Drewby

My friend Dave Donaldson has come up with a pretty cool idea called CodeKeep. Its simply a place to store all of those code snippets that you want to keep around forever. You can also share the code snippets with others. From his blog entry:

My goal with CodeKeep from the beginning was to create a very simple way to store and search for code snippets, and to create a massive distributed community from which to pull code snippets from. My hope is that developers everywhere use CodeKeep to foster an increased sharing of code so that in the end, we are all more productive because of it.

Check it out!

Based on the CodeKeep logo, I wonder what Dave's favorite .NET language is. Hmm....

I'll be at the PDC in Los Angeles! Just weeks ago I didn't think I'd be able to go, but the planets aligned and everything worked out. I'm looking forward to meeting up with people out there and enjoying the energy that comes along with the event. Should be fun!

Congratulations to Steve Smith who is the new Regional Director in Ohio. Steve is a respected expert in our industry and has been contributing to the community in many ways including his multitude of community websites such as ASPAlliance.com. He's also on the INETA Speakers Bureau and speaks at many recognized conferences.

We really have an awesome community in Ohio, represented by some of the smartest, most passionate people you'll ever meet. I'm proud to be a part and work with people like Steve.

I've been busy finishing up the end of FY05 at Microsoft - we had several conferences including a very successful Visual Studio 2005 Developers Conference in our region. I was also busy getting some swag together for the user groups that I support. That was fun!

Now, I'm planning for the next year and starting to execute on some of it. Here's some presentations that I have scheduled. If you are in the area for any of these presentations, please attend and say hello!

Introduction to ASP.NET 2.0
Great Lakes Area .NET Users Group
Detroit, MI
Wednesday, July 20 - 6:00pm
http://www.migang.org/

Visual Studio 2005 Team System
Greater Lansing User Group .NET
Lansing, MI
Thursday, July 21 - 6:00pm
http://www.glugnet.org/

Visual Studio 2005 Team System
Northwest Ohio .NET Users Group
Toledo, OH
Tuesday, July 26 - 6:00pm
http://www.nwnug.com/

Outlook Add-in Support in Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office
Developer Care
Detroit, MI
Friday, August 19 - 11:30am-5:00pm
http://www.nhmichigan.com/support/events/developercare.htm

Writing Managed Code for SQL Server 2005
Lexington .NET Users Group
Lexington, KY
Tuesday, September 13 - 6:00pm
http://www.lexdotnet.org

Outlook Add-in Support in Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office
Developer Care
Louisville, KY
Friday, September 23 - 11:30am-5:00pm

Louisville Code Camp
Louisville, KY
Friday, October 7 - Saturday, October 8
http://www.kydotnet.org/codecamp/

Bluegrass Code Camp
Lexington, KY
Friday, October 14 - Saturday, October 15
http://www.bluegrasscodecamp.com/

GLD is the place to be! Our user group leaders rock and we are going to have a fun year!

Everyday: Highs in the upper 80s, Lows in the mid 70s, Scattered showers. Welcome to Florida weather in June.

I'm on my way to TechEd number 8 for me! I've been to every TechEd since 1998. Whats my favorite part of TechEd? No doubt, its interacting with all the geeks that are there! There is so much energy at TechEd (somewhat brought on by the unlimited supply of sweets and carbonated drinks, but also by the geek stuff too).

Here's what I remember from TechEds past (notice I can't remember anything about the technology - sorry, TechEd is so much more thant that): 

Any favorite flashbacks that you have?

Life has been pretty nuts getting started as a Developer Evangelist at Microsoft. Since my wife and daughter are in Japan for two months, I've been doing a lot of travel around the Great Lakes District (Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky) to meet with user groups and community leaders. We have a lot of incredible talent in our district, including great authors, speakers and leaders. One of my personal missions is to show this great community to the world and highlight Great Lakes District as one of the best places to be a professional developer.

This weekend I'm in Kansas City meeting with Jeff Julian and John Alexander. They'll be helping out with my TechEd Bloggers duties, so we can keep that thing rolling. Subscriptions and item reads are increasing and we expect TechEd to be absolutely great this year both in-person and through the blogs of attendees.

One of the exciting things I get to do is help grow existing user groups and start new user groups. Jim Holmes is starting a user group in Dayton, Ohio that is really coming along. He's got a facility, meeting date and a few speakers already lined up. We have an exciting year ahead that promises to be rewarding for everyone involved in the .NET developer community.

What are your plans around community this year? Grow a user group? More code camps? Start a blog? There's lots to talk and learn about, its time to mobilize and kick our community up a notch! :)