MIX10 Sessions

The Tale of JavaScript. I Mean ECMAScript.

Douglas Crockford — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:21:30 GMT

The brief but puzzling story of the world's most misunderstood programming language and its unlikely rise to power, becoming both the world's most popular programming language and the world's least popular programming language AT THE SAME TIME.

Keynote Day 2

Dean Hachamovitch, Bill Buxton, Douglas Purdy, Scott Guthrie — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 23:41:00 GMT

Day 2 Keynote Featuring Scott Guthrie, Dean Hachamovitch, Bill Buxton and Doug Purdy

Keynote Day 1

Joe Belfiore, Scott Guthrie — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 23:41:00 GMT

Day 1 Keynote Featuring Scott Guthrie and Joe Belfiore

HTML5: High-Performance Best Practices for Web Sites

Jason Weber — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 00:06:25 GMT

Creating high performance Web sites and applications is crucial for every Web developer. Come learn ways you can make your sites faster in Internet Explorer and other browsers. We’ll describe what’s changing with performance in Internet Explorer 9 with the JavaScript engine and DirectX-powered graphics and hardware acceleration on Windows.

In-Depth Look at Internet Explorer 9

Ted Johnson, John Hrvatin — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 00:06:25 GMT

Internet Explorer 9 and HTML5: Learn what’s coming in the Internet Explorer platform for Web programming, interoperability, graphics and performance by bringing the power of the PC hardware and Windows to Web developers. This session will include demos showcasing the latest code, providing you with a first-hand look at the latest browser advancements to be released in Internet Explorer 9.

Internet Explorer Developer Tools

Jon Seitel — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 00:06:25 GMT

Come learn about the developer tools built into Internet Explorer 8 and how they can help streamline and optimize your coding and testing efforts. We’ll also demonstrate the new features and enhancements for the developer tool to be released in Internet Explorer 9.

HTML5: Cross-Browser Best Practices

Tony Ross — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 00:06:25 GMT

Creating complex sites that work well across browsers is a constant challenge for developers. See how Internet Explorer 9 makes it easier to create Web sites using interoperable HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. We'll show best practices you can use today to target a broad range of browsers.

Microsoft Silverlight "Media" : Moving at 60fps

Eric Schmidt — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 23:06:25 GMT

From HD delivery to dynamic advertising models, Silverlight has rapidly become the industry leader for enabling rich, interactive media scenarios. This session will review the media focused technology strategy behind Microsoft Silverlight, Microsoft Silverlight Media Framework, IIS Media Services, Microsoft Expression and Windows phone. Highlights for this session include: efficient media player development, 3-d rendering, real-time ad injection, leveraging multi-cast, managing large media delivery farms, choosing the right content protection strategy, real time media pipeline monitoring and a drill into what's new in SIlverlight 4. If you are building or want to build video based Silverlight applications this session will provide technical guidance and give you an opportunity to voice your needs about the future of media and Silverlight.

Silverlight Performance on Windows Phone

Seema Ramchandani — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 05:22:09 GMT

Learn how to optimize your Silverlight code for Windows Phone. This session will discuss common bottlenecks using the graphics and managed stacks, and will highlight how to optimize startup and reaction time.

Unit Testing Silverlight and Windows Phone Applications

Jeff Wilcox — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 05:22:09 GMT

Learn how to create and maintain Silverlight and Windows Phone Series applications using the Silverlight Unit Test Framework. See what tools are available to easily validate controls and application interfaces and gain a solid understanding of test principles to deliver great experiences for your clients and customers.

Building PHP Applications using the Windows Azure Platform

Craig Kitterman, Sumit Chawla — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 05:22:08 GMT

The Windows Azure platform has been built from the ground up with interoperability in mind, supporting multiples languages and development tools to build applications which run on Windows Azure and/or integrate with other cloud platforms or on-premises components. Come learn how to run your PHP and MySQL applications on Windows Azure using open source tools & SDKs while taking advantage of new Windows Azure features. This session will cover developing for Windows Azure using PHP, deployment choices, patterns and practices in building & scaling PHP applications using cross platform open source SDKs using a choice of development tools, including command-line tools and Eclipse.

Introducing the Silverlight Rough Cut Editor

Jason Suess — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 05:22:08 GMT

This session will provide an overview and technical details of the Silverlight Rough Cut Editor. This open source tool provides real time editing for Silverlight Smooth Streaming content, and has been used to create content for high profile events such as the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and Sunday Night Football. Content publishers can use this tool to create real-time highlights, control dynamic meta-data (ad insertions and content meta-data), and create a modular approval & publishing workflow for live and on demand media content (CMS integration). This session will review the core architecture (modularity, UI composition, services, and data providers) and detail how this tool is being used to meet the needs of content providers worldwide.

A Case Study: Rapid WordPress Design and Prototyping with Expression Web 3

Morten Rand-Hendriksen — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 05:22:07 GMT

Take a look behind the curtain of WordPress and its theme engine, and get a step-by-step road map of how to use Expression Web 3 with WordPress to take a boring standard blog theme and make into a functional CMS site design. See a demonstration of design and rapid prototyping using a live WordPress site including examples of code snippets (“template tags” in WP speak) that give designers and developers the ability to micromanage the CMS output and create multiple individual templates within a single site. Come learn how to use Expression Web 3 to make quick standards-based code changes to live WordPress sites and how to quickly transform a standard WordPress blog into a custom site.

The Type We Want

Jonathan Snook — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:51:22 GMT

After a slow evolution, the landscape for custom type on the web has been changing quickly. This session will cover the history of embedding fonts, diving into the options available to us today and finally taking a look at the hurdles before us.

Quickly Implementing New Cross-Browser Features with Ruby and Python

Hans Hugli — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:36:22 GMT

Ruby and Python in the browser provide a powerful new way to quickly prototype and launch new features without requiring users to install multiple plugins or extensions. Learn how we used these dynamic languages to create a cross-browser implementation of HTML5 video and audio tags and 3D coverflow widget. See how to use JavaScript injection to circumvent browser cross-domain limitations and how we designed for declarative customization via XAML markup. With IronPython and IronRuby’s “gestalt” library, it is now possible to develop RIA client applications on the Mac or PC without the need for an Integrated Development Environment.

An Hour With Bill Buxton

Bill Buxton — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:36:21 GMT

Come spend an intimate hour with Bill Buxton—one of the most influential designers in the world and the MIX10 keynote speaker—to discuss the role of human values, culture and technology in design.

Building Large-Scale, Data-Centric Applications with Silverlight

Roman Rubin, Ramya Parthasarathy — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:36:21 GMT

Come learn how to use Silverlight for building compelling large-scale, data-centric applications. Hear a review of the approaches for architecting large-scale Silverlight applications, packaging and interacting with business services, adding monitoring and disaster recovery, and instrumenting the application. Also see how Silverlight can help deliver compelling, rich data-centric solutions faster and cheaper than with other technologies.

Building the eBay Simple Lister with Silverlight

Michael Wolf — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:36:21 GMT

Come see how eBay is enhancing the listing experience for the occasional sellers with the eBay Simple Lister application. Learn how the application was built from concept to design to code using Sketchflow and Silverlight 4. This session will explain how the development lifecycle used Sketchflow to move from concept to design, refining the overall user workflow before embarking on development. We will also demonstrate how key features in Silverlight 4 such as bar code reading (using webcam capture), out of browser features, REST services, drop targets and image editing were used to create a truly engaging user experience.

Building Innovative Windows Client Software

Scott Stanfield, Tim Huckaby, Tim Sneath, Dave Wolf, Scott Hanselman — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:36:21 GMT

What does Windows add to the Web 2.0 world? Can you reach and grow your audience with Windows applications? What are the best programming models to use for building innovative Windows applications? How does HTML 5 fit into a Windows world? What is the best way to build multi-channel applications that span PC, web, phone and television? A guest panel will discuss these questions and others while sharing their perspectives based on real-world experience of creating Windows client applications.

Designing Rich Experiences for Data-Centric Applications

Yoshihiro Saito, Ken Azuma — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:36:21 GMT

Come hear how to design better experiences for data-centric applications from someone that has designed and developed many successful business applications using an array of UX technologies. Learn some tips and tricks for creating better experiences including leveraging existing skills with Silverlight and XAML for use with rich, data-centric applications.

Adding the "Where" to the "When" of Social Applications

Raffi Krikorian — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:36:20 GMT

Numerous devices and infrastructure services have the ability to expose location, but comprehending how to best make use of these technologies can be complex. Additionally, after the infrastructure is put in place, the next hurdle to overcome is understanding how to create a useable location-based feature that users can comprehend and love while also feeling safe and secure. This session is targeted to those who want to learn about these location technologies, and to those who want to understand how to think about their users' needs, their security, and their privacy. We'll also review web and mobile services that have been designed with location at their core, or location as a feature. And, finally, we'll talk about how Twitter thinks about adding "where" to our "when".

The Microsoft Silverlight Analytics Framework

Michael Scherotter, Alfonso Corretti — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 21:51:22 GMT

Come hear about the Microsoft Silverlight Analytics Framework, which is a new extensible framework for integrating web analytics into Silverlight applications. See how it addresses the challenge of tracking out-of-browser and offline application and supporting multiple analytics services simultaneously. Learn how to use Expression Blend to visually instrument designs and do A/B testing. Also learn how to use components built by a number of analytics and control vendors in Web, video and rich client scenarios.

Unlocking Audio/Video Content with Speech Recognition

Behrooz Chitsaz — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:36:25 GMT

Come hear how the ability to search within audio/video content can enhance web experiences in many ways such as better targeting of advertising, more efficient browsing of Audio/Video content, and improved ability for search engines to retrieve relevant content. Learn about the Microsoft Research technologies that bring together speech recognition, cloud computing and Microsoft Silverlight with novel design to enable searching of audio/video content just like you currently search text.

Reactive Extensions for JavaScript

Erik Meijer — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:36:24 GMT

Come hear how the Reactive Extensions ("Rx") framework takes care of the difficult parts of asynchronous programming by viewing asynchronous computations as push-based collections. Instead of focusing on the hard parts, developers now can start dreaming about the endless possibilities of orchestrating and synchronizing computations at a high-level of abstraction. In this session we cover the design philosophy of the new Reactive Extensions for JavaScript, rooted on the deep duality between the well-known iterator and the observer design patterns. From this core understanding, we start looking at various combinators and operators defined over observable collections, as provided by Rx, driving concepts home by a bunch of samples. Democratizing asynchronous programming starts today. Don't miss out on it!

Building Pivot Collections

Troy Schauls, Jeff Weir — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:36:24 GMT

It was announced Monday morning that Pivot will be launched as a Silverlight 4 control this summer. This technology, designed to visualize large collections of information, will be embeddable on any web page thanks to advances in this new Silverlight platform. It is possible to begin creating these collections now to prototype scenarios that can be deployed and distributed once this control is finalized. This session focuses on the designer and the developer perspectives and best practices for creating compelling experiences using this breakthrough technology. Learn the dos and don'ts of creating collections and walk away with a deeper understanding of how to get started for yourself.

Incarnate: Behind the Scenes

Karsten Januszewski — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:36:24 GMT

A recent MIX Online lab, Incarnate is a service that finds your avatars around the web, so you don't have to upload a new one every time you join a service or leave a comment. Behind the scenes, Incarnate is a service hosted in Windows Azure with a WordPress plug-in. In this session, we dive into some of the more interesting aspects of Incarnate, including how microformats are used to discover avatars, the diagnostics and logging support in Azure, writing a JSON-P service in Windows Communication Foundation and writing the WordPress plug-in.

The Democratization of the Design Industry

Mike Samson, Ross Kimbarovsky — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:06:24 GMT

Come hear how the creative industry and its incumbents are under attack by a growing group of "underdogs" - nighttime freelancers, creative hobbyists, surprising talent from the developing world, and just plain (albeit shockingly good) amateurs. Learn how cloud computing, has catalyzed this revolution by making it easier, cheaper, and quicker to deploy user generated content and fueled its advance in the areas of video (YouTube), design (crowdSPRING), photography (iStockPhoto) and countless others. We also ask the question "what's next?" and discuss how unrelenting pressure is crumbling the old-world empire, as represented by Getty, Ogilvy, and Burnett, and giving way to new business models, new competitive opportunity, and new challenge.

The Elephant in the Room

Nishant Kothary — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:06:24 GMT

Do you want to learn why the process of designing software always reveals our humanness - our biases and prejudices, quiet agendas, irrational actions, and diverse portfolio of imperfections - in full effect. This Elephant in the Room session picks up where one of MIX09's highest rated sessions, A Website Named Desire, left off. We walk through the design process for newly redesigned sites like MIX Online and Channel9 in embarrassingly honest detail. This year we go further, drawing insights from fields like behavioral economics and evolutionary psychology to explore how embracing politics and understanding human nature makes our designs better, our projects smoother and our lives happier.

Web Deployment Made Awesome: If You're Using XCopy, You're Doing It Wrong

Scott Hanselman — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:06:24 GMT

If you typically deploy your web applications using Windows Explorer and Aero Snap, please stop. Come see a practical session on the new deployment goodness in Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4. We dig into Web Deploy (a.k.a. MSDeploy) and deployment from within Visual Studio 2010. Is deployment a chore? I say, nay, nay. Let's learn how to package up web apps, deploy them, their settings and component parts easily. We start with the basics and ramp it up quickly, exploring custom database providers and advanced techniques.

SVG: The Past, Present and Future of Vector Graphics for the Web

Patrick Dengler, Doug Schepers — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:06:23 GMT

Join Doug Schepers (W3C) and Patrick Dengler (Microsoft), as they take you through the past, present and future of SVG on the Web. These two members of the W3C SVG Working Group give a tour of SVG and its capabilities, including how the standard is evolving to target web developers who want to build an interoperable experience for users. They provide an introduction to how SVG works, as well as show SVG in action.

Smooth Streaming Live in HD: From Camera to Screen

Scott Stanfield, Michael Hanley — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:06:23 GMT

The Olympics video team offers you a rare chance to witness an HD production set up, step-by-step, from scratch. Starting with an HD camera, we push the signal through an encoder with a tuned Smooth Streaming configuration, into Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0, and then out through a Microsoft Silverlight 4 player using File | New and the Silverlight Media Framework. See the same techniques behind Sunday Night Football and the 2010 Winter Olympics, only on a smaller scale. This is a one-of-a-kind session including specialized hardware; not to be missed if you're curious about HD Internet broadcast.

An Enterprise Perspective on Silverlight 4

Robert Ellis — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:06:23 GMT

Join one of Bank of America’s leading technical evaluators as he discusses his exploration of Silverlight 4. Hear his analysis of Silverlight’s capabilities and his perspective on Silverlight’s enterprise-oriented features. See a demonstration of features that would appeal to an enterprise developer.

Smooth Streaming Live in HD: 2010 Olympic Winter Games

Scott Stanfield, Bob Cowherd — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:06:23 GMT

If you’re designing a live video experience, you’re need to be concerned with the realities of scale and monetization. Big events like the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics were produced to reach a large audience, thereby maximizing their monetization potential. And to reach a large audience, a fair amount of IT sophistication is necessary to work with CDNs. The intersection of UX, IT and Business Experience of video, come together in the player experience. Come learn how to build an engaging, robust and ultimately, profitable player for your clients. We will demonstrate: pushing the “From Camera to Screen” session content to a CDN, adding instrumentation, logging and beacons for monetization and health purposes, and designing for live events while accommodating advertising business requirements. Along the way, we’ll share the tips and tricks that kept us working smoothly through the Olympics.

Storm Clouds: What to Consider About Privacy Before Writing a Line of Code

Jonathan Zuck — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:06:23 GMT

Cloud computing is creating enormous opportunities for developers looking for a lower entry point and periodic scalability. Of course, maintaining personal data "in the cloud" raises issues of privacy and security as well. Give some thought to what you'll promise before asking your customers to take that leap of faith. In this session we discuss some industry best practices in the cloud and the evolving expectations of end users. If you're considering building a cloud application for the general public or an enterprise, this session is a must.

Copyright: A Cloudy Subject

Jonathan Zuck — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:06:22 GMT

Learn the rules for using content produced by others, particularly as web applications get richer and deep linking becomes more common. Get straight answers from a developer and not a lawyer to common copyright questions like "What are the real boundaries of the DMCA?", "Where does traditional copyright apply and what is fair use?", and "How do I license content for my website?" What, if any, are the implications of remote storage and cloud computing on copyright.

Practical Strategies for Debugging Cross-Browser Display Issues

Lori Dirks — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:06:22 GMT

Don't let cross-browser CSS display issues surprise you at the end of your next project. We explore a variety of tools and resources that can help you diagnose and correct cross-browser display issues during development, as well as after the fact.

Participating in the Web of Data with Open Standards

Christian Heilmann — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:06:22 GMT

Web development as we do it right now is on the way out. The future of the web is what its founders have planned a long time ago: loosely joined pieces of information for you to pick and choose and put together in interfaces catered to your end users. In this session, see how to build a web portfolio that is always up-to-date, maintained by using the web rather than learning a bespoke interface and high in performance as the data is pulled and cached for you by a high traffic server farm rather than your server. If you wondered how you can leave your footprint on the web without spending thousands on advertising and development, here are some answers.

How jQuery Makes Hard Things Simple

John Resig — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:06:22 GMT

jQuery does a lot to make some really complicated JavaScript and DOM scripting simple. In this talk, learn some advanced jQuery techniques for simplifying your code. Additionally, look at some of the recent changes in jQuery and see how to apply them to your application.

Opening Up Opportunity with Twitter

Ryan Sarver — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:06:22 GMT

As a radically open company, Twitter's success is dependent on the success of the developers in its ecosystem and the business partners who extend the Twitter experience across the Internet. Come hear how developers and partners are creating new, innovative and compelling ways for people to use Twitter. As we open our firehose of public data to a diverse set of uses, there is much to discuss about how we collectively can create even more inspiration and great user experiences.

Developing Multiplayer Games with Microsoft Silverlight 4

Mike Downey, Grant Skinner — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:06:22 GMT

Come learn from world-renowned interactive developer Grant Skinner about the opportunities, challenges, and processes for developing successful games using Silverlight. Hear about key Silverlight animation topics from many angles including business, technical, tools, workflow and design integration.

Accessing Data in a Microsoft .NET-Connected Web Application

Shyam Pather — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:06:21 GMT

Data is the lifeblood of any web service or application. In this talk we focus on how to interact with a variety of different data sources within your application, including XML and relational databases. Focusing on the different data features of the .NET Framework including System.XML, System.Linq, and System.Data, see practical examples of data access in web applications and learn more about the latest advancements in our data access technologies, including insights into Microsoft ADO.NET Entity Framework 4, our highly productive ORM framework.

Accessing Web Services in Microsoft Silverlight

Yavor Georgiev — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:06:21 GMT

This session outlines the use cases for the networking and web service technologies available in Silverlight, including Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and WCF RIA Services. We then focus the core WCF stack and cover basic request/reply scenarios as well as duplex scenarios, where the service can push data to the client. The session is heavy on demos and assumes you are familiar with the WCF stack.

To Be Announced

James Senior — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 03:20:19 GMT

To Be Announced

Advanced Web Debugging with Fiddler

Eric Lawrence — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 03:20:19 GMT

Learn how teams around Microsoft and ISVs around the world use the Fiddler Web Debugger to find bugs, troubleshoot performance problems, and uncover security vulnerabilities in web applications. We explore the best add-ons for Fiddler, and demonstrate how to use JavaScript and Microsoft .NET languages to extend Fiddler to suit your needs. We also take a quick look at FiddlerCap, a lightweight capture tool that enables your support team to collect web traffic logs from visitors, and FiddlerCore, the .NET class library that lets you build Fiddler-like functionality into test frameworks and other tools.

Building Platforms and Applications for the Real-Time Web

Dare Obasanjo, Chris Saad, Brett Slatkin, Ari Steinberg, Ryan Sarver, Lili Cheng — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 03:15:45 GMT

From news feeds to search, the web has become all about real-time access to news and other information as it happens. This panel discusses what it takes to build the platforms and user experiences that power some of the most notable services on the real-time web. Come hear a lively discussion about the real-time web with moderator Dare Obasanjo (Microsoft) and panelists Ari Steinberg (Facebook), Brett Slatkin (Google), Chris Saad (JS-Kit), Lili Cheng (Microsoft) and Ryan Sarver (Twitter).

Distributing and Monetizing Windows Phone Applications and Games

John Bruno, Todd Biggs — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:30:46 GMT

Windows Phone Marketplace will revolutionize distribution of Windows Phone applications, games, and content, and is designed to solve the two largest problems of the Windows Phone consumer-focused developer community: distribution and monetization. This session will provide application developers with the insights, tools, and processes necessary to begin distributing and monetizing their applications on the Windows Phone platform.

Development and Debugging Tools for Building XNA Games for Windows Phone

Cullen Waters — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:30:46 GMT

This session covers tools available to the developer for building XNA games including debugging, emulation, and performance. Special emphasis is placed on best practices for managed code performance and .NET profiling tools you can use to optimize your games for windows phone.

Windows Phone Application Platform Architecture

Istvan Cseri — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:30:46 GMT

Windows Phone 7 Series represents a significant change from the past. The entire stack, starting with the operating system, user experience, and the application platform have been engineered to build a new class of phone that users will just love. This session will go under the covers and describe how to think about applications and games from the perspective of user experience, security, packaging, cloud services and performance. Details on the new application model, device capabilities, location, sensors, and other platform capabilities will be covered.

Windows Phone UI and Design Language

Chad Roberts, Michael Smuga, Albert Shum — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:30:45 GMT

Windows Phone constitutes a dramatic new user experience paradigm. This session will provide prescriptive guidance, tips, and techniques on how designers & developers can build beautiful, compelling user experiences that are consistent with the built-in Windows Phone 7 Series experiences.

Building Windows Phone Applications with Silverlight, Part 1

Mike Harsh — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:30:45 GMT

Together with part 2, these sessions give an overview of the functionality for Silverlight applications that is unique to the Windows Phone application platform. Part 1 will cover new input paradigms including multi-touch, software keyboard, accelerometer and microphone, as well as the APIs to leverage phone applications like email, phone dialer, contact list and more.

Building Windows Phone Applications with Silverlight, Part 2

Peter Torr — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:30:45 GMT

Together with part 1, these sessions give an overview of the functionality for Silverlight applications that is unique to the Windows Phone application platform. Part 2 will cover the new application model, updated control templates, themes, and services available to applications, including new Windows Phone web services.

An Introduction to Developing Applications for Microsoft Silverlight

Shawn Oster — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:30:45 GMT

New to Silverlight? This is the session for you. This session will cover: how to get started building your first application, tooling, extensibility and deployment. We’ll also highlight the capabilities of Microsoft Silverlight on the PC, as well as support for Windows Phone.

Overview of the Windows Phone 7 Series Application Platform

Charlie Kindel — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:30:44 GMT

The new Windows Phone is coming! Get a high-level overview of the new application platform and a complete picture of the developer story. Learn about the developer tools, the application frameworks, the support for Silverlight, and the support for XNA.

Designing and Developing for the Rich Mobile Web

Joe Marini — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:30:44 GMT

The Mobile Web has been a long time in coming, and now that it’s here, it’s a force that you and your business can’t afford to ignore. What has made all of this possible is the combination of ever-more-powerful devices, fast network connections, and highly capable mobile browsers. In this session, you will learn how to build sites that work well and look great on Windows Phone and across mobile devices. We’ll cover the core mobile Web scenarios, preparing content for mobile, and tips and techniques for debugging and testing your sites.

Building a High Performance 3D Game for Windows Phone

Shawn Hargreaves, Tomas Vykruta — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:30:44 GMT

This session will detail how to use XNA to develop 3D games for Windows Phone, with a special eye towards the special characteristics of Windows Phone application platform. Special attention will be placed on optimizing high-performance managed code games for the platform, to help you squeeze out every last drop of performance.

Building Windows Phone Games

Michael Klucher — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:30:43 GMT

With the release of Windows Phone, game developers will be able to create amazing content rapidly through the power of Silverlight and the XNA framework. This talk will outline the basic application model of Windows Phone, enumerate Windows Phone core device characteristics, and walk through highlights of Silverlight and XNA Frameworks on the phone.

Building Rich and Interactive User Experiences in SharePoint

Andre Engberts — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:30:41 GMT

Come hear how SharePoint offers many ways to build rich and personalized interactions using its user interface framework. Learn how to create rich experiences by extending SharePoint using technologies like Microsoft Silverlight for the presentation layer and Microsoft Commerce Server for personalization and targeting. See actual site examples of development and application architecture using SharePoint including the process by which an interactive user interface was created on SharePoint starting with the initial design specification through developing the site. Also, see how the user experience and creative work is translated into a technology implementation that uses Master Pages, CSS, and Silverlight on SharePoint.

Designing an Internet-Facing Web Site Using SharePoint 2010

Elisabeth Olson — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:15:42 GMT

Increasingly, companies are using SharePoint to build their Internet-facing properties. Examples of such sites are Ferrari.com and ConocoPhillips.com. In SharePoint 2010, there are many improvements that designers and developers can leverage to build exciting and compelling sites. This session provides an overview of some of the great new features in SharePoint 2010 for designing Internet-facing Web sites including Silverlight support, XLST Web parts, CSS, and themes. If you’re designing on SharePoint, you don’t want to miss this session.

The HaaHa Show: Microsoft ASP.NET MVC Security with Haack and Hanselman

Phil Haack, Scott Hanselman — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:45:40 GMT

Join Phil Haack and Scott Hanselman for this dynamic and unusual security session. The HaaHa brothers take turns implementing features on an ASP.NET MVC website. Scott writes a feature, and Phil exploits it and hacks into the system. We analyze and discuss the exploits live on stage and then close them one by one. Learn about XSS, CSRF, JSON Hijacking and more. Is *your* site safe from the Haack?

Using Windows Identity Foundation for Creating Identity-Driven Experiences in Microsoft Silverlight

Caleb Baker — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:00:42 GMT

Come learn how you can leverage Windows Identity Foundation to simplify access to your Silverlight applications and delight your users with custom-tailored experiences. Discover how you can enable single sign on for your Silverlight applications no matter where they are hosted, explore how you can use claims-based identity to adapt the user experience for customers, learn how to take advantage of web services protected by federated security - all with the same consistent developer APIs, that Windows Identity Foundation already offers for Microsoft ASP.NET and Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) projects.

Developing with WCF RIA Services Quickly and Effectively

Nikhil Kothari — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:00:42 GMT

Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) RIA Services provides an end-to-end framework for creating n-tier, data-driven applications on top of Microsoft Silverlight, ASP.NET, and WCF. This talk demonstrates how you can use the framework and tools to get started quickly while focusing on your business logic rather than on plumbing and infrastructure. This talk goes beyond the basics to demonstrate how you can use RIA Services effectively to create well-architected solutions that employ best practices, advanced techniques and integrate key application patterns such as ViewModel (a.k.a. MVVM) that enable you to scale your solution on the server and across presentation and data technologies, and to create great user experiences on the client.

What's New in Microsoft ASP.NET MVC 2

Phil Haack — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:00:42 GMT

Come see and hear about the latest innovations in ASP.NET MVC 2 and the tooling support in Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and 2010. We introduce you to a range of productivity (and extensibility) enhancements such as template helpers, model validation, and the new "Areas" feature, which enhances the team development of large websites. With template helpers you can get your website up and running for any data entity type without having to create UI. With improved server side validation and brand new client side validation support, your business data model can define the behavior of your application automatically. All this and more!

Using Ruby on Rails to Build Windows Azure Applications

Sriram Krishnan — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:00:41 GMT

The Windows Azure platform has been designed to be open and interoperable with services that can be used with a variety of languages. In this session, learn how your Ruby on Rails applications can take advantage of scalable compute and storage services in the cloud with Windows Azure.

Using Storage in the Windows Azure Platform

Chris Auld — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:00:41 GMT

Building big web apps requires unique approaches to storing data. In this session we share hard-won lessons from Azure early adopters on how they've combined Microsoft SQL Azure and Windows Azure Storage to handle typical storage needs in the cloud. We discuss sharding and data partitioning approaches and how these can impact transaction throughput in SQL Azure as well as techniques to get the best out of "NoSQL" data stores like Azure Table Storage.

Understanding the Model-View-ViewModel Pattern

Laurent Bugnion — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:00:41 GMT

The Model-View-ViewModel pattern (also called MVVM) is a hot topic in today's Silverlight and WPF world. This pattern facilitates modern development techniques such as separation of concerns (decoupling), unit testing and test driven development, work with modern tools such as Microsoft Visual Studio 2010, Microsoft Expression Blend and more. In this session, Laurent (a user and promoter of MVVM since 2006) introduces this pattern to you with many demos. We talk about the basic components of a modern Microsoft Silverlight or Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) application, and of additional helpers that will make your life as a developer much easier.

Syncing Audio, Video and Animations in Microsoft Silverlight Applications

Dan Wahlin — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:00:40 GMT

Silverlight provides a robust framework for integrating audio, video and animations into applications but how do you keep them all in-sync? In this session Silverlight MVP Dan Wahlin discusses an animation project created for a Fortune 500 company and demonstrates tips and tricks that can be used to keep various assets synced so that audio and video clips can be started at specific times as a storyboard plays. Topics covered include working with timers, segregating large storyboards into user controls, defining sync points using XML, generating markers using Microsoft Expression Encoder, integrating closed captioning into an application, plus more.

Software and Web Entrepreneurs: Go Big with BizSpark and WebsiteSpark

Alex Souza, Julien Codorniou — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:00:40 GMT

Come and learn about BizSpark and WebsiteSpark from Microsoft. Discover how Microsoft provides startups and web professionals with the latest development tools, production server licenses and the marketing opportunities they need to get big fast, at no cost. Also hear about the worldwide network of experts available to help entrepreneurs succeed. Meet startups and web professionals who got very successful building innovative websites and applications on the Microsoft Stack with the Sparks program.

Stepping Outside the Browser with Microsoft Silverlight 4

Ashish Shetty — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:00:40 GMT

You can do a lot with a Silverlight 3 out-of-browser application - so what more do you need? Maybe file system access, the ability to host HTML content, the ability to customize the application chrome, greater control over the out-of-browser window, notifications, access to local components and the ability to playback rights protected media? If so, then this is the session for you to come find out about the new Silverlight 4 out-of -browser features and see some of the amazing things you can do with those features.

Total Experience: A Design Methodology for Agencies

Conor Brady — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:00:40 GMT

Designers today have many exciting opportunities to envision new brand engagement strategies that help brands reach consumers in an increasingly diverse world. However, the design and creative process in a multi-platform, multi-audience world can be extremely complex. Total Experience enables deep collaboration and develops integrated multichannel strategies quickly and effectively. This session touches on live examples and the creative techniques used in social design, mobile and geo-location with major brands. Hear about key learnings based on brand solutions delivered through the application of the Total Experience methodology. In addition, hear about the core tenants of Total Experience as well as new insights on how to drive effective prototyping and detailed audience analysis as an approach to designing the right marketing platform that reaches the right consumer at the right time.

The OpenRasta Framework for Building RESTful Applications

Kyle Baley — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:00:40 GMT

So you've whet your appetite on MVC. Maybe built a website for your son's hockey league or your WoW guild. And you've started to see some cracks in the veneer. "Why do I need to create my own ActionResults all over the place?" you ask. "Why is it so cumbersome to serve up the same object in different formats?" "Why is the routing configuration so flaky?" OpenRasta is a resource-based open-source framework that enables easy development of ReST-ful applications. Based on the concept of resources and HTTP verbs, OpenRasta allows you to build applications that take advantage of web semantics rather than working around them. Handling of resources and their rendering are completely separate so you don't need to create multiple methods to render an object in different formats. Furthermore, there is no need to mess with different ActionResults. If you are rendering a Customer, that's what you return from the controller action. Not a ViewResult or a JsonResult or some other variant. Throughout this presentation, we discuss a different way of looking at your application, based on its domain and semantics, and see how OpenRasta can facilitate more intuitive development, based on testability and extensibility.

Microsoft Silverlight and Windows Azure: A Match Made for the Web

Matt Kerner — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:00:39 GMT

By combining the rich user experience with Silverlight with the flexibility and scalability of Windows Azure compute and storage, you can build some incredible end-to-end web applications. In this session we show you tips and tricks so you can best use these technologies together. We cover key topics such as client-server communications, cross-domain access policies, and accessing Windows Azure storage from Silverlight.

Microsoft Silverlight 4 Overview: What's in Store for Silverlight 4?

Keith Smith — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:45:38 GMT

Are you looking for ways to build seamless, rich web experiences and easy-to-deploy line-of-business applications? If so, come see an overview of the new features and updates included in the upcoming release of Silverlight 4. We explore enhancements to features like out-of-browser and elevated trust and tour advances in areas such as rich text, input and networking.

Microsoft Silverlight 4 Business Applications

Scott Morrison — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:30:37 GMT

Silverlight 4 makes building line of business applications easier than ever. Continuing the overview of Silverlight 4, this session focuses on new business-oriented features including importing/exporting data, printing, data visualization, WCF RIA Services and design-time enhancements in Visual Studio 2010.

Securing Microsoft Silverlight Applications

Shawn Wildermuth — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:30:36 GMT

Come hear how to protect Silverlight applications from common threats including securing your application from intruders, eavesdroppers and users as well as protecting your code, your data and your servers from attacks. Also, hear about the key security vectors that must be considered when using Silverlight such as securing applications that often live outside firewalls.

Search Engine Optimization for Microsoft Silverlight

Brad Abrams — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:30:36 GMT

Search engines are the primary entry point into the web for millions of users on the internet and increasingly in corporate intranets as well. Come learn how to unlock the valuable content in your Silverlight applications by making it available to search engines to discover. This talk describes best practices and discusses real-world examples of SEO-enabled Silverlight applications with the help of RIA Services and Microsoft ASP.NET.

Pumping "Iron" on the Web: IronRuby and IronPython

Jimmy Schementi — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:15:36 GMT

Come learn how to use IronRuby and IronPython on the web, be it on the server with Microsoft ASP.NET MVC to simply the writing of your controllers and views, or on the client with Microsoft Silverlight - letting you write Silverlight apps as easily as HTML apps. But you don't have to start from scratch to use these languages today; they support using their engines from static Microsoft .NET languages (C# and Visual Basic .NET, for example), enabling you to script your existing applications and use libraries written in other languages. Adding scripting to your web applications lets you get things done, like writing ASP.NET MVC views in embedded Ruby (ERb), or testing you web applications; a low-risk way to introduce dynamic languages to the rest of your team, and make writing tests fun too! Lastly, we discuss the roadmap and state of these languages.

Tips and Tricks for Making Web Forms Shine with Microsoft ASP.NET 4

Jon Galloway — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:14:30 GMT

Learn how Web Forms continue to evolve in ASP.NET 4, and how they can be used to rapidly build rich and highly performing applications. We cover some great tips and tricks to improve your Web Forms applications with lean, standards compliant markup, rich interactivity with ASP.NET AJAX, and more.

Principles of Microsoft Silverlight Graphics and Animation

Jeff Paries — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:14:29 GMT

Come and learn how to breathe life into your designs by learning the fundamentals of Silverlight graphics and animation. We take a look at the types of graphical assets Silverlight and Microsoft Expression Blend support, where they come from, and how to leverage them in your applications. Then we move on to the animation system, where we start at the beginning with a review of storyboards and keyframes before breaking free and exploring procedural (code-based) animation. This is where the rubber meets the road and your objects come to life - vectors, frame-based animation, collisions, particle systems, and VR objects.

Microsoft Silverlight Optimization and Extensibility with MEF

Glenn Block — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:14:29 GMT

Wouldn't it be nice if your team could add new features to your applications without all the headache they have to deal with today? With the Managed Extensiblity Framework (MEF) in 4.0 you can bolt your apps together dynamically on the fly. Adding new modules and features is as simple as deploying a new binary, you don't have to touch the existing code. You can even deploy those features as separate XAP files which can be loaded on-demand! Come to this talk for a quick tour of what MEF is, and learn how you can use it to beat out your competition.

Microsoft Surface Goes Social: Research Project at the University of Linz

Mario Meir-Huber — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:14:29 GMT

Want to see how Surface can be combined with location-based services and social software? Attend this session to see how a research project team at the University of Linz, Austria succeeded in developing a cool application for university students. The location-based service enables the students to improve communication and learning. It also supports planning of academic life at the university. As an extension to the application, which was developed in Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), there is also one developed for Surface. To see the challenges we faced and how we developed this great project, join this session!

OData: There's a Feed for That

Pablo Castro — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:14:29 GMT

There is no shortage of valuable data being generated by applications, reports, tools, websites, etc. Unfortunately, this leaves many of us wishing we could programmatically access the data and logic behind an app, report or website. To break down data silos and increase the shared value of data and its asscoiated business logic through the web, Microsoft has recently announced the Open Data Protocol which enable exposing any data source as a web-friendly data feed. Join this session to understand what the Open Data Protocol (OData) is and how it adds end user and developer value to many of Microsoft's leading products and services (such as SharePoint Server 2010, Microsoft Codename "Dallas", Windows Azure, SQL Server Reporting Services, SQL Server PowerPivot for Excel, Visual Studio, .NET, Silverlight, AJAX etc.) and is accessible from a range of platforms such as Java and PHP.

Microsoft Project Code Name "Dallas": Data For Your Apps

Moe Khosravy — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:14:29 GMT

“Dallas” enables developers to consume premium commercial and public domain data to power consumer and business apps on any platform or device. Do you need mapping or government data? These datasets and many, many, many more are all available through “Dallas” with a simple and consistent REST-based APIs, simple terms of use, and a simple consumption-based billing model. In this session, you will see how “Dallas” removes the friction for accessing common datasets by enabling you to visually discover, explore, and purchase data of virtually any data type (images, real-time web services, databases, blobs, etc) provided by trusted partners from a single marketplace. We will use a variety of Dallas datasets to develop web and mobile applications using technologies such as Silverlight 4, ASP.NET MVC, and Windows Phone.

Implementing OData: How to Create a Feed for That

Mike Flasko — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:14:28 GMT

Data has become a first-class element of the web. The Open Data Protocol (OData) applies web technologies such as HTTP, AtomPub and JSON to enable a wide range of data sources to be exposed on the web in a simple, secure and interoperable way. Whether you have a simple collection of reference data, are building a Rich Internet Application using WCF RIA Services or are building the data platform for a high-end website, this code-heavy session walks through the key technologies and practices available to expose your data and its associated logic as an OData feed. This session covers the basics and quickly progresses to the nuts and bolts of the available OData frameworks. Once your data is available as an OData feed it can be consumed by any of the available OData libraries/tools for Microsoft .NET, Silverlight, AJAX, Java, PHP and Excel.

Improving the Usability and Security of OpenID

Mike Jones — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:14:28 GMT

OpenID is gaining popularity as an Internet identity system. Nonetheless, it is widely recognized that both usability and security issues are limiting the adoption and applicability of OpenID as it exists today; both kinds of issues can be improved by the introduction of an active client for OpenID. In this session we describe a community collaboration to explore these issues through working code. We demonstrate an experimental multi-protocol version of Windows CardSpace that enables end-users to bring their OpenIDs with them to sites, while mitigating phishing attacks, including its use at production OpenID sites.

Great User Experiences: Seamlessly Blending Technology and Design

Ben Jones, Andy Hood — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:14:28 GMT

The best solutions make maximum use of innovative technologies to achieve beautiful and unexpected results. However, they do not do this in an obvious and arbitrary way, with a big signpost attached saying "Look At This Great Technology" but by blending the technology in seamlessly with great design to create a single beautiful experience. If your audience can 'see the edges' then the magic is lost. In this session we present not only the most innovative technical solutions from AKQA in 2009 but focus on how this technology has been seamlessly integrated into the overall design, working hand-in-hand with that design to present a truly immersive experience, rather than merely a cool piece of technology. Attendees will take away the value of thinking creatively not just about the level of technical innovation, but about how that innovation is presented as part of a seamless experience. Case studies include SL for Xbox, Sherlock Holmes 221b, Nike Five, and Eco Drive.

Improving Software Quality for the Modern Web

Euan Garden — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:14:28 GMT

In this session, see different testing techniques and tools for manual, exploratory, performance, and scale testing your web application. We also look at testing in production and how to work testing into an Agile process. We cover the testing capabilities of Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 for developers, for testers, and perhaps most importantly: ways in which developers and testers can work better together to improve software quality and reduce "bug ping-pong."

IronRuby for the .NET Developer

Cory Foy — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:14:28 GMT

Have you heard of Ruby? It's an expressive, malleable, and fun language you can use in any Microsoft .NET-connected application. In this session we look at using IronRuby and the DLR to extend .NET-connected applications, test user interfaces, and even script behavior in the browser.

Lap around the Windows Azure Platform

Steve Marx — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:14:28 GMT

The Windows Azure platform provides a comprehensive set of services for building and running scalable applications targeted at the cloud. In this session we go on a coding tour of the Windows Azure platform. On this tour, see how web applications can use the scalable compute and storage services with Windows Azure, secure connectivity with Service Bus and Access Control Service, and a relational database with Microsoft SQL Azure.

Flash Skills Applied to Microsoft Silverlight Design and Development

Adam Kinney — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:14:27 GMT

If you know how to design and develop Flash applications, you are more than half the way there to creating Silverlight applications. Similar languages, graphic and animation features and skinnable controls, ease the training between the two technologies. Listen and learn how to add a new skill to your skillset and expand your opportunities.

Driving Experiences via Services Using the Microsoft .NET Framework

Ron Jacobs — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:14:27 GMT

Windows Communication Foundation 4 (WCF) provides a coherent and unified services strategy for .NET. In this session, we present how .NET developers can reuse their WCF skills to take advantage of the integrated tooling and rich extensibility of a single WCF distributed programming framework including WCF WebHttp Services for RESTful services, WCF Data Services and OData, WCF Workflow Services for long-running, durable services, and WCF RIA Services for end-to-end Microsoft Silverlight application development.

From Comp to Code: A Design Communion

Evan Sharp — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:14:27 GMT

Translating comps into code can be a painful and unremitting process. Learn how to develop a personalized, systematic approach to the continuous give-and-take between static comps and interactive code. Master the fine-line between minimal CSS and extensible CSS. We also explore the benefits of "designing through code" by looking at a few recent case studies.

Developing Natural User Interfaces with Microsoft Silverlight and WPF 4 Touch

Joshua Blake — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:14:26 GMT

The Natural User Interface (NUI) is the next revolution of human-computer interaction. Microsoft Surface has shown the potential of multi-touch NUIs to uniquely engage users, and multi-touch tablets and displays are becoming more and more common. This session is focused on how you can create multi-touch NUIs for these devices. Learn the difference between manipulations and gestures, when to use each, and how to implement specific NUI design concepts with both Silverlight and the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) 4 Touch API. The differences between the Silverlight and WPF 4 Touch APIs are highlighted. If you are interested in rich, engaging multi-touch interfaces for the web or client, then you need to attend this session!

Design the Ordinary, Like the Fixie

DL Byron, Kevin Tamura — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:14:26 GMT

This presentation is a study in the simplest of objects, their usefulness, and how they become part of our culture. It relates to web design and our tendency to overcomplicate, to play drum solos when a tight and crisp backbeat will do. Learn how to find inspiration in the ordinary and pause before adding that flair to your next project.

Do You Speak My Language? Microsoft Translator and the Power of Collaboration

Neil Roodyn, Vikram Dendi — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:14:26 GMT

Super charge your websites and applications with the latest in translation technology using Microsoft Translator. Be the first to hear about how you can harness the power of the machine and your community to deliver a better language experience to your users. Designers and web specialists will be interested in the translator widget and developers can dive deeper with the various APIs.

Designing and Delivering Scalable and Resilient Web Services

Ron Jacobs — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:14:26 GMT

The distributed in-memory caching capabilities of Windows Server AppFabric will change how you think about scaling your Microsoft .NET-connected applications. Come learn how the distributed nature of the AppFabric cache allows large amounts of data to be stored in-memory for extremely fast access, how AppFabric's integration with Microsoft ASP.NET makes it easy to add low-latency data caching across the web farm, and discover the unique high availability features of AppFabric which will bring new degrees of scale and resilience to your data tier and your web applications. This is a must attend session for application architects and developers responsible for complex multi-server web solutions.

Debugging Microsoft Silverlight Applications

Shawn Wildermuth — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:14:25 GMT

Building Silverlight apps is one thing, but what happens when you get stuck? That's where debugging comes into the picture. In this mini-talk, Shawn shows you how to do simple debugging of Silverlight code, debug data binding/validation problems, and how to debug Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Services.

Creating Effective Info Viz in Microsoft Silverlight

Matthias Shapiro — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:14:25 GMT

So much information and so little time. Matthias Shapiro, contributing author for "Beautiful Visualization", talks about how to create information visualizations in Silverlight that bring both beauty and insight to the data. He covers different methods for portraying data, in which cases different methods should be used, and how Silverlight can inform the process and speed up a visualization project.

Connecting Your Applications in the Cloud with Windows Azure AppFabric

Clemens Vasters — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:14:25 GMT

In this session, learn about the new features we're enabling with Windows Azure AppFabric to build rich, connected web applications. Today, Windows Azure AppFabric allows connecting service applications to their clients irrespective of network topology, firewalls, and NATs, providing endpoint discoverability, access control and bi-directional information flow between sites in the cloud, on-premises and on the road. We preview new features that make it easy for developers to build rich, connected Microsoft Silverlight applications. We also demonstrate how Windows Azure AppFabric is reaching beyond its .NET Framework roots, making it easy to extend modern, web-based communication patterns to any app, any page, and any device.

Building Web Applications with Windows Azure Storage

Brad Calder — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:14:25 GMT

Windows Azure provides a highly available and massively scalable cloud storage service. In this session, learn how to create and access the different types of Windows Azure storage including blobs, tables, and queues. Also, learn about the new type of storage we are introducing, Windows Azure XDrive, which lets you use existing NTFS file system APIs to access durable storage.

Deep Dive into Orchard Extensibility for CMS Developers

Renaud Paquay — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:14:25 GMT

Orchard is a new open source platform in Microsoft ASP.NET that you can use to build applications. We take a deep dive together into the architecture of an Orchard CMS application. We discover how content types can get composed from extremely extensible parts, and see how parts then get composed into meaningful UI. Learn how you can build your own module today and see what exciting features we'll enable over the next few months.

Building Offline Web Apps Using Microsoft Sync Framework

Mike Clark — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:14:24 GMT

Come learn about offline web applications and how they can provide a better experience to your users. Windows Azure, Microsoft SQL Azure, and Sync Framework are core technologies that enable web developers to create offline applications. See how to use these three technologies to produce great applications. We also introduce our upcoming support for offline Microsoft Silverlight clients and show you how you will have the flexibility to use any platform for your offline applications, device or desktop.

Building Finance Applications with Microsoft Silverlight 4

Cai Junyi — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:14:24 GMT

Sina Finance is the leading finance channel in China with 80 million users. Sina Finance's SilverPulse is a Silverlight 4-based application with cutting edge features in finance information accessibility and analysis. In this session we share how we built the application from scratch and how to integrate Silverlight 4 into cutting edge products like SilverPulse.

Building Great Standards-Based Websites for the Big Wide World with Microsoft ASP.NET 4

Tatham Oddie, Damian Edwards — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:14:24 GMT

In this session, two ASP.NET MVPs share their experiences from building Australia's largest e-commerce site with ASP.NET Web Forms. They show you how to be a good web citizen by covering standards compliance (properly!), cross browser and accessibility considerations, non-JavaScript support, as well as coding techniques like the Model-View-Presenter pattern to improve maintainability and testing. Along the way, there is plenty of discussion of the differences between Web Forms and ASP.NET MVC in each area, as well as a good look at some of the new features in ASP.NET 4 and Microsoft Visual Studio 2010.

Building Web Applications with Microsoft SQL Azure

David Robinson — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:14:24 GMT

SQL Azure provides a highly available and scalable relational database engine in the cloud. In this demo-intensive and interactive session, learn how to quickly build web applications with SQL Azure Databases and familiar web technologies. We demonstrate how you can quickly provision, build and populate a new SQL Azure database directly from your web browser. Also, see firsthand several new enhancements we are adding to SQL Azure based on the feedback we’ve received from the community since launching the service earlier this year.

Building an Accessible Microsoft Silverlight Experience

Mark Rideout — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:14:23 GMT

Wondering how to build an accessible Silverlight application? Curious about support for accessibility in Silverlight? Join us as we dig into Silverlight and steps you can take to provide an accessible experience for your users.

Building Facebook Apps with Microsoft .NET and Deploying to Windows Azure

Jim Zimmerman — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:14:23 GMT

There are so many ways to develop Facebook apps now in .NET. Come and learn how to build Facebook applications with the Facebook Developer Toolkit. Walk through several real-world Facebook web apps in Microsoft ASP.NET and see how to best structure your app. Social media applications require dynamic scalability so a highly scalable computing infrastructure is mandatory to deliver a consistent user experience. Learn how to leverage all the components of Azure to meet the needs of successful viral applications.

Building a Next-Generation Web Application with Microsoft ASP.NET MVC 2 and jQuery

Nate Kohari — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:14:23 GMT

ASP.NET MVC is a great foundation for building AJAX-driven web applications. Come hear a talk about building Agile Zen, a lean project management application. Learn how easy it is to make ASP.NET MVC and jQuery play nice together, as well as talk about why building on ASP.NET MVC is a great choice, both from a business and technical standpoint.

Building and Deploying Windows Azure-Based Applications with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010

Jim Nakashima — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:14:23 GMT

Visual Studio makes it easy to quickly build web applications for the Windows Azure Platform by allowing you to leverage your existing skills as a .NET web developer. In this session, see how to use the new Visual Studio 2010 tools to build, debug, and deploy web applications that target the cloud. We use familiar technologies such as Microsoft ASP.NET and Microsoft SQL Server and call out the key considerations when targeting the Windows Azure Platform. Whether you're just getting started with Windows Azure or if you're already a pro, in this session learn new tips and tricks for using the Visual Studio 2010 tools to accelerate the development of cloud applications.

Build Your Own MVVM Framework

Rob Eisenberg — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:14:22 GMT

You've heard a lot about Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM), but you've struggled to see how it can help you in your day-to-day work. Or, you're experienced at implementing MVVM, but looking for some ways to maximize your investment in this methodology. In this talk, we build a simple MVVM framework by iteratively identifying pain points in our UI development and eliminating them with simple solutions. You'll walk away with code, but more importantly with an understanding of how to apply some simple ideas to improve productivity with MVVM in your own projects.

Beyond File | New Company: From Cheesy Sample to Social Platform

Scott Hanselman — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:14:22 GMT

The web has changed and there's a new way of thinking about your applications. You can't just write some HTML and CSS anymore and expect to be the next Twitter. Hear how to make your site socially relevant in the new decade (the '10s?) This session includes everything from Microsoft ASP.NET MVC2, to Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and OData, JSON services and blog flair, microformats, and leverage ASP.NET and Microsoft Silverlight to create rich user experiences. Let's stop messing around and start changing the world. Or at least giving Nerds a place to eat dinner.

Six Things Every jQuery Developer Must Know

Elijah Manor — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:14:22 GMT

This seminar provides an overview of several in-depth concepts that developers need to learn to bring their jQuery development to the next level. We review six things that you should know, such as: "What Is This?", "Am I Referencing the jQuery Object or a DOM Element?", "Understanding Selectors", "Combine and Minify Your Scripts", "Different Ways of Storing Data", and "The Dos and Don'ts of Events". Along the way, we share several helpful websites and tools to make your job as a jQuery developer easier.

Changing our Game – an Introduction to Windows Phone 7 Series

Joe Belfiore — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 03:45:28 GMT

Major changes are coming to Windows Phone! This session goes in-depth on the design and features of Windows Phone and gives a comprehensive picture of what’s coming in this exciting new release.

HTML5 Now: The Future of Web Markup Today (Part 2 of 2)

Molly Holzschlag — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 05:00:29 GMT

This two-part, full-day workshop focuses on HTML5 and why it is becoming more important to understand, and even put to use. As the open standard for web applications, HTML5 takes markup to a new level, requiring web developers and designers to re-examine the way they've worked in the past, and will be working in days and months to come. Presented by Molly E. Holzschlag, Web Standards advocate, evangelist, and developer relations team member at Opera Software, the day helps demystify HTML5 as well as provide actual insight into how to begin using aspects of the language today. This afternoon portion of the workshop focuses on: new elements in HTML5 and how to use them in current sites and applications, an overview of Web Forms 2.0 elements, attributes and validation features for Web Forms 2.0, a look at a range of HTML5 APIs and scripting access, HTML5 and Accessibility, and when to consider using features of HTML5 in current development of sites and applications.

Total Experience Design

Paul Dawson — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:37:29 GMT

Your Mission: We need great creative ideas, we need them implemented, and we need to make customers love them, all in the space of six months. You have zero budget. Go! Under huge pressure to innovate, how do you get people to buy in to your ideas and then actually get them done? How do you avoid getting side-tracked by blue-sky thinking whilst delivering a project to time and budget yet still realize the ambitions we set in that blue-sky thinking? How do you even justify doing 'something different' or focusing on Experience in the first place? See how to get Experience-based innovation going, how to get it to flourish, how to define its success factors and measure the "Return on Experience".

Designing Corporate Web Sites using SharePoint 2010

Paul Stubbs — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:37:29 GMT

SharePoint is more commonly being used in the enterprise to manage many different types of activities. Often the design and deployment of these sites require designers to work closely with developers. This session will discuss the integrated design and development experience, focusing on design techniques, integrated tools support through SharePoint Designer, Expression Blend and Visual Studio, and show how designers can build compelling enterprise sites for SharePoint 2010.

Touch in Public: Multi-touch Interaction Design for Kiosks and Architectural Experiences

Jason Brush — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:37:29 GMT

Multi-touch capabilities in Windows 7 have a vast array of possible applications. However, the design considerations for creating desktop applications that utilize these capabilities are somewhat different than designing for multi-touch applications in public installations, such as kiosks and architectural interfaces. In public spaces, users have to learn quickly in order to have a satisfying interaction, and experiences have to be tailored to the environment. Learn about the design considerations for creating successful public interfaces, ranging from how to make a screen's touch-ability clear to users, to creating interactions that are easily learned, while at the same time being enjoyable and engaging.

Treat Your Content Right

Tiffani Jones Brown — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:37:29 GMT

Most the time, designers don’t publish napkin sketches as final designs. But the same is not true of content. We regularly cram last-minute, sketchy content into our otherwise thoughtfully planned websites. Learn why content strategy and web writing matter, what they are, how to incorporate them into your design process, and how they make meaningful websites that connect with people. Also, look at a few case studies that show how content strategy and happy collaborations produce better web experiences. For everyone.

The Laws of User Experience

Anthony Franco — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:37:28 GMT

Whether you want to sell more software, improve employee efficiency, enhance brand strength or increase ad revenue, great user experiences (UX) better play a large role in your business strategy. In this session, EffectiveUI President Anthony Franco discusses why and how engaging software drives value to strategic business goals by increasing site stickiness, differentiating from competitors and making users hungry for your product or services. Armed with insider stats and research from industry analysts across verticals, Anthony defines the criteria behind custom usable software and demonstrate real-world examples of socially enabled experiences that are good for business. You will leave this session with proof of how UX impacts your bottom line, as well as a roadmap to help you cost-effectively put the theory into practice.

Service Design Goes Social

Shelley Evenson — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:37:28 GMT

People participating in service - whether providers, consumers, or others actively involved - are actually designing as they participate in a service. The service designer's role has grown from one of developing static objects and environments, to one of creating new methods for modeling experience, and skilling everyone to be an active participant in the service experience. What if part of that skilling included real-time rich visualizations of information from social networks? Begin with a quick look at how social is changing almost everything and learn how adding social to service might just lead to a new kind of value creation.

The Mono Project

Miguel de Icaza — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:37:28 GMT

Mono is a free and open source implementation of .NET that runs on Windows, Unix, and Macintosh. In more than 5 years since the first version of Mono was released, the Mono project has continued to add support for new functionality, such as C# 3.0, LINQ, and Silverlight; and has continued to see adoption. Come hear about the latest developments and future plans from the founder of the Mono project.

Microsoft Silverlight 4 Boot Camp

Mike Taulty, John Papa — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:37:28 GMT

In this half-day workshop, learn the skills necessary to create powerful Silverlight 4 applications. We start with basic platform capabilities and tools, and show how to build media applications, rich applications with MVVM, and out-of-browser support.

The Art, Technology and Science of Reading

Kevin Larson — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:37:28 GMT

Are serif fonts more readable than sans serif fonts? Does grey text on a grey background cause eye fatigue? Can you read jmubeld wodrs just as fast as regular words? Learn about the latest research for making readable on-screen text. Plus, see optical illusions in the ubiquitous font Georgia.

Robots at MySpace: Massive Scaling a .NET Website with the Microsoft Robotic Studio

Erik Nelson, Tony Chow, Akash Patel — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:37:27 GMT

MySpace, the largest .NET website in the world found that they could effectively scale their messaging infrastructure in their middle tier using the Concurrency and Coordination Runtime, a component originally released as part of the Microsoft Robotic Studio. Learn how the team adapted to a new programming model and used it in their Data Relay middle tier to handle tasks like caching and surfacing social networking features like streams and bulletins.

Running with Wireframes: Taking Information Architecture (IA) into Design

Matt Brown — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:37:27 GMT

The UX/IA process often feels walled-off from the design phase of web projects. Many times, wireframing and designing follow a disjointed and awkward workflow with much getting lost in the translation. Learn how to better integrate UX and IA work into the design process. Explore ways to smooth the flow from wireframe to final design and improve communication between project phases.

Peanut Butter and Jelly: Putting 'Content Management' Back into Context

Nick Katsivelos — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:37:27 GMT

Find out why digital agencies are content domain experts and how a surprisingly simple content approach can help leading brands break out of the clutter and avoid the short hop from standardization to commoditization. Find out how to avoid the pitfalls and embrace simplicity!

Prototyping Rich Microsoft Silverlight Applications with Expression SketchFlow

Chris Bernard — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:37:27 GMT

SketchFlow is the prototyping environment in Expression Blend. See how to use SketchFlow to collaboratively design, evolve, explore and review user experiences and interactive content.

Modern Web Form Design

Luke Wroblewski — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:37:27 GMT

The web has been transformed by the recent proliferation of rich interactions and applications. But the workhorses of the online world, web forms, have been slow to evolve with these changes. As brokers of crucial online interactions like e-commerce checkout and registration, forms bridge the gap between people, their information, and your product or service. As a result, web form design matters. But web forms aren't keeping up. Come see a walk-through of the latest applications of rich web form interactions (made possible by dynamic technologies like AJAX) including: dynamic help systems, inline validation, selection dependent inputs, and more. Also get an outline of how gradual engagement approaches to form design can create compelling new user experiences for a wide variety of web applications and services. Learn how these modern approaches to web form design can enhance your websites and applications.

HTML5 Now: The Future of Web Markup Today (Part 1 of 2)

Molly Holzschlag — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:37:26 GMT

This two-part, full-day workshop focuses on HTML5 and why it is becoming more important to understand, and even put to use. As the open standard for web applications, HTML5 takes markup to a new level, requiring web developers and designers to re-examine the way they've worked in the past, and will be working in days and months to come. Presented by Molly E. Holzschlag, Web Standards advocate, evangelist, and developer relations team member at Opera Software, the day helps demystify HTML5 as well as provide actual insight into how to begin using aspects of the language today. This morning portion of the workshop focuses on: the history and evolution of markup, why XHTML has been set aside in favor of HTML5, what role HTML5 plays in the role of sites and applications, demystifying aspects of HTML5 and clarifying its purpose and usage, providing insight into both the HTML and XML notation methods in HTML5, and a range of demos of HTML5 in action in a variety of web browsers.

Lifecycle of a Wireframe

Nick Finck — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:37:26 GMT

Dive deep into the process used to create wireframes, a key deliverable for user experience designers. Hear about the principles that guide this process, how to create great wireframes (all the way down to the nitty-gritty page or screen level), and how to identify and deliver solutions that meet your clients' business goals and solve their problems. Walk away with a better understanding of what delivering awesome wireframes entails - from methodology, to process, to delivery - and how to do it yourself. If you're an information architect, interaction designer, visual designer, or regular old user experience-curious creature: this one's for you.

Dynamic Layout and Transitions for Microsoft Silverlight 4 with Microsoft Expression Blend

Kenny Young — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:37:26 GMT

Learn to create applications that change layout and visual appearance using smooth, dynamic and visually rich transitions without writing code. Come see new features in Expression Blend that raise the bar, making it even easier to create amazing applications that will delight users.

Media Processing Workflow

Alex Zambelli — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:37:26 GMT

Managing the media production pipeline for a site like NBC Olympics or NFL Football can be challenging. From real-time video feeds and smooth streaming, to asset management, cutting-edge video players, and multiple media formats, tools, and codecs; you need to plan carefully to ensure that your process runs like a well-oiled machine. Come learn the best practices for setting up your media production workflow, developed in some of the most demanding media sites on the web.

10 Ways to Attack a Design Problem and Come Out Winning

Robby Ingebretsen — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:37:25 GMT

See the design process in action as we walk through the creation of two (or three) apps from beginning to end. We’ll start with design requirements and talk about finding inspiration. We’ll show you how we created and documented the design through comps and wireframes. Finally, we’ll even take a look at unique coding techniques that allowed us to realize the vision. If you’re interested in the design process and want to see it in action, don’t miss this talk!

Creating Rich UX for Specialized Devices Using Microsoft Silverlight for Windows Embedded

Dion Hutchings — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:37:25 GMT

Come hear how to use Silverlight for Windows Embedded to develop rich and innovative user experiences for the billions of new specialized devices coming in the next decade.

Designing Bing: Heart and Science

Paul Ray — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:37:25 GMT

Come hear how Bing is evolving search beyond a simple text box with "10 blue links" to a "decision engine". Learn how web designers and developers can benifit from the lessons learned creating the Bing search engine including using benchmarks for good design testing (metrics, eye-tracking, click-through rates) as well as how to bring in "emotional UX" to help drive innovation beyond what just data can provide.

Design Tools and Techniques

Arturo Toledo — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:37:25 GMT

Building on the lessons learned in the "Design Fundamentals" workshop, this workshop drills into case studies and applied techniques for popular design tools. Whether using Photoshop, Illustrator, or Microsoft Expression Blend, you will want to learn the tips and tricks to get the most productivity as you apply the design principles.

Design Fundamentals for Developers (and Other Non-Designers)

Robby Ingebretsen — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:37:25 GMT

Design is all around us and whether you want to jumpstart a design career or just build a better design vocabulary, this workshop is the right place to start your design education. For designers and non-designers alike, we explore basics of design: principles like typography, layout, unity and color. We also take a tour of the design process, visiting fundamentals like wireframes, mood boards, and the process of finding inspiration. This workshop is tuned for technical folks who may be interested in design but haven't had any formal exposure to it as a discipline. For those who attended this workshop last year, expect some refreshed and revised content.

Building Cloud Services with Windows Azure Platform

Chris Auld — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:37:24 GMT

Windows Azure platform allows you to deploy and scale your web applications transparently in the cloud. You can build Azure application with Microsoft ASP.NET and Microsoft SQL Server, or with open source components such as PHP and MySQL. Gain the skills to architect and develop real-world applications using Windows Azure. It is expected that attendees have some prior experience with Windows Azure, and the Azure Services Training Kit is a recommended prerequisite. During this half-day workshop, we show how to build basic Windows Azure applications on Microsoft and open source technologies, and introduce best practices for deploying, managing, and scaling your applications.

Authoring for Windows Phone, Silverlight 4 and WPF 4 with Expression Blend

Christian Schormann, Peter Blois — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:37:24 GMT

Explore how Expression Blend lets you design and build rich, vibrant Windows Phone, Silverlight 4 and WPF 4 applications. Take advantage of a host of new platform and tools capabilities to produce better user experiences, with less code.

Creating Great Experiences through Collaboration

Noah Gedrich, Eric Perez, Sean Scott — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:37:24 GMT

For too long, the interactive industry has relied a few key individuals who embody the best qualities and skills of both a designer and a developer. We can no longer base our business on the ability to find and retain these rare and talented people. Come hear how to create a process and culture around the seamless integration and collaboration between User Experience, Creative and Technology disciplines.

Cloud Computing Economies of Scale

James Hamilton — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:37:24 GMT

High-scale cloud services provide economies of scale of five to ten times over small-scale deployments, and are becoming a large part of both enterprise information processing and consumer services. This talk details the costs, and cost advantages, of high-scale, cloud services. We begin with an inventory of the infrastructure costs, tracking power distribution and losses from 115kV at the property line through all conversions into the data center to final delivery at semiconductor voltage levels. We then look at the mechanical systems responsible for transporting heat from the servers through to heat dissipation outside of the data center. We conclude with a detailed discussion of cloud computing cost advantages.

Microsoft ASP.NET MVC Boot Camp

Jon Galloway — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:37:23 GMT

ASP.NET MVC enables you to build powerful, testable websites that are web standards-friendly. If you're kind of new to ASP.NET MVC, or want to take your MVC skills to the next level, join us for a bootcamp that (probably) won't require any pushups. We start with an overview of ASP.NET MVC and the reference Nerd Dinner sample, and we update it to leverage cool new features in MVC 2, including the new DisplayTemplates, EditorTemplates, validation features, and areas.