Microsoft Developer and Platform Evangelism Group
From 2004-2007 I was an ‘Evangelist’ (really, Technology Advisor) in the Developer and Platform Evangelism (DPE) Team at Microsoft. I was based in Dublin, Ireland.
Evangelism?
My focus was working with Microsoft’s Partners and developers who were building solutions with Microsoft technologies, including Visual Studio Team System, Team Foundation Server, SharePoint 2007, ASP.NET and ASP.NET AJAX, SQL Server, and of course the components of .NET 3.0 (WPF, WCF, WorkFlow, etc.).
My MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) weblog chronicles my time there.
Some highlights
Here are some highlights from the presentations, demos and utilities I built while part of the team.
Launch of Windows Vista, 2007 Office System and Exchange 2007
I designed and delivered the demos for the December ’06 launch event in Dublin.
This was a particularly engaging presentation that involved four integrated demos that included multiple client machines and 3 servers (Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server 2007, Exchange 2007, and a streaming server for a custom WPF app).
The four themes for the four parts of the demo were:
- Simplify how people work together
- Help protect and manage content
- Find information and improve business insight
- Reduce IT costs and improve manageability
Additional Information about this launch: Follow-up links.
Mosaic Art Website (ASP.NET AJAX Demo)
Without writing a single line of custom Javascript, ASP.NET AJAX let us build a cross-platform, cross-browser website with partial page updates, and a streamlined Administrator interface behind it.
Technologies: ASP.NET AJAX, Flickr.NET
Demonstrated at: ApacheCon Europe, IT@Cork Conference on Web 2.0
More information: Site was recently taken offline, but suffice to say that the UpdatePanel, at the time, was indistinguishable from magic.
NLarge (Technical Presentation Utility)
NLarge is a little utility for technical presentations that I used extensively during my demos. It magnifies the screen through a smooth animation, and allows you to pan and zoom around the magnified screen. You can annotate the magnified image using the mouse or a Tablet PC pen.
NLarge runs from your system tray, and is triggered by a hotkey (Alt-1).
Technologies: Windows Presentation Foundation (.NET 3.0)
More information: Download and source code available on CodePlex. Direct download of most recent release here.
A Wii Flock of Boids (XNA)
Use the Nintendo Wii Wireless Controller to control a flock of butterflies, and help a tightrope-walking creature keep his balance. This was part of the “Rob’s Last Stand” presentation I gave before heading back to Canada.
Technologies: XNA (for PC and XBox 360)
More information: This blog entry talks about the demo and Connecting your Wii Controller to XNA.
Ireland’s Call for Guitar Hero (XNA)
Use the Guitar Hero X-Plorer Controller to play Ireland’s Call, a.k.a. “The Rugby Song”. This was the “oh, and one last thing…” I showed during the Last Sand presentation.
Technologies: XNA (for PC and XBox 360)
More information: Demo, source code and jamming guide here.
Little Syncr (ClickOnce Deployment Demo)
A little POC that showed how you can synchronize metadata for photos (titles, descriptions, privacy information, tags) between local images and online photo sharing site Flickr.
Technologies: Windows Forms, Flickr.NET
More information: Download available here.
Additional Information about my time with Microsoft DPE: My MSDN weblog.