Countdown To PDC2008 : Producing a Ginormous Conference in 10 Minutes or Less!

The Discussion

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  Are you guys pushing the timer thing as a deveopment methodoligy?

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  Nice inauguration Jennifer and Mike.  Like the format and look forward to seeing you two on a regular basis.  First off... time for a new timer as it stopped :34 seconds too soon.  (1:20 - 10:36 video time).  How about a viewable count down for the audience to see with a :30 seconds reserve for a rap-up.    
  
  Being a developer who hasn't yet hit the jackpot with YouTube.Me (yet); I was wondering if there will be some content streamed live from the PDC08 beyond the KeyNote?  Thanks.  --Brain 

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  Open spaces?

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  I always read Mike's blog and I've seen Jennifer before on C9 but it's amazing how good some MS employees are on "TV".
  Mike is a creative guy and I knew he could write well but it's nice to see him on camera and just how comfortable he is with speaking.
  I wish the general public got to see people like Jennifer and Mike more often instead of just the big boring corporate face of Microsoft, which probably looks allot like John Hodgman, who can't seem to make up their minds about things like branding and advertising and seem to be more interested in stock prices and legal matters.
  
  Microsoft needs more creative geeks, people who understand Illustrator, Photoshop, Expression, photography etc. (there  already seems to be a surprising amount of musicians) but are also realy smart, like Mike.

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  That's the key differentiator between ****BZZZZZ!  lol... classic.
  
  Bust out the hard hat Mike.  We know you want to get all up in this video with your coding skillz.  Would love to see some intense sessions on cool new stuff.  Maybe some topics on how mathematics and how it plays a key role in some of the technologies at MS.  Now that would be geeky!  Maybe some physics stuff too.

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  cool

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  @Brain: Thanks for the timer suggestion. Other than keeping our content short, tight, and concentrated, the timer is a fun way to involve something more analog. There's something special knowing that our show is dictated by a $10 spring.  As to the countdown idea, I think the Channel 9 viewer already includes this handy feature. Regarding streaming live, perhaps we'll address that on a future episode. Thanks!
  
  @ZippyV: "Open spaces?" as in: "what are Open Spaces?" Or as in: "please include something on Open Space in a future episode?" Here's a little to get you going: http://www.managed-world.com/2008/06/10/OpenSpaceAtPDC2008.aspx
  
  @dentaku: You have me blushing. I'll pay you later.
  
  @Kosher: Hard hat, eh? Coding skillz? Hmmm...you have me thinking. We'll see what we can do.
  
  Keep the suggestions and questions coming!

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  As a total PDC Junkie that has been to most of them including the first one in Seatle on Win 3.1 (My only PDC shirt that says Proffessional Developers Conference but has no windows logo as that was where it was introduced),  I like the idea and I am sure I will watch them all.  My favorite PDC slogan that sums it all up was "No Ties.  No Salesmen.  No Beginners."  So which PDC was debateable?
  
  Brian

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  12 (or 13) PDCs? I thought I had been at all but the first one:
  
  1992: Seattle
  1993: Anaheim
  1996: San Francisco
  1996: Long Beach
  1997: San Diego
  1998: Denver
  2000: Orlando
  2001: Los Angeles
  2003: Los Angeles
  2005: Los Angeles
  
  What am I missing?!?

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  Very nice!
  
  ... However, it would be better if you look in the camera

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  Great job!  This reminds me of the Signal for MIX which gave me a regular check in point to help plan our presence at MIX.  Can you maybe have a "review" of Hotels, Transportation etc as many of us are in that stage of choosing those items.   If maybe not a full show maybe add an "attendee tip" each week.
  
  Looking forward to future episodes.
  -Kurt

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  >>>What am I missing
  
  I would be interested in the complete list as well.  The first was windows 3.1 in Seattle in late summer or early fall of 1991.  I think there were 2100 attendees and it was way way more than they expected.  The catered it out of a vacant lot in down town Seattle and got a parade permit to move everybody between venues at the end of the day.  #2 was July 1992 in San Francisco for NT 3.1 with about 5000 attendees.  #3 was November 1993 in Anaheim for Windows 1995.  I think February 1994 or 5 was Seattle for NT Server 3.51.  They started to blur together for me about then.  I missed Denver.
  
  Brian

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  Seriously...I love it when non-Microsoft employees correct us! Great job, Bhowden and aldie_lab. I had someone pull the data from prior years, and here's what we came up with:
  
  

  1. 8/1991 Windows 3.1 (Seattle)
  2. 7/1992 Win32 / Windows NT (San Francisco)
  3. 12/1993 Win32 / Windows 95 “Chicago” (Anaheim)
  4. 3/1996 “Internet PDC” - ActiveX (San Francisco)
  5. 11/1996 NT5 tech preview - MTS (Long Beach)
  6. 9/1997 NT5 beta 1 (San Diego)
  7. 10/1998 NT5 beta 2 – Windows Distributed interNet Application (DNA) architecture (Denver)
  8. 7/2000 First “.NET” PDC (Orlando)
  9. 10/2001 “Hailstorm” PDC (Los Angeles)
  10. 10/2003 Longhorn / Whidbey / Yukon (Los Angeles)
  11. 9/13/2005 Vista / Longhorn Server (Los Angeles)

  So, that would make this our 12th PDC. @Bhowden...I'm trying to see which one was the "controversial" one.
  
  Thanks for pointing out our error!

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  >>>official list of PDC's
  
  So what do your records show that the NT 3.51 Server conference in the Seattle conference center was?  I have the shirt that says PDC (white shirt with a sort of greeny / gold design on the back shoulders).  That was where they admitted that they were a bit to hasty in the 1992 pdc by saying theads were cheap and we should use as many as we want.  They back peddled, said "not that cheap", and introduced completion points for waiting on an event instead of blocking a thread dedicated to that completion event.
  
  A couple of speakers were late because they thought they could just drive across the bridge and got stuck in traffic.
  
  Brian