TriNUG

The New Year: Reflections and Goals

Dugald Wilson — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 00:52:13 GMT

2008 was a pretty good year: I left a job where the path forward was to abandon my .Net skills in favor of learning Java, and returned to Progress Energy to develop and support .Net applications. I was elected President of TriNUG, and given the opportunity to stop whining and start making TriNUG better. I started using Twitter, and really grew my community of peers by dozens.

I feel like if I don't put something down for where I want to be at the end of 2009, I will spend much of the year drifting about. So here are my goals for 2009:

Work: I would like to make more of an impact on what our group does technically at Progress. I'd like to see if I can help push adoption of Entity Framework and jQuery, possibly through helping facilitate discussions or brown bags during the year.
TriNUG: I'd like for us to get the rest of the year ironed out for speakers, first, so I have less to worry about. Then, I'd like for us to do a CodeCamp even better than our last. I also need to improve the meeting experience for new users, and find ways to reach folks we aren't currently.
Blue Hill: I need to get serious about my side consulting/dev work. At the very least I need some demonstrations of what I can do for folks unfamiliar with me. To that end:
WhoDoesWhatIDo.com: A site for developers to build peer groups and career networking around skills and tools. Currently vaporware. I'd like to have this in beta by third quarter and released by end of year. Plan is to build it using ASP.Net MVC and NHibernate
Learning: I'd like to end the year with a solid understanding of Ruby and Rails. I also want to be better versed in ASP.Net MVC, jQuery, and NHibernate. I also need to learn to type, so help me God.
Conferences: This is more of a 2010 goal now, but I'm going to CodeMash if it kills me.

RDU Code Camp Reflections

Dugald Wilson — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:13:40 GMT

RDU Code Camp has come and gone, and even though I couldn't make a single session, I am coming away quite rejuvenated on the strength of the community.

I had a great time meeting folks I only knew from Twitter before: Rachel Appel, Alan Stevens, David Penton, Mike Eaton, Dave Donaldson, and Nate Kohari, to name a few. I didn't get to talk with them as much as I would have liked, but enough to feel like I don't solely know them from their Twitter profile anymore. I also had a great time with the guys from Richmond: Kevin Hazzard and Justin Etheredge. It looks like we may be able to get Kevin to come speak at TriNUG in January!

I have a few regrets: I wish we had more volunteers, and that I could have delegated more. I may have then had the opportunity to participate a bit more, but maybe that's what other Code Camps are for. Also, Michael Neel came all the way from TN, and I don't think I got the chance to say one word to him the whole weekend.

The Speaker's Dinner went great, but some folks are never happy, and whine about how the Speaker's Dinner is elitist. I think opening up the dinner as a pre-event for all would be great, but I still haven't figured out how to make it work in terms of managing headcount/reservations/etc. It's definitely something I want to explore for the next Code Camp.
I think the Code Camp went off great, but we did have a few areas we can improve on. I think our abstract submission/acceptance cycle needs to have more feedback in it, and there is a lot of information we need to get out in a much more timely fashion. I think the focus is too much on the date of Code Camp, and there needs to be a timeline of deadlines leading up to that where information is announced.

James Avery proposed ShadowCamp as a day-after event for continuing the open discussions from the Open Spaces at Code Camp. I thought this went off amazingly well, and would love to see it embraced at more Code Camps, and really anywhere where lots of developers gather - Codemash Shadowcamp maybe?

RDU Code Camp Thanks

Dugald Wilson — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 08:16:10 GMT

RDU Code Camp was yesterday (Nov 15). It was just an awesome time. From what folks say, it went very well. I'd like to thank all of the folks who made this possible:

Chris Love - Chris was the original driver for doing another Code Camp this year. He took the lead on getting the speakers and sessions together, and stepped up to handle the emceeing on the event.
Rob Zelt - Rob secured all the swag for the event, resulting in some very happy folks when they left yesterday afternoon.
Chuck Scheier & Srinu Tulluri - Chuck and Srinu handled the food, which surpassed all expectations.
Greg Pugh - Greg handled the promotion for Code Camp, and the excellent turnout we had is a result of his work.
Glen Alfredson - Glen handled all the financial dealings of working with our sponsors and vendors.
Jeremy Brown - Jeremy, and his wife Julie, took on the responsibility of creating the t-shirts for Code Camp. Julie came up with many designs, and Jeremy stayed on us to actually DECIDE and get it done. They turned out great, and I couldn't be more appreciative of their efforts.
Anita Luthra- Anita came in and volunteered, and helped make our registration process run smoother than I've ever seen it.
Josh Carlisle - Josh helped deliver swag, sodas, and maps. He was an invaluable fixer.
John Anderson - John volunteered for us and single-handedly turned room 201 from a classroom for 40 to a conference room for 120.
James Avery - James volunteered to run Open Spaces, which was a huge hit, and will hopefully be a part of our future Code Camps. He then helped craft the idea of our sponsorship being limited, which raised visibility for sponsors, and reduced the number of sponsors we had to handle. He then helped land us Red Gate software as a sponsor.
Brian Hitney - Brian is our Microsoft DE, so I think there is some part of his job description that has him help us out on these things. Brian helped sponsor us and provide swag, but more importantly was an invaluable resource for how to run the Code Camp, and I couldn't have done my part without his counsel.
Derik Whittaker - Derik was instrumental in securing Allscripts as a sponsor, without which we would have had a much more limited Code Camp.
Todd Phelps & ECPI - ECPI has been a wonderful host for our Code Camps, giving us complete access to their building. Todd came in on his own time Sat to open and close the building for us.
All our speakers - We wouldn't have had an event without our amazing speakers. Thank you all for traveling out of your way, and helping us have one of our best Code Camps ever!
Our sponsors - big thanks to Allscripts, Inkscribe Designs, Microsoft, Red Gate, SoftPro, and Tek Systems

If anyone has been overlooked, it is no reflection on your contribution, but rather the oversight of my still-weary brain.

RDU Code Camp

Dugald Wilson — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 17:04:42 GMT

RDU Code Camp is this Saturday, Nov 15, from 8:15am to 5pm. Door open at 7:30am.

It promises to be a great day full of developer-oriented content. In addition, there will be an Open Spaces, and an XBox 360 for playing Rock Band! Lunch will be provided, and there are prizes at the end - hope to see you there!

RDU CodeCamp is Looking for Speakers

Dugald Wilson — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:44:34 GMT

RDU CodeCamp is coming!

Nov 15, 2008 at ECPI in Raleigh we will be having the RDU CodeCamp. Registration will be coming soon.

Currently, we are actively seeking speakers! If you are interested in speaking at RDU CodeCamp please drop us a line at http://www.codecamp.org/Speakers.aspx - We would love to hear from you.

TriNUG August 2008 - Jeffrey Palermo - TDD, DI, and SoC with ASP.NET MVC

Dugald Wilson — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:33:50 GMT

On Wednesday, Aug 13, Jeffrey Palermo will be talking about separation of concerns, dependency injection, and test driven development with ASP.Net MVC. This should be an excellent discussion on some of the benefits in using the new MVC framework for ASP.Net.

There are some important points to underline about this meeting:

It will be awesome.
Registration is required to manage headcount, especially for our dinner arrangements. To attend, you must register on the site.
This meeting is not at RTI. The August 13 meeting will be held at ECPI.

This should be a great meeting. Hope to see you there!

TriNUG July 2008 - Bob Galen - Agile Development with .Net

Dugald Wilson — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:29:02 GMT

Wednesday, Bob Galen gave a talk on Agile development for our user group. It was a really great discussion - from the beginning, Bob moved into the center of the room, versus the dais in front, and gave his talk as a discussion rather than presentation. The result was a very engaging talk on Agile principles and execution. If you have a chance to hear Bob talk on Agile, I heartily recommend going : not only does he know his stuff, he does a great job communicating that knowledge.

TriNUG June 2008 - Community Launch Event

Dugald Wilson — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 03:21:55 GMT

Join us for a rapid fire evening full of new VS2008 features presented by our local TRINUG members!

Here's some of the topics you can expect:

  - Chris: XML Literals
  - Diane: LINQ to SQL Performance
  - Glen: VS Tools for Office
  - Greg: Extension Methods
  - Josh: Office Automation
  - Srinu: ASP.NET Dynamic Data

(Disclaimer: This post is a shameless cut and paste, with no original content whatsoever.)

TriNUG May 2008 - James Avery - 10 Open Source .NET Tools You Should be Using

Dugald Wilson — Mon, 12 May 2008 13:34:39 GMT

This Wednesday, at 5pm at Dreyfus Auditorium at RTI, come watch James Avery struggle against his 90-minute time limit as he presents "10 Open Source .NET Tools You Should be Using"! James has been working hard on this presentation for a while, if his tweets are any indication, and I have no doubt it will be great. Come out and join us, meet your fellow .Net devs, and enjoy some pizza, too!

Updated: You can find James' notes from his presentation here.

TriNUG April 2008 - Brad Abrams - Mix'08 in 90 Minutes

Dugald Wilson — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 01:23:57 GMT

Wednesday, April 9, Brad Abrams will be presenting at the TriNUG main meeting, at ECPI's campus in North Raleigh. Brad will be giving a talk informally titled "Mix '08 in 90 minutes". Brad will be discussing the newest developments on Silverlight, ASP.Net MVC, and other technologies from Microsoft.

To welcome Brad back to NC ( he graduated from NCSU), our awesome sponsors for this month's meeting, FarPoint, are treating us to a BBQ feast.

To ensure there is enough for everyone, anyone attending must register through the TriNUG site.