Microsoft MVP reports from the 2007 Microsoft MVP global summit.
In this year MVP Global Summit was visited by about 1700 MVPs from all over the world. It was presented about 90 countries.
The first day was devoted to the registration and Expo. On the Expo various subdivisions of Microsoft introduce their stands. I have remembered the stand of department .NET Micro Framework, most of all. This Framework allows to develop software for the microcontrollers which were programmed with assembler or C++. The possibility to employ .NET Framework for the developing complex electronic devices, really raises abstraction degree. Therefore the programmer can concentrate on business tasks more than on technical and routine tasks. I know this not by hearsay because developed some complexes with PC and Intel, Microchip microcontrollers based external devices . Also I noted stands of following teams:
- Team which helps to choose necessary licenses for the Microsoft products based on the customers requirements.
- Team which presents two new Magazines. One of them is devoted to Windows Vista and second one is intended for developers.
- Team which presents API for the software access to Visual Studio.
During Expo MVPs could talk each with other in a friendly atmosphere, for example I met my colleague from Italy. We took part in one of the team-project with Microsoft (as the MVP) together. Expo was held in Seattle in Washington State Convention & Trade Center (WSCTC). It allowed to fit a lot of MVP who’s come from all over the world.
The second day also was held on the WSCTC, it consisted of Executive Sessions and Developer Sessions. The day began with the opening address of Richard Kaplan (Vice President, Customer Service, Partners and Automation), whose introduced William (Bill) H. Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corporation. B. Gates’s speech continued just more than one hour.
B. Gates told about the significance of MVPs for Microsoft , evolution of the software and answered on many questions from MVPs. After that executive session (it was general for all MVPs ) started sessions on the different specializations of MVPs. I, as a Visual Developer – Client Applications Development MVP, chose for myself sessions which dedicated to new possibilities of the NET Framework 3.5, Windows Forms, WPF and others. On the session of S. Somasegar (Developer Division Corporate VP) we found out key Microsoft developer solutions which were coming out 2007 year. Soma gave an update on how the Orcas release of Visual Studio was shaping up, announce new web and client technologies and gave an overview of Microsoft's 3 year roadmap. In addition, there were some great demos of new technologies. After this session I attended the Anders Hejlsberg’s session (Microsoft Technical Fellow and Chief Architect for C# and LINQ), he explained the latest work in the Orcas release to unify the programming models through LINQ capabilities in C# and Visual Basic. He showed us some practical usage of LINQ, it was really nice to see how LINQ and SQL Server 2005 simplify server side paging of data, which is common task for ASP.NET and Desktop applications. Also we were presented with number of other great real word examples.
In the end of the second day I attended Don Box’s and Chris Anderson’s report about SOA and “model-driven architecture” (MDA).
The next two days I spent in Microsoft’s campuses in Redmond. I visited the sessions which devoted to Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows Forms, Smart Client and some other Microsoft’s technologies. We had familiarized with and got on practice the last elaborations in this fields.
In that overview we were introduced with the features that allow Smart Clients to go where they never have before: including Occasionally Connected Systems, SQL Server Compact Edition, Client App Services, N Tier Data, Click Once Deployment enhancements, as well as out of the box ways to future proof our existing applications: including Windows Forms / WPF Integration, and Vista enhancements.
The Summit was very useful for me. I learned and got on practice the application of newest and future technologies Microsoft. I got into contact with some key persons from Microsoft in interesting technologies for me. At this Summit it was less executive sessions and more specialized sessions. Also at this Summit we got more direct communication with Microsoft employees. We had a chance to ask questions authors of different technologies that is very useful for MVPs.
Microsoft MVP reports from the 2005 Microsoft MVP global summit.
MVP Global Summit lasts 4 days. On the first day, we had a registration, after which there were meetings of exhibition type with the representatives of different Microsoft departments, e.g.: Windows Mobile, Office, Learning, Shared Source, MSN, .NET Framework and others. Here we could talk with the representatives of these departments, ask them questions and sometimes watch/try some products of these departments in use. The Program of the first day was the same for all present MVP. The second day began with the speech of the managing staff of Microsoft and MVP program; in particular we could hear Steve Ballmer, Lori Moore, Jim Allchin, Sean O’Driscoll. They told about the main political and strategic aims of Microsoft and statistical information. The information about the significance of МVPs’ activity for the company was also given publicity. In the afternoon of our second day the technical sessions concerning various Microsoft technologies began. Different sessions took place simultaneously in different halls of Microsoft Conference Center. During the registration Every MVP was given his own schedule of sessions, which corresponded to his competence. At these sessions we listened to the reports about the high technologies of Microsoft, and we had an opportunity to ask questions concerning some incomprehensible moments. For example I attended such sessions as C# 3.0, LINK, Team Foundation Server, Windows Vista, Visual Studio 2005.
An opportunity to work with XML data and database tables through the structures integrated in the language appeared in C# 3.0/VB 9.0, and made the language more oriented to the work with data. Now it’s possible to use structures like SQL (SELECT, WHERE, FROM ORDERBY) directly from C#. This ensures the possibility to describe complicated data inquiries at a rather high level of abstraction.
Team Foundation Server is a new Microsoft product designed for the successful project creating by a team consisting of managers, testers, developers and so on. TFS provides a functionality of distributing tasks between the different team-mates, tracking mission failures, system of versions controlling, system of bug tracking, and high-capacity system of building reports on all available data. In addition to these basic opportunities, there are a lot of small but very useful things; e.g. we can set the project so that at the attempt to perform the check-in of sources, unit tests are launched before check-in, and if the tests fail, a bug is automatically created and assigned to the developer.
It’s also worth mentioning that TFS can be used both in local network and via the 0Internet. Basing upon my own experience of work with TFS Beta 2, there can be some problems if working through the Internet, but during our private conversation with the personnel of this department they told me that there would be no such problems with Beta 3 (released in September).
What makes me particularly happy is that Microsoft is using this product inside itself and it means that we, the future users of this product, will have a smooth-running and useful in the development of big projects product.
In the nearest future, we are supposed to see Office 12, in which user’s interface is greatly changed and new facilities are added. Microsoft is also preparing for release Internet Explorer 7.0, in which Security and the facilities of browsing are improved, and tabs introduced.
During the following 2 days the sessions continued, and after them vivid meetings with the personnel of the departments began. At these meetings we had an opportunity to give some feedback concerning the specific technologies; we could also ask questions to the members of different Microsoft departments. For example I personally managed to speak to people directly engaged into the C#/Windows Form/Avalon development and get answers to some questions I was interested in.
Summing up the summit, I can say that it turned up to be very useful both for upraising one’s technical level and for better understanding the technical processes inside the Microsoft company.