A couple of weeks ago, I was having a discussion with Ingo Rammer while driving from Marrakech back to Casablanca. We pretty much agreed that the applications have to implement the business process, and that it means, most of the time, to think about how the process is implemented with paper and people. At some point, we started talking synchronous vs. asynchronous execution. My immediate remark was that, if processes were meant to be all done synchronously, there would never have been any copy machines at offices... think about it...

5/6/2004 7:19:35 PM UTC    Comments [9] 

   The Imagine Cup is organized for the first time in Morocco this year, and the finals will be on Saturday May 8th.

   The event is taking place at the INPT in Rabat (Institut National des Postes et Télécommunications). I will do a keynote on future technologies...

   I think it will be fun being on the jury (if I make it, for I have a chance to spend some time with my daughter this week end)...

5/6/2004 3:38:06 PM UTC    Comments [11] 

   This year, there will be a great number of RDs at the various TechEds all around the world. At TechEd US (San Diego), at least 40 of us will be present. While you'll find RDs among the speakers, the Cabaña subject matter experts, in the Birds of a feather sessions, and many other activities, you may also encounter them anywhere in the convention center and at the parties.

   What are RDs? We are about 130 independent developers, architects, trainers, consultants and other professionals from all around the world, very informed about Microsoft technologies (usually also about other thecnologies as well). We usually can give you informed opinions, based on real world experience and balaced views about Microsoft technologies.

   Look for the logo (see above), for not only you probably will get good advice and answers to your questions, but this year, there will also be some surprises...

5/5/2004 11:34:57 AM UTC    Comments [0] 

   This year at TechEd, there is an interesting new addition : The Cabañas at the Community Lounge. The idea is to cut the distance between attendees and speakers/experts. Here are a few intersting happenings :

• Meet the Technologist sessions : These are pretty much breakout sessions, but they are more attendee friendly in that they are smaller, and allowing more interaction with the speakers. They range from Chalk Talks to fully preped presentations with demos, in small open Cabañas. Attendees (At most, 30 per session) will have the oportunity to ask questions as the speaker is covering his topic, which, I am sure, will give those sessions a much more intimate atmosphere.
• There will be no speaker lounge at TechEd, and speakers are supposed to simply hung out at the Community Lounge. That will let the attendees find the speakers much more easily and interact much more easily
• There will be a concierge to help attendees find experts that can answer their questions. Many experts both from Microsoft and from the industry will be present in the Community Lounge at specified times, so that attendees can find them easily and discuss their subjects of interest with them.

    If you attend TechEd, don't miss the Community Lounge, it will be a fun and informative experience.

    I will be giving a Meet the Technologist session on "Writing .Net Compact Framework application that use the Telephony and Messaging APIs". If you are interested in mobile device development, come to the session and I will be glad to discuss any questions you may have. I will also be present at the community Lounge pretty much every day.

5/3/2004 4:35:08 PM UTC    Comments [2] 

Hurray for Goksin and his newly invented Just in Time Speaking:

Nairobi airport 12:20PM airplane lands. 1:15PM, grabbing the cab outside of the airport. 1:55 arriving at the Safari Park Hotel. 2:00PM speaking at the Kenya DevDays... What a great guy.

Update : I forgot to add that this comes after Stephen Forte and Patrick Hynds invented JIT Travel (they call it speed travel) last January in Egypt...

4/24/2004 11:42:48 PM UTC    Comments [16] 

 Channel 9 went online yesterday... Check it out.

4/7/2004 9:04:50 PM UTC    Comments [17] 

   The Microsoft North Africa Developer Conference is great stuff. I am not saying so because I am part of the organizing team, but hey, where can you get this great line up of speakers, and still get in for free (even if you are located somewhere else than north Africa, if you don"t speak french, 30 sessions in english), and if you speak French, 48 sessions (The English language session have simultaneous translation into French), covering pretty much the content of a PDC style conference, for just the cost of T&E...

   If you are in doubt (I wouldn't forgive you if you live in North Africa...), just look at the schedule at http://www.microsoft.com/northafrica/ndc//NDC_agenda.asp and at the speakers list at http://www.microsoft.com/northafrica/ndc//NDC_speakers.asp

   Off course I am doing 4 sessions (Secure Coding techniques, Cryptography in .Net, Compact Framework - I go deep into the telephony API, and an intro to Avalon), but don't come to the conf just for my sessions, there are speakers you wouldn't get a chance at seeing unless you go to some expensive seminar or conference like Clemens Vasters, Scott Hanselmann, Stephen Forte, Ingo Rammer, Sylvain Duford, Yann Faure, Andrew Brust, Eric Groise, Goksin Bakir, and others (sorry for the order and for anyone I have not mentioned) ...

   This confenerence is pretty much the only event still having so much content both on current technologies and future technologies (Whidbey, Yukon and Longhorn are all covered). If you really are not convinced by now, I will see you at some conference somewhere, whre you'll paying a lot to get just the info you could have gotten here for free... It is all up to you...

4/7/2004 5:44:00 AM UTC    Comments [8]