and a TSR-80 for his binary beginnings. We'll certainly have to monitor this trend.
You are a big name in VSTS. How have you managed to escape the clutches of Microsoft's Human Resources department so far?
I started Notion Solutions because I like doing consulting work. I get bored pretty easily if I work on the same thing for a long time, so consulting allows me to work with a variety of companies with a variety of challenges. Working for Microsoft would be interesting, but almost all of the career paths lead to Redmond, and it's far too dreary there for my tastes.
Besides all of the Team development stuff, do you have any secret .NET passions?
Not really. To me, programming has become the part of the job that you have to do after you figure out the solution to the problem. I used to love programming, and I still do in small doses, but not enough that anything in .NET really excites me that much.
What did you think you wanted to be when you grew up?
A programmer. I took a Logo class at Radio Shack when I was a kid (taught on a TRS-80). I enjoyed it, the ability to take a set of tools and create things was very interesting to me. If you have a young child and want to introduce them to Logo, check out http://el.media.mit.edu/logo-foundation/logo/index.html.
Are you a 24/7 developer or do you have a life away from the keyboard?
I play computer games for fun. When I'm being good I go to the gym a lot. A computer career can make you pretty lazy, I try to combat that whenever possible.
What was your path into being a .NET developer.
I used to be a PowerBuilder developer, and then the Internet came along and pretty much killed off PB. I saw that coming before it happened and got a job doing VB6 work. I hated VB6, but at least there was a future there. From there I moved early to .NET and did training and consulting when it was first out.
When did you discover your inner geek?
I think that is one of those things that comes to you gradually. When you are young, geeks and nerds aren't looked at favorably, so we all fight it a bit. Eventually, you realize that being a geek is fun, and you begin to embrace your geekiness. My path began with that Logo class and I really didn't accept the fact that I was a geek until some time after college.
When you are not presenting at INETA user groups, what do you do for a living?
I do sales and consulting work at Notion Solutions.
We help companies that are trying to get better at building software systems by adopting Visual Studio Team System. I do process consulting, mentoring, training, etc. The general idea is that it's not the programming that's hard, it's the actual process of building complex systems. Our goal is to make that process easier so programmers can write code and get stuff done.
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DevConnections Las Vegas |
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www.DevConnections.com The premiere developer & DBA event returns to Las Vegas
Microsoft ASP.NET Connections
VS and & .NET 3.0 Connections
Mobility and SQL Server Connections
Nov 6 - 9, 2006 at Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, NV
The largest Developer & DBA conference for Microsoft technology returns to heat up the strip again with 200+ in-depth sessions, 100+ Microsoft and Industry expert presenters, expo hall, jam session and networking opportunities. You will not want to miss Microsoft rolling out many surprise announcements. INETA members may register with discount code INETA on www.DevConnections.com to receive a $100 discount only one discount offer applies BONUS: Co-located at Mandalay Bay will be Microsoft's "Ready for A New Day IT Pro event focused on Windows Vista, Exchange Server 2007, and Office, DevConnections attendees will have free access to those sessions as well.
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From the Editor |
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Well, the newsletter is a little light this month. Primarily because we've been incredibly busy here at INETA
working on plans to bring more benefits to the user groups!
Secondarily, I could use some additional help with
pulling great content from the user groups.
We hear about so many great things happening in the community, but we don't have the resources to cover it all.
If you have a flair for writing and would be interested in occasionally
covering something that's of interest to our readers by interviewing someone, collecting photos, etc., then send
us your contact information and we will get you plugged into the massive newsletter machine.
You'll get the coveted reward of community recognition (we include your name) for your efforts.
As always, email
Nancy Mesquita. (She's the hub of the great INETA wheel...she keeps the
spokes from putting someone's eye out.)
Scott Spradlin, Vice President - Marketing, INETA NorAm scott.spradlin@ineta.org
Archived newsletters are available on the INETA website at
www.ineta.org/newsletters.
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President's Note
