The Wit and Ramblings of David Giard - Community
Demanding rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty since 1962

Saturday I had the pleasure of speaking at the ann arbor Day of .Net. 

The event drew presenters and attendees from Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, demonstrating what an impressive software development community we have here in the Midwest.

My friend Nino drove up Friday night to stay at my place and we met other out-of-towners for dinner Friday night.

I delivered a presentation on Microsoft's Managed Extensibility Framework ("MEF").  The presentation was well-received.  The audience had many questions about the technology afterwards and I noticed a few people from the audience posting on Twitter about MEF in the days following the event.

A new job and a tight project deadline kept me from working on my presentation until a couple days prior to the event.  The good news is that I had presented on MEF three times in the past.  The bad news was that the API had changed radically since I developed my original presentation.  So I not only had to expand the presentation to fit the time allotted, I had to completely rewrite my demo to match the current API.  I was up most of Friday night and missed all the morning sessions of the conference to finish on time for my 1PM presentation.   Luckily I finished successfully and the demos went off without a hitch.  

I discovered a blog entry by Brad Abrams that helped immensely.  Brad wrote a set of samples using MEF that I loved for their simplicity.  Don't tell Brad, but I borrowed liberally from his samples to populate one of my demos.

After my presentation, I was able to settle in and enjoy the conference.  I attended two sessions, both in the same room which suited my tired body.  Jennifer Marsman showed a bunch of new features in .Net 3.5.  Next Brian Prince discussed the role of an architect on a project.  I've heard Jennifer and Brian speak many times in the past, so I knew they would be good and I was not disappointed.

I did have time to poke my head into a few presentations long enough to snap a photo or two.  If you heard a clicking coming from the doorway, that was me.

After the event, many of us met at a local watering hole for some food, drink and fellowship.  My new employer Sogeti was kind enough to spring for the food and drinks.  I was well worn down but it was great to reconnect with people who share many of my passions.

I actually volunteered to be something called a "Venue Coordinator" for this event.  But, as this was the fourth time the event was held, the folks at Washtenaw Community College knew everything that needed to be done and delivered to perfection.  I ended up doing no work for this role, so I may volunteer as venue coordinator next year as well.

I took some photos at the event, which you can see here.

I also put together a slideshow with a Warren Zevon soundtrack that you can see and hear below: 

I stopped by the Agile Summer Camp near Brighton, MI yesterday.

The purpose of the event was to gather together people from the software community in an isolated environment to discuss the issues of agile development.  The event was held at a campground in order to isolate people from the distractions of e-mail, web and home responsibilities.  Discussions were held in an "open spaces" style, meaning participants sat in a circle, were given a starting topic, and were free to take the discussion to any point it logically evolved.

I can't evaluate the success of the open spaces as I was only there for a couple hours and my visit coincided with the dinner break, but those I talked to all gave me positive feedback about the day they had spent at the camp so far.  There was no open space discussion scheduled during dinner, but there were still many conversations about agile methodologies, software development, and all the things these folks have in common. 

Most camp participants stayed from Friday evening until Sunday morning and slept in log cabins without electricity or plumbing.  Family obligations prevented me from spending the weekend, but I wanted to stop by because I heard there would be a lot of bright, passionate people in attendance. There were.  Despite surviving the first 24 hours of primitive conditions, the group still radiated a lot of energy.

I applaud this event, not only because those who participated seem to have got a great deal out of it; but because it is one more example of people in the community creating something that will enhance others in the community.  This spirit of cooperation, support and fellowship is one of the reasons I enjoy doing what I do.

Note: Click here to view photos of the 2008 Agile Summer Camp.

There's nothing quite like riding on a bus for 27 hours with a few dozen software developers.

That's exactly what I did last weekend on my way to and from DevLink in Murfreesboro, TN.

The DevLink bus was the result of much hard work by Amanda who did most - if not all - the organizing.

The bus began its odyssey Wednesday night in Grand Rapids, MI before proceeding to Lansing.  When the bus picked me up in Plymouth, MI at 9:15 PM, it had already been traveling for 3 hours.  From there, it rolled on to Toledo, Columbus and Cincinnati (its final southbound stop at 4AM) before proceeding to its final destination in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. 

The first half of the ride was great fun.  I met new people; I reconnected with old friends; and I met people face-to-face with whom I had only communicated electronically.

Event the two times the bus driver got lost couldn't dampen our spirits.  We were having too much fun.

After about 4AM, the trip began to drag.  Everyone was exhausted and the seats were too uncomfortable to allow more than a few minutes sleep at a time.  This was clearly a bus designed for cross-town trips – not cross-country trips.  DVDs provided some entertainment ("The Big Lebowski" and “Office Space” cracked me up) but you can only focus on movies for so long and the acoustics were less than ideal.

We arrived at our hotel worn and weary at 9:30AM Central time, over 13 hours after leaving Plymouth and 16 hours after the bus began its trip. 

24+ hours of sleep deprivation left me physically ill and I spent nearly all of Thursday in bed.

It was good that I did.  The conference began Friday morning and I awoke refreshed and ready to absorb and exchange ideas at what turned out to be an excellent conference.  (You can read more about it here.)

The ride home was an adventure.  Although the conference ended at 6PM, someone decided the bus shouldn't leave town until 9PM so we had to kill a few hours at a restaurant before heading out. 

Although we picked up at least one new traveler on the ride home, we lost a few more.  Some folks booked a flight to Chicago for a Monday business meeting and a couple people elected to rent a car and drive home rather than subject themselves to the length and discomfort of the bus ride.  I was tempted to join them but I stuck with my plan and boarded the bus at 9.

The mood was more subdued on the return trip. We still had some good conversations early in the ride but the environment lacked the energy sparked by seeing people for the first time in months.

About 2AM, I had just begun to drift to sleep when a sound like a jackhammer awakened me suddenly.  I was sitting just above the tire that blew flat traveling 65 miles an hour on I-71 just north of Louisville, KY.  We pulled off the highway in front of a Waffle House in Carrolton, KY and waited 3 hours for the tire to be fixed.  The repair would have taken far less time if the repair guy had not allowed a drunken Waffle House customer to play with the lug nut gun.  He sheared off the bolts on wheel, forcing the repair guy to return to his shop for more parts and weld on new bolts.

Waffle House provided some entertainment.  Corey attempted to start a relationship with one of the waitresses; and the manager tossed out a drunk who wouldn't stop ordering pork chops long after he was told the restaurant was out of pork chops.  Apparently the Carrolton Waffle House is a magnet for drunks at 2AM Saturday night.  Go figure.

We got back on the highway about 5AM so exhausted that even the uncomfortable seats wouldn't prevent a few hours dozing.

I thought things would go quicker after this because the drivers knew the route better, having just driven it 3 days earlier.  Alas, we became lost in northeast Ohio and drove nearly to Cleveland before turning west toward Toledo.

At 12:30 Eastern time - 14.5 hours after leaving the hotel and 17.5 hours after the end of the conference - we pulled into the parking lot in Plymouth.  I was never so happy to see my car and the 40 minute drive home seemed trivial. 

I was scheduled to read aloud at the 12:15 mass in my church and the last minute substitute is probably still angry with me for missing this, but we all arrived safely.

Was the bus ride a success?  Would I do it again?  Would I take a bus to a distant location with dozens of others like me?  I've decide that, if I can be promised a more comfortable seat, I will do it the next time it's offered.  Everything else was easily tolerable and I did enjoy the fellowship that came with such a long ride with like-minded people.  I even got a few job leads from the conversations I had on the two rides (I am between jobs for those who don't know).

If you go on such a trip, my only advice is

1. Be prepared for anything
2. If the Waffle House waitress in Carrolton, Ky tells you they are out of pork chops, shut up and order the hash browns. 

Note: Click here to see more photos from DevLink and the famous bus ride.

People attend conferences for many different reasons.  Some come for the content of the lectures; some come to meet and hear well-known speakers; some come to meet and network with others in the industry; some come to see old friends.

Me, I come for all those reasons.  At DevLink last week in Murfreesboro, TN, I experienced all those things and more. 

But I also experienced something new.  I had heard of Open Spaces in the past but had not experienced them.  At DevLink, Open Spaces were promoted heavily as a different way of exchanging ideas.  I was curious and gave it a try.

An Open Space event consists of developers sitting together roughly in a circle in a room and they exchange ideas with one other.  A topic is picked in advance by the group but the conversation is not limited to that topic.  If the conversation drifts from the assigned topic and the group remains engaged, this is perfectly all right.  The important thing is that ideas are exchanged and the group remains passionate about the conversation.

And I heard a great deal of passion at the DevLink Open Spaces that I attended.

During the event, I attended 3 Open Spaces sessions plus the planning session (where topics were picked) and the wrap-up session (where the group reviewed the open spaces of the previous 2 days).  In each session I attended, I heard bright people sharing great ideas.  Sometimes we argued and sometimes we were in violent agreement but I enjoyed it all. 
In a session on Service Oriented Architecture, I argued earnestly that, due to the costs of SOA, support from the top was necessary for SOA to succeed within any organization.  Most of the other loud persons in the group insisted that newer tools such as WCF had lowered the cost of SOA sufficiently that a strong grass roots effort could drive SOA in an organization.  By the end of the session, I think we had all learned something and moved a little toward understanding the others' side.

I did attend a few traditional sessions in which a speaker stands in front of a classroom and delivers a lecture to an audience that is mostly passive.  Richard Campbell and Carl Franklin were two of the speakers at this conference and I have long been a fan of their .Net Rocks podcast, so I made a point to attend a lecture by each of them.  Both were good sessions but they were easily topped by Joe Wirtley who gave an excellent talk on WPF.  It was excellent because it focused on building a business application, rather than the eye candy that clutters so many WPF presentations.

Overall the conference was a great success.  It drained me of energy but it fired me up at the same time.

And I haven't even told you about the 28 hours I spent riding a bus with a few dozen techno-geeks.  Or the flat tire that left us stranded in Carrolton, KY for 3 hours at 2AM.  But that’s another story.

Note: Click here to see more photos from DevLink

July 3 (Contribupendence Day) is almost over.  As promised, I wrote reviews for several colleagues on LinkedIn.  Most of the people I reviewed were those I worked with directly at my last employer.  I am currently on a project that allows me to work directly with a couple folks from my current employer. 

I became motivated enough that I ended up writing 7 reviews tonight (I had only promised 5) and I invited quite a few new people to connect with me on LinkedIn and Plaxo. 

I was surprised at the number of past and present colleagues that are using these networking sites.  My connections should at least double in the next few days.

Hopefully the people I recommended will be inspired to pick 5 people of their own and this thing will explode.

My plan is to write more recommendations in the coming weeks.  I have some that I've written but cannot make official until the recipient accepts my connection invitation. 

I won't copy my recommendations on this site but you are welcome to read them here.

Again thanks to Jeff for suggesting this.

Tomorrow - July 3 - is Contribupendence Day.

What is Contribupendence Day, you ask?  Well it's the day when all readers of my blog agree to send me $20.

Not really.  Contribupendence Day is the brainchild of Microsoft Developer Evangelist Jeff Blankenburg, who woke up one day and noticed the untapped potential of networking sites such as LinkedIn, Plaxo and Facebook.  These sites give us the opportunity to recommend or comment on those we have worked.  Unfortunately, few of us take advantage of this feature which is a shame.  These recommendations could be a good source of feedback to potential employers and might make the difference in getting an interview or landing a job.

He's right of course. I've been on LinkedIn for a couple months and I am connected to a few dozen people but these are very passive connections.  In the back of my mind, I tell myself I'll focus on LinkedIn the next time I look for a job (which hopefully won't be for a long time).  The problem with this attitude is that I'm relying on everyone else to motivate themselves around my schedule.  When I'm ready to look for a job, will others have the time to write a glowing review for me?  If I worked for or with them, will they even remember my specific accomplishments?

So, at Jeff's urging, I'm being proactive.  Tomorrow I resolve to write reviews of 5 people on LinkedIn.  In doing so, I hope to inspire these 5 to either review me or to review someone else, which will set in motion a process that may very well come back to me.

I've worked with some great people in my life so it wasn't difficult to pick five that I can rave about.  I'll be reviewing them tomorrow and I urge you to do the same.

Happy Contribupendence Day everybody!  And you are welcome to review me.  Or, if that's too much trouble, just send me the 20 bucks.

The ann arbor Give Camp is July 11-13 at Washtenaw Community College - less than two weeks away.  For those who haven't heard, this is a great opportunity to contribute to some worthy causes, flex your tech muscles and network with the developer community. 

At this event, software developers, DBA, project managers and UI designers will get together and develop projects for local charities.  So many charities requested projects for this camp that most had to be turned away due to lack of resources.  The more people involved, the more charities we can help.  The facilities will be available and staffed round-the-clock on this weekend and refreshments will be provided.  For security reasons, you must register in advance in order to participate.  Jennifer Marsman of Microsoft is organizing the camp. 

I will be out of town with my son the weekend of the event, but I volunteered to help with some of the evaluations of the projects because it I really wanted to contribute.

You can get more information and you can register for this great outing at http://www.annarborgivecamp.org/.  If you will be in town, please take a look and consider giving your time.

I had a terrific time yesterday at the Lansing Day of .Net yesterday. 

This was the last in an ambitious string of community-sponsored events in Michigan and Ohio under the "Day of .Net" branding.  In the past two months, DODN events have been held in Wilmington, OH, Grand Rapids, MI, Cleveland, OH, and Lansing, MI.  I managed to make the two Michigan events but family commitments kept me from the ones in Ohio.

A Day of .Net event features numerous speakers (usually about 30) speaking on topics related to software development.  The primary focus is .Net development but peripheral topics are almost always included.  I heard a very good talk yesterday by Dan Rigsby on the agile methodology in which software was barely mentioned.

Prior to yesterday, I wondered if the Lansing event might be anticlimactic coming so soon after three similar events.  I worried for nothing.  In fact, the opposite was true.  They managed to attract an excellent group of speakers, a full slate of sponsors (meaning, among other things, many cool door prizes) one of the better facilities I've seen (Lansing Community College West Campus) and the mayor of Lansing.  People were generally excited about this event.  I've heard - but can't confirm - that the Day of .Net was covered by two TV stations.  Jeff McWhirter and his group did a great job putting this together.  I don't know who thought of inviting the mayor, but that was a good idea.

The best part of these events is interacting with the people in the community.  There was a lot of good discussions about various projects, the state of the industry, the role of the community and the various approaches to developing software. 

When it was over, many of us headed over to Jeff's house to celebrate into the night.  I left at around 11 and the place was still packed and the bonfire was blazing.  Mike Wood, an old friend from my Cincinnati days stayed at my house before heading home this morning.

I picked up some nice swag - a copy of Camtasia, a logo t-shirt, and a pint glass featuring the LDODN logo.  This morning, I noticed that the t-shirt includes the slogan "I was there" but the pint glass has a modified slogan "I think I was there".

Here are some photos of the day: Photos.

Yesterday I drove to Grand Rapids for the West Michigan Day of .Net.

I enjoyed the event, despite suffering from heartburn most of the day,

Here is a brief summary of the best sessions I saw

How to Architect Rich Internet Applications

Microsoft architect Josh Holmes gave an overview of what makes up a good rich internet application and when you should attempt to build one.

Getting Started with the ASP.Net MVC Framework
Tim Wingfield of Quick Solutions discussed the MVC framework.  This one had a lot of code samples.

A trip around the block with Rhino.Mocks
This session (led by Quick's Steve Hartman) was more like a roundtable discussion than a presentation.   Steve went through some definitions; stepped through a code sample; then started a discussion with the attendees about different Mock frameworks.

Reliable Messaging in WCF
James Bender of Quick Solutions gave this demo which also contained some good code samples.

A similar event is scheduled next Saturday in Cleveland.   I doubt I'll make that one, but I plan to attend the recently-announced Lansing Day of .Net scheduled June 21.

A couple years ago, I had a chance to speak at a Day of .Net event in ann arbor, MI.  I enjoyed it so much that I signed up as an attendee at the same event last year.

Day of .Net is a single-day conference focused on Microsoft developer technologies.  It is free and takes place on a Saturday which makes it a lot easier to schedule for working professionals.  The speakers tend to be well-known technologists who live within a few hundred miles of the event.  I've been impressed with the lineup at the events I attended. 

The local flavor of the event also gives attendees a great chance to network with similar professionals in their geographic area. The focus tends to be on technology, rather than on strategy, so these things attract more hard-core developers and fewer CIOs and CTOs.

In the next few weeks, three Day of .Nets (or is it Days of .Net?) are scheduled within three hours of my home.  April 19 is the Central Ohio Day of .Net in Wilmington, OH (between Columbus and Dayton); May 10 is the West Michigan Day of .Net in Grand Rapids, MI; and May 17 is the Cleveland Day of .Net in Cleveland, OH.

Depending on my sons' basketball tournament schedules, I hope to attend two of these.  Click the links below for more information.

The sessions were great.  Jeff Blankenburg's demos on Silverlight and Scot Hanselman's Friday keynote address stand out in particular for me.

But I think I got more benefit from the fact that I was able to meet so many other people in the developer community here in the midwest.  I've been traveling so much the last few years that I don't really know that many local people.  I met more developers from Michigan these 2 days than I met during the 4 years I've lived here. 

I also had a chance to mingle with the other folks from Quick Solutions, which is a rare treat.  Although I work for Quick, I live a couple hundred miles from their office in Columbus, so my interaction with them is limited.

The conference was held at the Kalahari Resort, which features a huge indoor water park.  There wasn't much time to enjoy the park during the conference, but some attendees brought their families who splashed around while their spouse did the geek thing.  I promised my 13-year-old son that he could meet me on Friday night with a friend and go to the park.  Unfortunately his ride fell through so I ended up driving back to Michigan Friday night and returning to Ohio Saturday morning to take the boys to the park for the day.  We had a blast!

You can view photos of the conferece here and see a musical slideshow of the photos below