Matt Deacon's digestive blog : Events

Windows Server Architect Forum slide decks

Matt Deacon — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 19:24:00 GMT

The slide decks used at the last architect forum can now be found at the new location:

www.microsoft.com/uk/architectforum

Hopefully this will be the location for all future events!

.NET: Client, Server, Cloud @ Qcon

Matt Deacon — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 16:15:00 GMT

Been a bit of fun but I've finally submitted the .NET track agenda for QCon (well it's 90% complete)!

The line up I've organised from my colleagues at Ms UK is the best I've seen for a while!

http://qcon.infoq.com/london/tracks/show_track.jsp?trackOID=97

Microsoft Strategic Architect Forum Session Material available

Matt Deacon — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 20:41:00 GMT

Never heard of SAF? You're an important Microsoft Customer and you've been invited before? Well you need to sort that out! It's about the best thing we do when talking about architecture in my opinion (besides Architect Insight of course!).

Well either way it's worth checking out some of the sessions that were run - great content, speakers invaluable!

http://msdn.microsoft.com/architecture/saf

Picks for me include:

Amazon S3, SQS & ECC, Charlie Bell
Leading Geeks, Paul Glenn
MySpace, Aber Whitcomb
Future of the datacenter, Debra Chrapaty
Mining Lightning For The Cloud, John Dwyer

However, these were just the 'informationals' - none of the roundtable sessions are recorded and some of those were fantastic - some of these guys will be at Insight as a result of meeting with them out there you can be sure of that!

PDC 2008 - Save the Date!

Matt Deacon — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 16:34:00 GMT

OK - probably old news - in which case so why didn't anyone tell me?

So if you've got as many mates as I seem to have then book mark October 27 – 30, 2008 in Los Angeles and keep an eye on http://msdn.microsoft.com/pdc2008 !

Running the .NET track at QCon

Matt Deacon — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 12:30:00 GMT

I've just been invited to run the .NET track at QCon next year (10-14 March 2008) which is a great honour and responsibility I guess! I was invited to attend as an IASA sponsor last year and was amazed at the quality of the speakers and people who were there. This is a must visit conference to get a broad view right across the stack including .NET, Java, Ruby, Agile, Architecture - you name it it's there!

I'm still working on the details of the .NET track but it wont be the same theme as what is printed up there now that's for sure.

Architect Insight Conference: Save the date!

Matt Deacon — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 20:04:00 GMT

Insight the two day Microsoft Conference dedicated to architecture that I've run for the past two years will take place again next year on the 28-29 April so save the date!

The theme this year is "The Future of IT" where we're looking out at next generation architectures. What's 'Oslo' all about? Well we're planning on giving as much early coverage on this as possible!

I'm putting the agenda together as we speak and will post the agenda first thing in the new year when we kick off registration:)!

Oh yes - location; we're coming to sunny Windsor this time around, Beaumont House - looks like a great venue!

TechED 08 Announcements

Matt Deacon — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 18:12:00 GMT

Well it’s been a while since I was last at TechEd. IT was 1998 in fact, in Nice, but enough said of that! So here I am as a speaker this time! Who let him in I can hear you say. However, enough of all that. I guess by the time you read this all the announcements during Soma’s keynote will be old hat to most by now but here are the ones that sparked my imagination.

MSDN goes Web 2.0 and user generated content with the introduction of a promised two-way wiki!

Patterns & Practices will start delivering Blueprint Software + Services building block patterns.

The Ms Sync Framework CTP will introduce key support around offline and peer 2 peer networking.

VS08 split screen working between the browser design surface and the underlying HTML code.

Ajax enablement of ASP.NET controls looks pretty compelling (as long as you stay within the limits of the control I’d imagine).

Popfly explorer supporting search and publishing between ASP and Popfly

OBA Architect Forum Slide decks available

Matt Deacon — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 16:59:00 GMT

You can download all the slides from the recent OBA forum at the following location:

OBA: Unlocking the Business Value of IT

Does Microsoft Understand Business Integration?

Drill Down of OBA Technologies (see David Gristwood's post for more information)

The Microsoft Vision for Unified Communications

Surfacing Real Business Data with Office Business Applications

Ecma Open XML Stories, (see Darren Strange's post for more information)

London Underground Case Study

OBA: Reference Application Packs

Office Business Applications Architect Forum

Matt Deacon — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 16:00:00 GMT

Thanks to everyone who took part in a really great architect forum yesterday! It was our first forum at the new Microsoft London offices and so there were plenty of teething problems including the light switch which kept on getting pressed descending the audience into darkness!

Not to mention the wrath of the demo gods trying to sabotage my machine in particular!

You will be able to pick up the slide decks for this and all architect forums off www.microsoft.com/uk/msdn/events/postevents.aspx

And I have been promised they will be there on Monday 17th September so appologies for any delay.

Software + Services Architect Forum

Matt Deacon — Wed, 30 May 2007 18:44:00 GMT

Slide decks are now (finally available) from the recent S+S Architect Forum we held at UK Microsoft Campus.

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/msdn/events/postevents.aspx

The Ox, The Jam Jar and the Architect

Matt Deacon — Fri, 18 May 2007 15:37:00 GMT

Back in 1906 at the age of 84, Francis Galton came across an Ox weighing competition at the West of England Fat Stock and Poultry Exhibition. The fair goers were asked to guess the weight of the Ox after it was slaughtered and dressed with the nearest guess winning a prize. Galton, always wanting to demonstrate that the political process was flawed and that people in general are not terribly smart asked if he could take away the individual guesses to analyse them. On averaging the combined results he was amazed to find that the average of the crowd was 1197lbs just a mere 1lb away from the actual weight of 1198lbs and in so doing he had provided amongst the first evidence that the collective intelligence of the crowd is often significantly better than that of the smartest individuals among them.

This formed the first chapter of “Wisdom of Crowds” by James Surowiecki and it and the rest of the book for that matter got my mind racing and, on the 15^th May I got my chance having organised the latest UK Architect Forum that would focus on “Software and Services”.

Neither having an Ox to hand nor the willingness to slaughter one I presented the audience with a jam jar filled with one penny coins. I provided each person with a pen and post-it note with a prize to incentivise them to make their best guess.

Of 107 guesses, 2 provided their name but no guess, 1 provided a guess with no name and 2 guesses were ignored as they we way off target at 4700 and 4500. We had 2 winners who hit the nail firmly on the head at 421 but most impressive of all was that the group average as a whole came out at 419, just 2p away from the actual amount.

For those statisticians amongst you here is the distribution curve and corresponding data:

Range	Guesses
100	6
200	20
300	21
400	16
500	13
600	7
700	6
800	4
900	3
1000	4
1100	2
1200	0
1300	1
1400	1
1500	0
1600	1

The Goldfish bowl!

Matt Deacon — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 05:49:00 GMT

So back to the highs at insight and the goldfish bowls in particular. So what are they?

Well simply put you set up a number of chairs in a large circle facing inwards and in the middle you set another circle of typically 5 chairs also facing inwards. The organiser of the goldfish provides the context in advance that is typically a viewpoint with a key question for debate and identifies 4 ‘seed fish’ who’s responsibility it is to start the debate and to keep it running if necessary. The session starts with the attendees taking places in the outer circle of chairs and the seed fish occupying 4 of the 5 chairs at the centre. The organiser (facilitator/note taker) start’s off by setting the context for the goldfish bowl and then hands over to the seed fish to start the debate. So why one seat spare at the centre? Well this is available to any of the people on the outer circle to take part in the debate (you are not allowed to contribute unless you are part of the centre). On taking a place it is up to one of the existing 4 fish to then remove themselves. This is a self selecting process that the facilitator will help with if necessary although this does not generally need to happen.

The result is a debate that flies off all over the place and ends up with people jumping in and out as it takes on its own life. A good facilitator can keep it on track but it is amazingly great fun and like karaoke, once you’ve overcome your nerves and had a go then even if you are a poor signer as I am it sort of becomes a bit of an addiction.

So watch out Insight – more mad ideas await you next year round!!

Early thoughts on SPA

Matt Deacon — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 05:46:00 GMT

I’m just back from SPA and still haven’t had time to really properly unpack my thoughts. However, my desire to get some thoughts off my chest seems to be preventing me from sleeping – so here I am at 2:44am (silly idiot) and apologies in advance for any gibberish that follows – comments as always are hoped for and cherished.

SPA is an intriguing conference/community especially from my perspective coming from a vendor! In some ways you find you are treated a little as an outsider, held at arm’s length and viewed with a little suspicion. But this is perhaps a little unfair as the people there are highly intelligent, motivated and truly excited by the industry they are in and their role within it. I love SPA, and one day I hope that they’ll love me too.

Highs: The people, the location, the weather: being at a Cambridge College on a lovely spring day almost made you think of returning to academia. However, this didn’t last long. The sessions were a mixed bag for me, but the workshop on “What motivates software practitioners?”and the think tank on “Why am I a PHP developer” and “A toolkit for enhancing learning” were all very valuable. However, it was the goldfish bowls that stole it for me! Not necessarily because of the content although that was revealing but more because of the format and the wide ranging debate that was the result.

Lows: Not many really although while the location was great in one way, it didn’t have the intimacy of the Robinson centre that SPA usually takes place in. Therefore, we have to thank the great weather as if there had been rain it would have been a different vibe. Poor sessions always detract and “Tackling the Encapsulation – Testability Trade-off” gave me zero and while the plenary “Monasticism for the married” was presented with great gusto and pace the content suggesting that agile developers are the good people and the business is the bad people was very poor and not a good viewpoint to take IMHO. The only saving grace was that at the end when questions were asked the speaker did say something along the lines of “Well maybe it’s my fault really as I really don’t know how to talk to the business” – a very true comment and far more insightful than his scripted conclusion that the “lion (business) will eat the antelope (agile) unless the antelope protects itself” and here he offered up a pencil drawing of a group of triceratops standing in a circle ... and we all know what happened to themJ.

Vibes: When I’m at SPA I really like to see if I can spot clues as to what the future might hold, so briefly here are my top tips for things that I reckon are going to get more airplay (so this is bound to be the kiss of death).

Firstly, the return of the function; functional languages were alluded to everywhere. No one spoke on them per say, but there was a low background sort of hum that makes me think that Smalltalk is not going to lie dormant for ever. Personally, I off to get a refresher from my friend Blair Mcgalshan on Dolphin. Anyone heard of seaside?

Second, was the need to learn from our past. Not that this is necessarily anything new about SPA but there is growing fervour that we are rewriting the wheel albeit in a new context. With IT hitting the age of 50 and BCS running a conference this summer to celebrate this, I think we’re one to a resurgence and revival in old values and skills but not in a negative fashion but revitalised and forward thinking. On talking to Immo from the BCS I’m delighted that Microsoft will now be proud sponsors and I’ve booked my place to attend.

Thirdly, and tied in to the thoughts above is that of education and the emerging skills gap. This was very prevalent in many of the sessions I attended. We’re not getting the people we want into IT and those that we get are not equipped for the job ahead.

Final thought that is also tied in to these thoughts above is the IT brain drain. Although not quantified there is some feeling of disillusionment with the IT industry and in some ways a feeling that many are locked in and unable to look to re-skill outside. However, there is awareness that unlike other skills IT is one of the few that will allow you to move horizontally while not forcing you to take a lower grade position. SPA is far from the standard cross section of IT and it maybe not surprising that a great many are attending open university courses in their spare time however, this is not the first time I have heard it spoken about which leads me to suggest that many are seeking other outlets and potential opportunities. Although some may be seeking a way out of the industry I also wonder about the loss of our talent overseas. Rob Machin from Endava mentioned that there is a four year waiting list to emigrate to Canada, he had no idea of the split across trades, but you can bet I am off to find out.

SPA is not a developer conference so beware. It's a thriving community and a great experience for all you IT thinkers out there and a gold mine to renew your book list for the next year:)!

Names at Insight!

Matt Deacon — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 18:39:00 GMT

I'm very pleased with myself because after much effort by many people it's my pleasure to anounce that Jack Greenfield, the co-author of the now legendary "Software Factories" book will be providing the closing plenary at the Microsoft Architect Insight Conference on March 5-6 this year.

However, that not being enough I have got my good friend Ed Gibson (Chief Security Advisor at Microsoft) to thank for introducing my to the Right Honourable Lord of Erroll who will be providing the opening plenary. Lord Erroll is a Hereditary Peer in the House of Lords, sits on PITCOM (Parliamentary Information Technology Committee) and on the Science & Technology Select Committee’s sub-committee on Personal Internet Safety.

This adds great fuel to the emerging theme of the conference which will centre on the definition of the architect which we will drive out through a series of focus groups and clinics during the two days.

The event boasts over 60 speakers including:

Dr Ivar Jacobson - creator of the Rational Unified Process
Dr Alan Cameron Wills - Software Architect, VSTS Architect Team, Microsoft Corp
Andrea Westerinen - Software Architect, Dynamic Systems Foundation Group, Ms Corp

See you there!

Architects and the Environment

Matt Deacon — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 23:49:00 GMT

I held the latest meeting of the UK Microsoft Architect Council this week and this was a meeting with a difference entitled "The Council and the Environment". This time round the aim was to discuss our role in relation to the UK Industry.

First off Jon Collins presented the research he and MWD have been are doing entitled the Technology Garden, that describes "six sustainable habits of succesful CIOs". He then ran a workshop to consider Enterprise Architecture (EA) in the context of the Technology Garden asking three questions:

- What were the potential ways that EA could help deliver IT-Business alignment, and how should these be articulated?
- What are the challenges faced by organisations trying to deliver EA?
- What actions need to be undertaken to maximise the chances of EA success?

Here's the resultant mind map:

The following day we ran a think tank with a group of representatives from 7 UK universities discussing the issues raised in the Developing the Future report that was published last year and how we can deal with the emerging skills gap between what higher education delivers and what IT desires.This was an incredibly thought provoking session that raised several that I hope will provide input into DtF V2 and hopefully just the start of building stronger relations between the council and academia.