Maggie++

The Central Ohio Day of .Net is approaching. The organizers are busy choosing speakers and making plans. Submit a talk by March 2 if you have something to share. Be on the look out for registration to open next month and sign up quickly as I’m sure it will fill up fast.

This is an event you will not want to miss. The day is all about community, learning and new ideas. 2008’s event changed my life.  I  had been to numerous code camps in the area and had been a regular attendee of the Cincinnati .Net Users Group.  But I pretty much kept to my self and talked to the few people I knew at the time. 

Here is a summary of the sessions I attended last year along with links to the slide decks for more information. 

I first sat in Joe O’Brien’s talk on Why Ruby and initially felt left out because everyone in the room seemed to know each other, they were twittering and many made big deals (jokingly) about having Macs at a .Net event.  [aside:  I do not understand all of the mac / pc sparring, browser wars and fights over who’s text editor is the best thing since sliced bread.  Lighten up, they are all just tools, it’s the brains that matter ;)]  That faded away as Joe sparked my interest in Ruby.  I had been introduced to Ruby by Jim Weirich several years prior at the Cincinnati Programmers Guild.  At that time it looked like a fun scripting language to easily make tools.  Now Joe was showing how much Ruby had grown and you could build all sorts of things including web applications. He even started his own company to develop Ruby applications and more.

F# It! was presented by Amanda Laucher and James Bender.  Amanda explained twitter so that “I got it” [I signed up later that day and Amanda was the first one I followed]  Then she and James introduced me to functional languages and F#.  I was fascinated and quickly shared their enthusiasm for this ‘new’ way of thinking.

Intro to Boo and DSL by Jay Wren introduced me to domain specific languages.  Intro to WCF by Dan Rigsby and Reliable Messaging in WCF by James Bender provided good insight into what WCF is and how I might use it.  The day ended up with Well, Isn't that Spatial by Jason Follas which introduced location data enhancements to  SQL Server 2008.

Last year at the CODODN is when I was first exposed to Twitter and I became part of the Twitter Tribe.  Since then I have attended similar events in OH, TN, TN, KY, IN and OH.  Each time I expand my learning about software development and my network of fellow developers.  As a result I have greatly expanded the blogs I read, the podcasts I listen to and the books that I read.  I even started my own blog. I have also come out of my shell and go out of my way to talk to and meet other consultants at work and have become more connected to the developers at the local .Net Users Group.

I am anticipating a diverse set of sessions to choose from on April 18th and am looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones.

maggie++