Give VAN some BUZZ

Ok everybody, I want to ask everyone to create a little BUZZ for VAN.  Starting Sunday I want everyone to do something to get the word about what we are doing with VAN.  There are still thousands of people who have never heard of Virtual ALT.NET.

I feel the best way get to the word out is by word of mouth.  The following list is just some examples of what you could do.  You might choose to do all of them, or just one.  Maybe you have other ways. Be sure to include Virtual ALT.NET in your message.  Also create a Google Alert and let’s see what happens this week.

1. Write a blog about what is Virtual ALT.NET
2. Write a blog about Virtual ALT.NET becoming an INETA usergroup.
3. Write a blog about an upcoming event.
4. Write a blog about a past event you attended.
5. Send a tweet to your friends inventing them to attend the next meeting.
6. Tweet about the next meeting.
7. Tweet about us being a new INETA group.
8. Tweet, Tweet, Tweet, Tweet, Tweet anything about Virtual ALT.NET.
9. Start a discussion on you favorite email group about Virtual ALT.NET.
10. . Start a discussion on you favorite Facebook group about Virtual ALT.NET.
11. . Start a discussion on you favorite Linkedin group about Virtual ALT.NET
12.   Send out an email to your local user group.
13.   Tell someone at work about Virtual ATL.NET

 

What other ways can we use to get the word out about Virtual ALT.NET?

Virtual ALT.NET is an official INETA user group

On May 21th INETA approved Virtual ALT.NET as an official INETA user group.  INETA provides structured, peer-based organizational, educational, and promotional support to the growing worldwide community of Microsoft® .NET user groups.   At first I was thinking that I would not register VAN as a group with INETA.  But after talking with a few people I respect in the community I was encouraged to register VAN with INETA.  With this recognition we will be able benefit from a few of the following items.

• We will be able to request INETA speakers to speak to our different VAN groups.  Since the current speaker bureau for North America does have a lot ALT.NET speakers currently,  I'm hoping we can bridge the gap between North America INETA and the other INETA groups to bring in different speakers cross the global.

 

• Currently I'm using the LiveMeeting account that was provide to our local user group.  By having our own I will be able to let others have access to our own livemeeting account.  One of the task that I have been doing is posting the recordings,  by having our own I could delegete this task to others in VAN leadership.

 

• The website that we have created is currently hosted on my personal account at godaddy.  One of the benefits of being an INETA user group is being able to take advange of some the free web hosting offer to user groups.  Now that we are an official INETA user group I plan on moving the site to one of hosting providers that offer free hosting to use groups.  With this I would be able to also delegete the website constructions to others.

 

• The overhead for maintain our VAN groups is almost at zero cost.  But we have had a few expenses, one is the domain name that I purchased.  This was only $10.00 but I would like to be refunded at some point and also be able to pay for the domain in the future.  With INETA recognition we can request funds to pay for this and other needs we might have.  I have also thought about have a graphic designer create a really cool logo.

Development with Castle Project with Ryan Svihla July 1 and July 8

Ryan will be doing a two part series on the Castle Project. Mark your
calendar for some Castle Project fun.

Ryan Svihla has been working as a C# developer Farm Bureau Bank in San
Antonio since September 2007. Before that he worked as a Consultant
in Lincoln, NE for 3 years, where he had working experience with Php,
some Perl, Python and of course C#. Attemping Agile since early 2008
as an eager student with a focus on making programming more useful and
relevant for the end user.

IoC and Dip through Castle Windsor

Ever wonder what acronyms like IoC and Dip mean? If you know what they
mean do you wonder why anyone would use them in code? This talk aims
to deal primarily with those two questions through the use of Castle
Windsor IoC container. Intermediate level C# material with a couple
of more advanced demos at the end for fun and pleasure.

Central Daylight Time

Start Time: Web, July 1, 2009 8:00 PM UTC/GMT -5 hours

End Time: Web, July 1, 2009 10:00 PM UTC/GMT -5 hours

Attendee URL: http://snipr.com/virtualaltnet (Live Meeting)

Web Development with Castle Monorail, Active Record and Brail view
engine

Have a look at the first popular MVC .Net based web framework. Also
will be covering persistance with ActiveRecord, and view templates
using Brail. Bonus, will demo a plugin framework for building CMS
like applications.

Central Daylight Time

Start Time: Web, July 8, 2009 8:00 PM UTC/GMT -5 hours

End Time: Web, July 8, 2009 10:00 PM UTC/GMT -5 hours

Attendee URL: http://snipr.com/virtualaltnet (Live Meeting)

Introduction to DDD with Steve Bohlen on June 10

This session will introduce the concepts, approaches, and
considerations that DDD brings to the table. We will define the
concepts, understand the terminology, and explore the role that DDD
plays in developing a software solution. In the follow-on discussion,
we will be able to discuss issues such as "when is DDD appropriate for
a software solution?" and "is it possible to use just *some* of the
DDD concepts effectively without applying them all at once?".

Central Daylight Time

Start Time: Web, June 10, 2009 8:00 PM UTC/GMT -5 hours

End Time: Web, June 10, 2009 10:00 PM UTC/GMT -5 hours

Attendee URL: http://snipr.com/virtualaltnet (Live Meeting)

Steve Bohlen presenting on DDD

Steve will be presenting on DDD the following sessions for 6/10 and
6/17.

Session 01 6/10/2009: Introduction to DDD
This session will introduce the concepts, approaches, and
considerations that DDD brings to the table. We will define the
concepts, understand the terminology, and explore the role that DDD
plays in developing a software solution. In the follow-on discussion,
we will be able to discuss issues such as "when is DDD appropriate for
a software solution?" and "is it possible to use just *some* of the
DDD concepts effectively without applying them all at once?".

Session 02 6/17/2009: Implementing DDD patterns and artifacts in .NET
Despite the fact that DDD is foremost about patterns where the role of
the actual code plays a very distant second, some of the patterns and
principles that DDD espouses can lead to some uncommon implementations
in code. Building on the prior week's session where we explore some
of the concepts of DDD, in this session we will look at several
different common patterns for implementing DDD constructs in .NET code
including Repostories, Entities, Value Objects, Services and more as
well as dig into a discussion about how they all relate and
interoperate together while respecting the values and principles of
DDD.

Steven BIO http://unhandled-exceptions.com/blog/index.php/official-bio/