Hi folks, its been a while since my last post. I guess i have been a bit too busy, but no complains thats the way it goes.

Coming to the point, althought i havent been blogging but i have been busy sorting out podcasts for the DotNetMe (Microsoft.Net Middle East) show. Just to give you a head’s up, so far, we have recorded following sesssions:

- Agile Development with Hammad Rajjoub (shameless plug, i know :> )
- Localizing Microsoft Technology Stack for Arabic with Dina Lasheen
- Understanding Micrsoft EPM – Enterprise Project Management with Bilal Okour

We are going to record two more sessions tonight

- Understanding Sharepoint for Developers using C# with Mostafa Arafa
- Inside Sharepoint for Arabs with Ayman el Hattab

We are aiming to go live on MSDN Channel9 15th December with these shows with lots of more shows to follow.

Yes, in the meantime for more ‘real-time’ updates, do follow us on
- twitter.com/dotnetmepodcast
- twitter.com/hammadrajjoub
- twitter.com/ronaldwidha

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Just completed the slide deck for my first Agile Developer series talk and sent it across for a review. Looking forward to the dry run in next couple of weeks. All the podcasts should be available for download on MSDN’s Channel 9 (http://channel9.msdn.com) . I will also be publishing the date + dial in details as soon as things are finalized.

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I am working on the content for the first podcast series that i promised last week. The talk is going to revolve around Agile Development and SOLID principles.

I am going to break down the content into 4 X 15 min sections so that we can spread them easily depending on the timeline and audience.

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Yesterday we (myself, Pooya and Anton) went to Abu Dhabi to meet Tareq for a quick iftar as well as a discussion on how to run local communities. We also discussed the roadmap (which includes my podcast series) of community activities that are going to take place in near future (Q4-2009 – Q1 2010).

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I am extremely pleased to announce the very first ‘Microsoft.Net focused podcast series in the Gulf’. Let me give you a little bit of background first and then we can drill down into the details of who, what, how and when.

History
Having been in Dubai, on and off, for past 4-5 years and being Microsoft MVP all the while has given me an oppurtunity to work with local developer communities here in the Gulf. In terms of dev communities, Kwait (with dotnetboom http://www.dotnetboom.net) and Qatar (with oryx dev http://oryxdev.com/en/default.aspx) have been successful with setting up their user groups. Unfortunately we dont have similar success story for the UAE in particular and the rest of Gulf in general.

The Motivation
This lack of dev community itself is a biggest motivation for trying to bring all the developers on a common platform. Objectives include empowering regional Microsoft developers with relevant technical content on Microsoft Platform, presenting topics in English/Arabic, sharing ideas, learning from each others experiences/mistakes and above all finding an oppurtunity to get in touch with like minded professionals across the region.

The Idea
From years of experience we have learned that its difficult to get developers to come and attend user group events in the emirates. Generally this is attributed to problems related to ‘commuting’ to and from the event venues as well as lack of well designed event calendar(schedule).
To mitigate these potential issues, initially, myself and Anton (from Microsoft Dubai) agreed on hosting a developer podcast series. The idea was discussed when Somasegar was visiting Microsoft Dubai and hosted local dev community for an informal talk/lunch at Microsoft Dubai office in DIC – Dubai Internet City last month.
Later on Anton introduced me to Ron and we became partner-in-crime and started co-hosting the podcast series.

The Plan
The plan, as i said, is to host a series of sessions targetting regional developer community. Come up with a clear agenda and share the detailed schedule with the developers so that they can mark their calendars and look forward to the events that they think are most relevant for them. Ideally, try and host these podcasts to MSDN Channel 9 so that the content can be downloaded easily and reaches the broadest possible audience (and yes, be listened to while driving on Sheikh Zayed Road ).

The Schedule
Following shows have been recorded so far:-

1- Agile Development 101 (myself and Ron)
2- Localization in .Net with Dina Lasheen
3- Understanding Microsoft Enterprise Project Management with Bilal Okour
4- Understanding Sharepoint 2010 with Mostafa Arafa.
5- Inside Sharepoint for Arabs Part 1 with Aymen El Hattab
6- Inside Sharepoint for Arabs Part 2 with Marwan Tarek


Whats Next
- Look out for preview release in about week’s time (we will be releasing at least 2 episodes for free public access)
+ Watch out for special Tech-Ed focused episodes
– Hosting key speakers and asking them what to expect in their Tech-Ed talks
– Talking to people who are working behind the scenes and making this event happen.
- A dedicated episode on .Net Community in Jordan
- Follow us on Twitter for instant updates. http://twitter.com/DotNetMEPodcast
- Provide us with your feedback on twitter or this blog post

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I have been invited to attend Tech Talk with Vista Hero @ Microsoft Dubai.

TechTalk session with one of Microsoft Corp’s Software Design Engineer part of the Windows Vista Kernel Development team.

Salahuddin J. Khan is a Software Design Engineer based in Redmond, he is a part of the core team for development of the Windows Vista Kernel and named as a Vista Hero.

It is a great chance for you to find answers to all your
questions with regards to the newest released Microsoft Operating System.

Following topics maybe addressed during this
session:

o Changes in the development of the
core kernel of Windows Vista.
o Compatibility of Windows Vista
with legacy applications.
o Converting Legacy applications to
support Windows Vista.
o Security and reliability of the
Operating System.

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Last year Dubai saw for the first time a hugely successful Microsoft Developer Conference which was titled as Geeks. It was absolutely great experience being there. I got to meet speakers from Microsoft Corp & .Net Palm was also launched during this event.

So far so good so good for the history .

Now the good news, Microsoft is coming up with the second episode of Geeks developer conference in the end of March. Itenerary hasnt been finalized but i am sure it will be bigger and better this time.

So keep your fingers crossed and get ready for another GEEK event!

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