Narvi, Brighton’s newest digital media consultancy, has upped it’s commitment to Microsoft by opting to use the Microsoft BizSpark scheme to heightened their exposure in the e-business industry.

“Becoming a Microsoft Gold Partner is firmly placed on the Narvi roadmap”, commented James McLeod, Chief Technical Consultant and Founder of Narvi.

“It only makes sense to opt into BizSpark and take advantage of the wealth of information this scheme provides”.

Narvi has opted to become part of the Developer Fusion network.

If you would like to find out more about Narvi, or would like a Narvi consultant in your team, we can be contacted by email at info@narvi.co.uk or by calling 0785 875 870.

Went to the .Net Meetup Tuesday night and had a great time.  Plenty of interesting discussion and some laughs too. (All that and free pizza too). Highly recommended:

        if (yourGeekiness >= myGeekiness)

Daniel Chait (my boss led the meeting.  The below info is mostly from Dan’s notes which he wrote on the overhead in real-time (I take credit for any errors or omissions).  As you can see, if you didn’t attend, you missed a lot.  These are mostly just the topics.  Each one generated lively discussion:

PDC 2009 started today:

- Microsoft CodeName “Dallas” announced.

Microsoft “Micro Framework” open sourced:

(not including some stuff like Crypto etc)

Scott Hanselman had a podcast about it?

Azure going live in February (cloud services)

Business Model announced.

Cloud Computing : Compare Azure vs others

Vs Amazon EC2?  Amazon gives you a virtual machine, whereas Microsoft gives you specific services (i.e. web, database, WCF services).  Also cloud-based Pub/Sub model.

BizSpark!!!

- For co’s & individuals

–Co less than 3 yrs. old, less than $1MM, private

- You get all Microsoft stuff basically for 3 yrs. free.

- Check out the “Program Guide” off the website for more details

WebSpark?

- You get VS, SQL Server, and Blend, etc. to get started

- 3 year license for free

PowerPivot

- Part of Office 2010 (was codename “Gemini”)

WPF Grid Controls?

- Using DevExpress (WinForms grid)

- Infragistics – not much new there. tech support pretty good.  glaring bugs in new versions.  difficult upgrading between different versions due to problems with style upgrades

- WPF Toolkit has a grid control: very basic, missing a lot of features (i.e. Filtering etc)

- XCeed well regarded. Been around the longest, full featured.  Cons: tech support iffy.  Licensing may be problematic – issues when you convert from demo to licensed version.

Data Direct products:

- XML converters

- Database connectors

- Difficult licenses

.NET Framework v4?

- Tasks, parallel stuff – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_Extensions

- WorkFlow changing a lot in V4 as well

- Documentation is very minimal at this point

- Maybe some good PDC content coming out?  i.e.

http://microsoftpdc.com/Sessions/P09-22

- Maybe some channel9 stuff to find?
- Hello Workflow 4

- WF4.0 A First Look
- More

What do people actually use WF for?

- Sharepoint development.  Basic stuff.

Architecture in .NET Question: Model Approach to Database Access?

- ORM Software: Developers make clean code which makes horrible queries

- Call Stored Procs from software: nice queries but ugly to call

- Entity Spaces

- Experience: Easy to use, decent performance but on a simple app

- In ALL cases, need to analyze queries in detail, can’t just rely on the ORM to sort it out

- Microsoft Entity Framework 1.0 – not full featured enough

- New one coming out

- Linq2SQL is dead

- Linq2SQL used a GUID(?) which killed query caching

- NHibernate – “granddaddy of them”.

- Cons : “Has a case of the Java’s”.  XML Configuration, FactoryFactoryFactory…, etc.

GRAND CLAIM: Try to avoid open source:

- Hmm…

- IF something is just a small, weekend project on CodePlex, probably worth avoiding.  But, like, …

- NUnit

- NHibernate

- NCover

- NMock, moq, RhinoMock

- Log4Net, nlog

- log better, easier to configure

- Fluent NHibernate

- The MONO project

- Need to treat it more like “code” than a “product” from a vendor.  Actually understand the code don’t just consume it.

- Open source projects are driven by enthusiasm

- JQuery plugins for example

One user mono in production spoke up.

- Follows the Pareto Principle – for example doesn’t use code signing

- Implementing silverlight (i.e. Moonlight) which works on the iPhone

- Castle project – ActiveRecord implementation – says it’s at least as good as say RoR – just does property setting in code, built on top of NHibernate, scaffolding, etc.

The Munawar principle – 20% will be good, 80% will be garbage

FBK #2: Sturgeon’s Law – “90% of everything is crap”

NCover – code coverage tool

“Where’s my LINQ2 Mainframe?”

SubSonic – open source framework for stuff – http://www.subsonicproject.com/

- “A Super High-fidelity Batman Utility Belt that works up your Data Access (using Linq in 3.0), throws in some much-needed utility functions, and generally speeds along your dev cycle.”

[long discourse about non programmers.  in short, they are inconvenient.]

AJAX / ASP.NET – still buying into it?  As opposed to WPF / Silverlight / Flex?

- Corollary – as a novice, what should I be getting in to

- Corollary 2 – if I want to get out of ASP.NET and get into WPF and realtime .NET desktop apps, how do I do it?

- Endless debate about Silverlight vs Flex

- Silverlight can be applied-ish to WPF knowledge

- Flex VERY easy to learn

Silverlight vs WPF?

- Third party controls maybe a bit better in WPF at present

- If heavy desktop integration, use WPF, else Silverlight by default

- Silverlight Out of Browser – still in the sandbox but just looks like the browser is missing.

- Databinding in Silverlight not nearly as good as WPF.  A bit better in 3.0 but still not great

[spontaneous demo of Castle ActiveRecord]

Good localization solution?  Want to translate our site into multiple languages….

- Sharepoint can do some of this but not ALL languages

- New version of Sharepoint (2008?) does this

- Beware of language specifics (i.e. German has long words)

- Maybe any content management solutions that exist?

- How to handle caching?

- Generate static content or regenerate on the fly every time?

- See http://latino.msn.com/ for more

- http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/c6zyy3s9.aspx

Sredinom rujna 2009. godine, nekoliko tjedana nakon globalnog pokretanja Instituta na svjetskoj razini, u Hrvatskoj (u Varaždinu) je pokrenut ogranak Međunarodnog instituta za softversku ekonomiju, inovacije i poduzetništvo (eng. International Institute for Software Economics, Innovation and Entrepreneurship – IISEIE), kao treći službeni launch instituta i prvi lokalni chapter u svijetu. IISEIE i Microsoftov inovacijski centar Varaždin su okupili niz lokalnih partnera, koji su se uključili u aktivnosti Instituta sa zajedničkim ciljem. U suradnju su se tako uključili Tehnološki Park Varaždin, Fakultet organizacije i informatike, Veleučilište u Varaždinu kao i Grada Varaždin s podrškom ovom projektu i inicijativi, s kojima je potpisano pismo razumijevanja za suradnju na ostvarivanju zajedničkih ciljeva i osiguravanju globalnog rasta gospodarstva temeljenog na softverskoj industriji. (više o osnutku Instituta u Varaždinu: Microsoft Press Centar).

Microsoft Innovation Center Varaždin započinje s izvođenjem programa Microsoft Innovation Academy, namijenjenog BizSpark tvrtkama, a koji je nastao kao plod suradnje Microsofta i Međunarodnog instituta za softversku ekonomiju, inovacije i gospodarstvo (IISEIE).

Innovation Academy je slijedeći korak za tvrtke nakon ulaska u Microsoft BizSpark program, kreiran da pruža podršku BizSpark tvrtkama u specifičnim vještinama potrebnim za uspješno vođenje poslovanja.

Program novim softverskim tvrtkama i poduzetnicima omogućava odgovarajuću i suvremenu edukaciju o vođenju poslovanja softverskih tvrtki. Jedan od primarnih ciljeva programa jest popuniti praznine u poslovnim vještinama koje su nužne za osiguravanje poslovnog uspjeha tih tvrtki. Hrvatska je jedna od dvadeset zemalja u svijetu gdje su Institut i Microsoft osigurali izvođenja programa za mlade tvrtke koje tek kreću s poslovanjem i postojeće partnere programa BizSpark, te je službeno prva zemlja u svijetu gdje je program pokrenut.

Pregled Microsoft Innovation Academy programa:
· program je namijenjen Microsoft BizSpark startup-ima i Network Partnerima
· program se sastoji od On-line i Off-line sadržaja
· program će biti lokaliziran, s fokusom na razvoj i integraciju lokalnih poslovnih primjera u nastavni sadržaj
· IISEIE pruža podršku za poticanje dugoročnog izvođenja i razvoja sadržaja u suradnji sa zajednicom članova instituta

Izvođenje Microsoft Innovation Academy programa podijeljeno je u nekoliko cjelina:
- On-line sadržaji
- Off-line instructor lead sadržaji u MIC Varaždin
- Tehnički treninzi koje MIC osigurava za sudionike programa

Microsoft Innovation Academy u Hrvatskoj je počela 5.11.2009., kada se održao dvodnevni Software Business Management Course, pod vodstvom Malcolma Frasera, direktora IISEIE Instituta.

U prvo izvođenje Innovation Academy programa uključilo se desetak BizSpark tvrtki, i nekoliko predstavnika BizSpark Network Partner institucija, odnosno predstavnika partnera lokalnog chaptera IISEIE.

Uskoro ćemo podijeliti s vama više informacija o Microsoft Innovation Academy programu.

If you’re an IT startup and you’re using Microsoft software you should subscribe yourself right now to the BizSpark program of Microsoft. You’ll get a full MSDN subscription (all development tools, all office tools, all operating systems, all servers…) for FREE during 3 years, at the end you pay $100. There are only a few restrictions:

• active in the software industry
• privately held
• less than three years old
• making less than US $1M annually

Most startups will pass these restrictions don’t you think? The process is also very quick and easy, I entered the data of my company and in 2 or 3 days I had access.
Now that MS is launching their cloud computing service you can also use this infrastructure for free during 8 months, for more information have a look at the offer.
You see, Microsoft can be nice . So what do we say to MS…

Earlier this week our team (Developer & Platform Evangeliism team) hosted at our Silicon Valley (Mountain View campus) the last stop of David Chappell’s world-wide tour to talk about the impact of cloud computing, and latest developments on the Windows Azure Platform.

David Chappell’s talked about Windows Azure platform and what it means for enterprises. The topics he covered include:

• An overview of the Windows Azure platform: Technology and business model
• The cloud platform context: Google, Amazon, Salesforce.com, and more
• Using the Windows Azure platform: Application scenarios

We also had the CEO of CSRware.com and she showcased their “On-Demand Performance Management solution” for Sustainability and Green IT initiatives. Their current cloud initiative utilized Windows Azure, SQL Azure and hybrid (Software+Services) app dev pattern, for capturing tens of thousands of data points from their customer data center and aggregating them into a single data point to an on-premise SaaS offering.

Also my colleague David Chou also presented some additional views on how to architect applications using the Windows Azure Platform and some customer case studies.

If you missed attending the session no worries you can get all of the presentation that is posted at Strategy & Architecture Council site:

http://blogs.msdn.com/sac/archive/2009/10/31/windows-azure-world-tour-with-david-chappell.aspx

Thanks to everyone who attended the event, and if you have any further question please feel free to send me a note.

En estos días he estado algo ocupado haciendo unos cuantos trámites en mi Facultad, así que he estado constantemente entrando y saliendo de la página de mi Facultad y fue justamente ahí donde me encontré con el Proyecto BizSpark, bueno diré su nombre completo: Microsoft BizSpark.

Pues yo no tenía ni idea de qué se trataba todo esto, así que di click y esto fue lo que salió:

1. Que es BizSpark

BizSpark es un programa que proporciona acceso rápido a herramientas y tecnologías de Microsoft por un periodo de 3 años, para el uso en la producción e implementación de aplicaciones y soluciones innovadoras como producto o servicio en la modalidad denominada “Software más Servicios.”
2. Objetivos de BizSpark

• Apoyar a empresas incipientes a lograr sus objetivos mediante el uso de las tecnologías de Microsoft.
• Estimular las relaciones locales y globales de las empresas incipientes así como la innovación a través del directorio en línea de Starup, (BizSparkDB).

3. A quien va dirigido BizSpark

• Alumnos, Ex-alumnos, Académicos, Egresados y Emprendedores, es decir a toda la comunidad universitaria que este participando activamente en el desarrollo de un producto o servicio basado en un software que será un elemento principal de su actual o futuro negocio.
4. Beneficios incluidos en BizSpark

Las empresas que accedan a BizSpark tendrán disponibilidad hasta por 3 años del software incluido en las páginas 10, 11 y 12 del documento BizSpark Startup Program Guide.pdf., por una tarifa única de USD $100 la cual deberá ser cubierta al termino de su participación en el programa BizSpark. Asimismo, podrán obtener soporte técnico profesional de Microsoft y estar conectado a los Network Partners de BizSpark de distintas partes del mundo, que brindan una amplia gama de recursos de soporte para las empresas incipientes de software.
5. Requisitos de las iniciativas y empresas candidatas a participar en BizSpark

El perfil de la iniciativa y/o empresa a otorgar el beneficio del programa BizSpark puede ser de cualquier tipo ò especialidad, siempre que cumpla con los siguientes requisitos:

• Completar la solicitud de ingreso al Programa Microsoft BizSpark proporcionada a través de la Coordinación de Innovación y Desarrollo.
• Ser empresa privada en un 100%.
• Desarrollar un componente de software como producto o servicio en la modalidad denominada “Software más Servicios.”
• No tener más de tres años de haber sido constituida como empresa o creada como iniciativa.
• Facturación menor a $ 250,000 USD (Doscientos Cincuenta mil Dólares Americanos anuales)
• Estar desarrollando o considerar desarrollar una pieza de software que sea parte fundamental de su modelo de negocios y con el objetivo de comercializar su solución o servicio.

Espero que esto los haya dejado tal y como a mí, confundido. Pero vayamos por partes.

¿Microsoft apoya a empresas incipientes? Por dios si realmente quisiera apoyarlos le bajaría un poquito (o más bien un muchito) a sus precios, y si bien según el proyecto te dan acceso a tecnologías de Microsoft por 3 años y sólo $ 100 USD, seguramente firmas un contrato donde la propiedad del software que desarrolles es de……….. pues sí adivinaron seguramente será de Microsoft, recuerden que la lucha del movimiento del Software Libre no es contra Microsoft sino contra las restricciones y todo aquello que hagan los programas si nuestro conocimiento o sin nuestro consentimiento, vaya pues que lo que importa debe ser la libertad del usuario por ejecutar, estudiar, copiar y distribuir el software.

Entonces cuál es la motivación de Microsoft para hacer esto?, desde mi punto de vista, quieren aplicar una especie de modelo Híbrido de “Catedral y Bazar”, por que hacen que otros desarrollen aplicaciones y seguramente si alguna tiene futuro seguramente la toamran y la patentarán a su nombre, que no les sorprenda eso, este modelo le sale muy barato a Microsoft (casi gratis) y puede llegar a sacar grandes beneficios.

La verdad me sorprende mucho esto y de verdad yo no estaría muy confiado de entrar a este programa, pero bueno vamos con otra parte, dentro de los requisitos uno en particular llamó mi atención, el de ser una empresa 100% privada: ¿Qué entiende Microsft por empresa 100% privada?, ¿porqué no entran empresas públicas?, acaso es porque Microsft quiere quedarse con los derechos de comercialización y distribución del software, yo creo que si.

Como pueden ver, este proyecto me deja muchas dudas y me deja con un mal sabor de boca, definitivamente no sé demasiado del proyecto (trataré de investigar) pero de que hay gato encerrado, lo hay.

Espero que alguien pueda aclarar mis dudas y si están dentro del programa dejenme decirles que tienen que leer cuidadosamente las letras chiquitas, no vaya a ser que en unos añitos Microsoft me los chamaqueé.

Por cierto la página del proyecto: BizSpark

Saludos.

I often get a lot of questions about the Azure benefits associated with MSDN and the BizSpark Program.  Here is a good posting and I’ve included the table below for easy reference.

Welcome

First, I’d like to extend an apology to all those that were signed up to our Advanced TDD event which we had to cancel at the last minute. We are looking to re-schedule this event and we’ll publish the details as soon as we have the new date confirmed.

If you are thinking of starting a software or web business Microsoft’s BizSpark or WebsiteSpark programmes may be for you. These programmes offer various software licenses over a 3 year period for eligible start-ups. Information on signing up is available on our site.

If you are simply looking to gain web development skills then Glasgow Caledonian University are now able to offer their Web Systems Development (.NET) postgraduate course, which will run as a part-time evening course starting in February 2010.

If you run a user group, or just know of an event that would be of interest to software developers we’re always keen to hear about it. Let us know by sending an email to support@scottishdevelopers.com

Regards,
Colin Mackay, Chairman, Scottish Developers

Interview with Martin Hinshelwood

Scottish Developers: Martin, you are a Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) and you recently were re-awarded. Can you tell us something about yourself?

Martin Hinshelwood: I have been a developer since I graduated from university in 2000 and I spent one horrible year using ASP3 before .NET was released in 2001. I primarily program in VB.NET, but as most examples are in C# I need to be able to translate. In 2005 I started working with Visual Studio 2005 Team System, then a fledgling but stable, once you got it installed, product and I have worked with every version since then.

I started a blog in June 2006 and I have blogged on many Microsoft related topics including VSTS, SharePoint, Windows 7, WPF, VB, .NET, WCF as well as non development topics such as Dyslexia.

Being a dyslexic developer I don’t know if having a larger right-hemisphere in my brain and "unusual wiring" has helped me be a better developer, but it has made the ride exiting. The only problem with being a dyslexic is the stigmata attached with it and peoples lack of understanding, the rest… the result of being dyslexic… is actually a benefit in a programmer such as 3-D visualization ability; creative problem solving skills; and intuitive people skills.

SD: When did you first get awarded as an MVP and why?

MH: In October 2008 I was Awarded a Microsoft MVP in Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) which allowed me much more interaction into the product teams. There is a unique element of trust between those on the VSTS Champs list and Microsoft that allows a much closer level of integration and exposure between the VSTS MVP’s and Microsoft.

This has lead to my involvement with VSTS2010 prior to and in between public betas. and some work with the version after that.

Where many MVPs speak at events and do presentations, or work as TFS consultants, I have, so far, stuck to my comfort zone and developed a number of open source application and tools for TFS. Over the past few years I have become a moderator on the Microsoft Answers for Vista forum as well as the new Microsoft Answers for Windows 7. I have participated in the MSDN forums for VB, WPF, WCF and VSTS.

The 2 main projects that helped me attain my MVP were TFS Event Handler and TFS Sticky Buddy.

The TFS Event Handler makes it easier to notify users of changes to Work Items in Team Foundation Server. You will no longer need to add individual alerts to users. It is developed in .NET 3.5 SP1 for Team Foundation Server 2008 and is deployed as a system service.

The Alerts that you no longer need users to individually setup are that: a work item is assigned to you; a work item that is assigned to you is reassigned to someone else; and a work item that you created is assigned to someone else.

There is also a framework for creating and deploying your own event handlers that can do pretty much whatever you want. One of the shipped examples updates “Heat ITSM” whenever a work item that contains a Heat Id is changed.

TFS Sticky Buddy makes it easier for all members of the development team to visualise the current state of their project by utilising a graphical view of Work Items. It is developed in VB.NET for .NET 3.5 SP1 and Team System 2008.

Since then I have written other TFS integration pieces such as TFS ELMAH Log which integrates ELMAH with TFS. SQL Server and BIDS Version Check In Policy which adds a policy to Team Explorer that allows an administrator to require a specific version of SQL Server and the Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS) be installed on a users computer prior to checking in. And TFS to Heat which will provide a configurable link between Heat ITSM and Team Foundation Server. This will allow calls to be logged by helpdesk in the standard way, while using TFS to manage the development and support work required to fix the problem.

SD: That’s quite a lot of work, isn’t it? Do you have time for any other types of development?

MH: Outwith TFS have have a some other Open Source things going on.

WPF Behaviours allows the easy addition of drag and drop functionality in the same list, to a different list of the same type and to allow linking between different data types in lists.

Command Line Parser is a nice little command line parser based on Ray Hayes Code Project article Automatic Command Line Parsing in C#. I have adapted it to VB.NET and upgraded it to .NET 3.5. An updated command line parser that has a built in commanding architecture. The usage varies depending on what you are trying to achieve, but you can have commands, nested commands and delegate commands.

.NET Service Manager is a series of classes to enable the management of "Services", wither these services are local (instance) or remote. You can have any number of "ServiceManagers" that encompass a set of features (Services) that can be extracted at runtime.

I have currently been working in a framework similar to the CompositeWPF project that used Ninject for dependency injection and uses the MVVM pattern exclusively, and a project to proxy the connections to team foundation server so that it can be used in a composite manor.

SD: Thanks for taking the time to speak with us about your community work.

Our Upcoming Events

28-October-2009 @ 19:00 in Dundee
SQL Injection Attacks and tips on how to prevent them
Registration Required – Cost FREE

10-November-2009 @ 18:30 in Glasgow
Web Application Testing with Selenium
Registration Required – Cost FREE

SMALL PRINT: The opinions of interviewees do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Scottish Developers or its sponsors.

Weekly Schedule

 Monday:

 7.00am – Snooze the first alarm  

7.15am – Snooze the second alarm  

7.30am – Drag self up from bed 

8.15am – Puts on shoes, gives home a sad departing look  

9.00am – Reach Office 

9.05am – Sits at desk: Check emails, catch up on news, read blogs, surf net, work on spreadsheets, answer queries, interviews 

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12.00pm – Lunch with the BF

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6.00pm – Log off Computer, pack up and leave  

Tuesday – Friday 

Repeat above schedule with slight variations  

There must be more to life than this – life shouldn’t be all about work with the occasional trips and outings peppered to save it from the doldrums. As I look around the faces of the people on the public transport, I cannot help but think – “that is not who I want to be, 5/10/20 years later”, not just another glum face amidst the crowds hating my job but with no alternative and no option to move on. That work, which you are no longer passionate about and your family had become the pivotal point of your life. While you are dragging yourself to work, you can’t just pack up and go because, it pays the bills, alot of bills and life becomes too dependent on the comfort the paycheck brings.

Restlessness summarizes how I have been feeling of late, it is the sense that I can do much more with my life. That LIFE shouldn’t be like this. A sense of un-fulfillment and un-achievement – it is not a good feeling to have and it is making me re-evaluate my life and its options. I suppose a very telling reason for these feelings is due to the recent uncertainty on the work front. Do I really want to let my life be controlled by the mega giants up there who have no care whatsoever about the puny lives that they are affecting with their decisions? Do I want to work so hard all my life only to earn meager amounts of money and struggle to pay my bills at the end of the day and be contented with living in a small flat and scrimping and saving? The answer is a resounding “No”, but at the looks of it, that seems to be how my life is panning out to be. There really is more that I can do and I just hope that I can have some direction soon, like maybe an indication from some special forces/powers to guide me along this murky and never-ending road.

Maybe I should read less blogs, because it is making me live vicariously through them and then somewhat feeling down over it. Maybe it is also a good thing, a driving force that will propel me and perhaps Di to work harder towards our combined goal.

Picture the setting. It was last Friday 2nd October and I was on the 32nd floor of a building in the heart of London overlooking the entire city. I was catching up with the two co-founders (Christian Steiner and Jason Devenney) of Siondo, the winners of the pitch contest at the Bizspark event in London earlier that week. Christian is based in Germany, Jason is from Ireland but based in London. Between them they have created a SaaS product that is distributed around the world including the US, China and India. Also with us was Nicola Morgan, an account manager at Quickstart Global.

There was a particular moment that struck me during our meeting. Nicola and Christian were talking and then remarked at how quiet the day had been for them because both India and China had national holidays that day. Amazing hey, if you need proof that globalization is with us then look no further than these two people. Both working in young companies that don’t worry at all about working with people around the world and think that it is completely normal.

I remain amazed that I still meet people who can’t believe young companies can be global from the outset. They should open their minds and learn from people like Christian and Nicola.

I had a great day yesterday at the Microsoft BizSpark Summit in London. It was energising to talk to so many entrepreneurs with great ideas. I was part of a judging panel who chose one of the BizSpark companies from a pitch. The winner was Siondo , who currently provide an ERP SaaS solution aimed at SME’s. The company has a great outlook and as part of their prize will be provided with a number of developers by Quickstart Global who will work with them to further develop their product range. They are a fantastic example of a small organisation thinking globally from the start, identifying growing markets and providing solutions that will win them a big market share. I look forward to working with them.

BizSpark

Microsoft® has an exciting new program specifically designed to provide early stage Startups with software, support, and visibility to help ignite your success. The program, called BizSpark™, provides access to:

• Software. Join BizSpark and you’re just clicks away from having access to current, full-featured development tools, including Visual Studio Team System, plus production licensing to develop and bring your solution to market.
• Support. BizSpark provides you with professional technical support from Microsoft and connects you to a global community of business experts who can help guide you through the hurdles of growing your business.
• Visibility. Through BizSpark, you’ll have the opportunity to achieve global visibility to an audience of potential investors, clients and partners.

Eligibility requirements are minimal: If you’re a privately held company (or are planning to form a company) building a software-based product or service (even using open source code), in business for fewer than three years, and with less than USD$1M in annual revenue, you’re in!

WebsiteSpark

Microsoft® WebsiteSpark™ ignites success in the Web business by helping Web Pros to drive new business opportunities through connections with partners and customers around the world. WebsiteSpark also provides Web Pros with Microsoft software and solutions, as well as support and training opportunities. By participating in WebsiteSpark, Network Partners, including Hosting Partners, gain exposure as a Microsoft partner and join an ecosystem that includes not only Web development and design companies but also their customers.

WebsiteSpark can help you to drive new business opportunities and expand your customer base. You benefit from co-marketing activities to drive demand toward your portfolio of Web solutions. Then you can extend your reach by exposing your services to the broad set of Microsoft customers and partners. You also can benefit from professional support and training from Microsoft engineers, Hosting Partners, Network Partners, and peers from around the world. You receive free online training, trainer mentoring, and webinars.

As a participant in WebsiteSpark, you get discounts on software and solutions to bring to market your sites and applications based on the Microsoft Windows® Web platform. You receive fast, easy, and immediate access to current Microsoft development tools, Web platform technologies, and production licenses of server products. This can help you to improve your development and design productivity.

WebsiteSpark provides software licenses that you can use for three years at no cost.  Once enrolled, you can download and immediately use the following software from Microsoft:

• 3 licenses of Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition
• 1 license of Expression Studio 3 (which includes Expression Blend, Sketchflow, and Web)
• 2 licenses of Expression Web 3
• 4 processor licenses of Windows Web Server 2008 R2
• 4 processor licenses of SQL Server 2008 Web Edition
• DotNetPanel control panel (enabling easy remote/hosted management of your servers)

The Windows Server and SQL Server licenses can be used for both development and production deployment.  You can either self-host the servers on your own, or use the licenses with a hoster.  WebsiteSpark makes it easy to find hosters who are also enrolled in the program, and who can use your licenses to provide you with either dedicated or virtual dedicated servers to host your sites on.

In addition to software, WebsiteSpark provides partner opportunities to grow and build your business (including customer referrals through our partner programs).  It also includes product support (including 2 professional support incidents) and free online training for the products.

Who can join WebsiteSpark?

WebSiteSpark is available to independent web developers and small web development companies.  The only two requirements to join the program are:

1. Your company builds web sites and web application on behalf of others.
2. Your company currently has less than 10 employees

Signing up

To join either program, you need a nomination from a BizSpark or WebsiteSpark Network Partner like Pixel Programming - they’re happy to sponsor anyone that qualifies. Send an e-mail to phil@pixelprogramming.com and to get signed up.

Microsoft today (Sept. 24) announced its WebsiteSpark Program. It’s an initiative to create a partner network and help enable business growth for professional Web development and design companies with up to 10 employees and owners.

In addition, the company announced the release of the Web Platform Installer 2.0 and the Windows Web Application Gallery 2.0.

As the latest initiative in the Spark family of programs, which includes Microsoft BizSpark and DreamSpark, Microsoft wants to provide additional support, tools, and resources to developers.

“Developers are the lifeblood of our business, and we are wholly committed to ensuring their success,” said Bob Muglia, president of Microsoft’s Server and Tools Business division.

The interested businesses, says Microsoft, can adopt the program for three years with no up-front cost. There is a $100 program offering fee, payable at exit, with no other costs or obligations. Once approved, these companies can have access to the following:

- Microsoft Web design and development tools, including three licenses of Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition, two licenses of Microsoft Expression Web 3 and one license of Microsoft Expression Studio 3
- Four processor licenses for production usage to Windows Web Server 2008 or R2 (when available) and four processor licenses for production usage to Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Web Edition
- A third-party Web site control panel (DotNetPanel)

Microsoft’s WebsiteSpark Program is now available worldwide. The details are at: http://www.microsoft.com/web/websitespark.

The Microsoft Web Platform Installer 2.0 can be downloaded at http://www.microsoft.com/web.

Last weekend I participated in Startup Weekend in Redmond, WA, hosted by Microsoft BizSpark. See my previous post for a little more info about the event. This post is the first of a mini-series of three about each day of my experiences at Startup Weekend Redmond.

Pitches

Shortly after arriving at the Microsoft Conference Center, I heard about pitches. People would have an opportunity to get up on stage and pitch their idea for a software solution. I figured that I should have one myself. Why not? So just two hours before pitches started, I began brainstorming ideas. I came up with four ideas, but one looked like it could actually be done in a weekend and be useful.

My Pitch

So I actually went up on stage and pitched my idea in front of 200+ people! The problem I wanted to solve was that finding a meeting place and time is cumbersome and requires a lengthy phone call or series of emails. My solution is a website where each user can input their location and time available and it figures out places and times that work for both parties.

Voting

The audience was allowed to start voting before all of the pitches were done. I put all three of my votes into my idea. I got three other votes total from two other people, bringing my total up to 6 votes. That was enough to make it to #14 in the idea rankings. The top 15 were chosen as the startups of the weekend. Yay!

Team building

This was the most difficult aspect of the startup process and the part I was least successful at. Having one of the lowest ranked ideas chosen, people really wanted to be a part of other teams. I had to fight to get people to even consider joining. In the end, I found a team with a relatable idea that was not chosen and got them to join with me. At this point “Meeting Place” was me and two guys from Romania. One was a backend developer and the other had skills in marketing. I have experience with end to end development, which meant that I became the UI guy.

Rest of the Night

Several people went out to a local venue to continue talking. After that, I spent the rest of the night, without sleep, rebuilding my laptop as a VS 2008 development box. VS2008 installed on the ride over (in the back seat) to Microsoft at 8 in the morning. The team had no business plan and no name.

After a 54 hour coding marathon fueled mainly by pizza, caffeine, new friendships, and the enthusiasm of starting something new, our app Learn that Name won the top prize for the best app at Microsoft sponsored Startup Weekend in Redmond.

Of the many great memories from the event, the clear cut winner for me was the conclusion of the event – the presentation of the top prize. To the best of my memory the presentation went something along the lines of the following.

• Clint Nelson (Organizer of startup weekend) – “Thanks to everyone … etc. etc.”
• Clint -“14 of 15 teams used the Microsoft technology stack”
• Clint –“Thanks to Microsoft, organizers, etc etc. ….”
• General vibe in the room: YAY Microsoft!! yee of startup enablers! You rule!!!
• Clint – “The winner of the Bizspark award given to the team winning most votes for best startup, and the one that used Microsoft platforms is …”

• Clint – “Search Kick”
• General vibe in room: YAY Search Kick!!! YAY Microsoft!!!!
• Abhisheck Chitlangia (Learn that name team member) – “Wait a minute … But which team got most votes for best app?”
• Clint – “ummm … Learn that name”
• Me (giddy already about the impending irony) – “And which team was the one that DIDN’T use Microsoft?”
• General feeling in room – “Huh? The team that won most votes didn’t get the award and the $5000?”
• Clint (in a slight wisper) – “umm … Learn that name … awkward”
• General feeling in room – Irony is setting in … the ONLY team that didn’t use the Microsoft platform was the one that won the best application … but they were essentially disqualified.
• General feeling in room – More irony, etc etc, Learn that name team members now high fiving.

Priceless!

While the $5,000 of bizspark sponsorship would have been nice (if we’d used Microsoft technologies), the value in buzz generated from the irony as seen on techflash has already surpassed any $5,000 monetary value.

As a major footnote -
Microsoft, Bizspark, Clint, and all of the other organizers did an absolutely stellar job hosting the event. Huge props to them!! It was an amazing effort to aid the ENTIRE startup community not just those that used MS technology stack or not.
The $5000 was just the cherry on top of the overall support for startups that Microsoft provided. The award understandably could only be given to the team that used the Microsoft platform. Very smart way to drum up some interest especially in their new Azure platform.

Mapping the Agile thinking, theory and practices to the realities of the target company is a tricky part of making Agile happen in a sustainable manner. HubOne’s Nick Beaugeard, known to readers of this blog from his post Enterprise Product: $50,000 and 8 months – You Must be Kidding, shares with us his recipe for so doing in a start-up environment. He manages to weave the pragmatic details with the core principles behind software development in general and Agile methods in particular. For example, consider the following insight provided by Nick:

In fact, when developing an API, the unit tests are your clients!

Readers of this blog might want to compare and contrast the thoughts Nick expresses in this post with those of:

1. Ryan Martens on prescriptive versus adaptive rollout of Agile (click here).
2. Eric Ries on iterating on the problem definition and developing the customer base in parallel with iterating on the solution (Click here).

Here is Nick:

After my last post, where I discussed the concept of implementing the tools and process before you get people on board, I though it appropriate to provide some prescriptive guidance on how we achieved the process. This post is primarily aimed at start-ups where you have total control over your infrastructure, computers, network and internet connection. If there is enough interest, I’ll produce another post of how to perform the same, but in a corporate environment.

I believe, and my experience has shown, that preparing your work environment, tools and process before the team starts coding helps eliminate costly and lengthy discussions about tools and process. In fact, in my experience, most developers are pleasantly surprised to find the environment ready and working and slip into the processes extremely quickly.

So, please find below my ten steps. Following this process really helped us get up and running quickly. Whilst we used Microsoft Development tools, this equally applies to their open source equivalents, so feel free to substitute specific tools, just not the requirements and process.

1. Authentication, Network and VPN. Setting up the core of your environment is critical. As you are more than likely working on secret software at the outset, you need good, auditable mechanisms for authentication and logon. In addition, we don’t want our developers to have to do anything except start their PC or laptop and login, and we really want them to be able to work remotely. If you don’t feel qualified or able to complete the steps below, any good local IT Pro should be able to set this all up for you. To perform this, we implemented the following:
   1. Network Connection – we are in Australia so our networks are not fantastic. We subscribed to a good ADSL 2+ plan (24Mb) with a 80Gb limit. We implemented a modern ADSLwireless modem/router and configured it correctly. This gave us acceptable internet connectivity.
   2. Domain – We implemented a domain controller running on Windows Server 2008. This gave us corporate authentication, auditing and identification. The domain controller was hosted on our private network (see 1.c)
   3. Routing and VPN –our internal development network needed to be protected from internet connectivity so we implemented a Windows Server 2008 machine with two network cards (called multihomed). One card was connected to the router and one connected to an Ethernet switch. We used a private IP subnetfor our development Local Area Network (LAN) and enabled Microsoft Routing and Remote Access. This gave us the ability to authenticate domain users to VPN into the private network for remote working. We then configured our router to allow access to the server for VPN Access.
   4. DNS –one of the issues you face with ADSL is that your Internet IP Address changes often. The solution for this was to use a solution from DYNDNS (www.dyndns.com) which allowed us to register a host name, coupled with a client application which ensured our host name for VPN always pointed at the correct IP Address.
   5. DHCP –it’s a real pain, especially when using VPN when your client machines are configured for static IP addresses. We used Microsoft Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) to ensure every machine had a unique IP Address and that our networking became just “plug-and-play”
2. Version Control and issue tracking – in my experience, there are four critical systems needed for any software development team. These are:
   1. Version Control – Also known as source repositories, these systems allow control over check-in, check-out and versioning of source files. I cannot recall the number of times we backed out an individual source file to a previous “working version”. Without this in place, I can guarantee you’re going to struggle maintaining a good code base!
   2. Bill of Materials– the way I use these is to highlight each of the key deliverables in a project. When building Enterprise Profile Management, our BOM had 345 separate items, everything from the corporate website, to graphic design, to core components of the API. The Bill of materials is a way to track the overall progress of the project. Each item in the Bill of Materials should have at a minimum a title, description, owner, due date, % complete and %tested. We also use the bill of materials to determine our release criteria (more on this later).
   3. Build System – the biggest mistake a development manager can make is to not build the software regularly. We build our software system every time there is a new check-in (called continuous integration). Even with a very small team, the ripple effect of changes could go un-noticed for ages without building regularly. As an aside, we also have a Nabaztag (www.nabaztag.com) bunny which tells us whenever there is a build, whose check-in caused it and whether it succeeded or failed. While this is really annoying, it focuses the developers on good check-ins. We might also make the person who broke the builds buy us a round of beer, but that’s a secret!
   4. Issue Management – More important than email, IM, or indeed any other form of communication in the development team is issue management. I believe that in  a project of any size, you’ll be hard pressed to ever finish if you don’t have good issue management. Issues should contain a title, description, history, assignee, status and indicate which version/iteration of which product the issue applies to. I don’t actually think a spreadsheet will cut it here. If there’s one investment you make, make sure it’s issue management.
      We used Microsoft Visual Studio Team System for all of the above. Being an ex-microsoft product team member, I am familiar with the way the product works, but there are lots of plug-ins available for scrum, agile (MSF) and CMMI. To do this on a startup budget, we were able to join the Microsoft BizSpark program (http://www.bizspark.com) which gave us instant access to Microsoft’s developer tools. I’d highly recommend taking a look at that program!
3. Backup – Now is the time to do a backup and recovery operation. You have no real data in the system and how you installed it all is probably fresh in your mind. Trust me, every first recovery operation fails. You need to imagine your office has been hit by lightning and you have no servers, and just a backup. If you can successfully recover your environment in under 24 hours, you’re in a good place. Document how to do it and test it regularly.
   When we were developing Enterprise Profile Management, our server with all issue management, reporting, builds and version control failed (the processor fried). We were taking backups, but the restore failed. It took me 22 hours to perform a forensic recovery of our production platform. Luckily the developers could work offline, but we still introduced a ton of integration bugs. Don’t skimp on backup.
4. Email, IM and Web Conferencing – You’re going to be working remotely at some time, whether you think you will or not. We quickly implemented the following tools:
   1. Email – Google Gmail for your domain (www.google.com/apps)
   2. IM – Windows Live Messenger and Skype (www.live.com, www.skype.com)
   3. Web Conferencing – Dim Dim (www.dimdim.com)
      Note: there are lots of other tools out there, we just chose these (with little science, but they’ve worked well for us)
5. Coding Standards – Getting at least some coding standards in place before you write any code is really important. Good Version Control Systems should be able to validate code against your standards on check-in. My key coding standards are:
   1. No String Literals – All strings must be externalised in resource files for later localization (a process called globalization)
   2. Commenting – I insist that every class, method, property, event and interface be commented. There’s method in my madness here; obviously code commenting is important but with proper commenting (especially in C#) and tools like sandcastle, you can automatically create documentation like ours at http://api.hubone.com.
   3. No Short Cuts – This one was a little contentious – Our code will in the future (hopefully) be worked on by people who had no idea of the concept. Writing out If…then constructs and property accessors in long-hand makes the code much more readable for novices, junior programmers, support teams and architects alike.
   4. Unit Test Everything –I insist that every method, property, event etc, etc has an associated unit test. These we execute as a part of the build. My goal is to have over 80% of any code written covered by unit tests. In fact, when developing an API, the unit tests are your client! Although this increases the programming effort up front, it actually reduces the total time taken to ship the product. I havelost count of how many times our massive unit test library has saved us from nasty regressions that we could never have found from UI testing.
6. Write some code –Don’t worry, you don’t need to be the world’s best developer to write some code. All you need to do is think carefully about the different items in the Bill of Materials and start prototyping the methods, properties and events that will make it all work. Ensure you adhere to your coding standards. The goal of this exercise is to effectively build a skeleton of your application before the developers get on board. This can make them hyper productive when they start. They’ll probably end up getting rid of every line of your code, but it will get them in the rhythm of how you want the platform to look. As the architect of our platform, I used this period to prototype and test all of my assumptions of how things would work. By the time the developers got on board, I had a passable working prototype of an API with unit tests and coding standards, although there is almost none of my code in the final product, this enabled us to get running really quickly.
7. Don’t write a test plan – Write the user documentation instead, and use this to test your application. That way you’ll know your application does everything the user guide says it does and you won’t double up on a test plan and the user guide (which should end up being pretty similar anyway). I wrote our user guide because I knew what I wanted the product to do and it’s also a fantastic way (sometimes they only way) you get to communicate with your customers.
8. Give ownership, responsibility and praise – You will have no choice. As you get developers, testers, writers and others on board, you must give them ownership of components. I find that if I give someone total ownership, they always deliver. People are proud when they do great work and if they feel and really have ownership over something, it will be their best work. Not only that, but they’ll pull out every stop to impress you, the team and your customers. If you hire correctly, you’ve got great professionals in the team. Respect them as professionals and the results will be awesome.
9. The best wire framing tools are not wire framing tools – You’re a start-up, right? Then you’ve discussed your ideas with potential customers and you deeply understand their needs. You could sit down with any number of wire framing tools and attempt to design components. How about you take a different approach? Write functional code which does what you (and therefore your customers want) – Developers find it far easier to code from a working model and they can re-use portions of your code. All of this streamlines the process and you can take your models to customers (with caveats on your poor coding skills and lack of stylistic ability).
10. Constantly review and drive – We spend some time every day in front of a whiteboard discussing options, vision, checklists and almost everything else, but in a start-up, it’s not really a democracy. I run my start-ups like a benevolent dictatorship – I hold the final decision, but let everyone have input. I’m the one talking to customers, and sometimes I bring customers in to explain a requirement, but at the end of the day, how it works is up to me (I have the most to lose if it doesn’t work!)

Notice here, we never had a specification, requirements specification or design, we build the code a piece at a time and made it work. We’ve gone back and documented some core functionality, flowcharts and features, but at the outset, it’s more important to make it work. I’ll share a caveat, though, I’m also the software architect so I can hold the requirements for scalability, security and reliability, and guide the team to accomplish those goals.

Hiring the team can happen sometime between points 7 and 8, I don’t recommend you do it before!

If you’d like more information, please feel free to get in touch at nick@hubone.com, and if you’d like a copy of the software this built, we can be found at http://www.hubone.com.

Nakon ljetne pauze organiziramo već treće tradicionalno okupljanje BizSpark startupa. Imamo par vrlo zanimljivih tema. Kolega Tomislav Tipurić će najaviti jedan novi *Spark program, a naš povratnik iz Microsofta Danske Vibor Cipan će vam ispričati što je novo u trećoj verziji Expression alata. Na kraju ću  ja skupa s kolegom Markom Drenovačkim iz Microsoft inovacijskog centra Varaždin ispričati o budućnosti BizSpark programa. I naravno, popričat ćemo i upoznati se uz pizzu & pivo. Pozovite prijatelje, pridružite nam se!

Lokacija: Microsoft Hrvatska, Turinina 3/IV, Zagreb

Datum: 23.9.2009, 17:15 – 19:30

Prijave: mailom na darkojo (at) microsoft.com

Agenda:

17:00 – 17:15 – Dolazak

17:15 – 17:45 – Najava novog *Spark programa

Tomislav Tipurić, Microsoft Hrvatska

17:45 – 18:30 – Expression 3,

Vibor Cipan, FatDux

18:30 – 19:00 – Pizza & pivo

19:00 – 19:30 – Budućnost BizSpark programa

Darko Jovišić, Microsoft Hrvatska

Marko Drenovački, Microsoft inovacijski centar Varaždin

I wonder if anyone else is like me, constantly having random ideas bounce off the inner walls of their mind. When that spark ignites, I often dwell on that brillant-idea-of-the-moment for a few days and get all excited (in my mind) over it. If you are really lucky or one that I really trust (so far, only the BF and one other – you know who you are), I might share the idea(s) with you and get into fruitful discussions on the feasibility and the functionality of the idea(s).
There are times when I chance upon or discover that one of my ideas (or a version of it) has actually materialize, not by me of course. But hey, there are great minds out there too

I have yet to sit down to work on some of those ideas (when I really should) and of late, I have had so many that I feel rather overwhelmed.

So in this mode of randomness, I’ve got myself a little black book – to jot down any random good or bad ideas so that one day when I have the courage to start fueling that spark, I’ll have a bank of ideas to leaf through.

Maybe some day, someone will pick this book up when I pass on and decide to do a ‘Da Vinci”. One can hope, can I?

Today is the first day to download the official RTM of Windows 7 on MSDN, for those that have access.  My company, Concord Mfg LLC is a Microsft ISV. I signed up for BizSpark a few months ago, which provides access to MSDN.

I have been using Windows 7 RC for several months now. I can’t imagine going back to Vista or XP. Go 7!

Ryan D. Kyle | Concord Mfg LLC

The Startup Success Podcast

This week Bob and Pat talk with Julien Codorniou who heads up Microsoft BizSpark about this program for startups. If your startup is less than 3 years old and makes less than $1 million a year, BizSpark gives you free development and production licensing and access for 3 years to all of Microsoft’s technology.

Bob talks about Aardvark.com – a very handy Social Media tool and Pat goes over the recently announced pricing for the Windows Azure Platform.

Download Show #30 here: StartupSuccess030.mp3 Or if you prefer, Subscribe to the podcast in Apple iTunes.

Please review it on iTunes: we need your feedback!

Bob Walsh is on twitter at http://twitter.com/bobwalsh or you can email him at bob.walsh@47hats.com.

Patrick Foley is on twitter at http://twitter.com/patrickfoley or you can email him at patrick.foley@microsoft.com

Show Notes:

URLs mentioned in this episode of the Startup Success Podcast:

• The Web Startup Success Guide.
• Free sample chapter, “Social Media and your Startup“, from The Web Startup Success Guide.
• StartupToDo.com – a training/productivity community for startups and microISVs (launching this month).
• Aardvark.com.
• Microsoft BizSpark.
• If you want to apply for BizSpark, email Bob Walsh: bob.walsh@47hats.com. Please tell me about your startup or startup idea: nothing proprietary, just enough detail to differentiate it from custom freelance programming.
• Windows Azure Platform Pricing and Licensing Options.
• Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2009.

Episode 7

Date: June 20, 2009

Guest: Don Dodge, Microsoft’s Director of Business Development

Microsoft BizSpark is a global program designed to accelerate the success of early stage Startups.

BizSpark provides software, support and visibility to Startups:

Software: BizSpark provides entrepreneurs fast and easy access to current full-featured Microsoft development tools and productions licenses of server products, with no upfront costs and minimal requirements.

• All the software included is equivalent to a Microsoft® Visual Studio® Team System Team Suite (VSTS) with MSDN® Premium subscription. Additionally, VSTS Team Foundation Server (Standard Edition) is available for use by the entire development team.
• Expression® Studio Version 2
• Production use rights to host a “software-plus-services” solution (developed during participation in the BizSpark Program, on any platform) over the Internet, with regard to the latest versions of Microsoft products including:
  • Microsoft Windows Server® (all editions up to and including Enterprise)
  • Microsoft SQL Server® (all editions)
  • Microsoft Office SharePoint® Portal Server
  • Microsoft BizTalk® Server
  • Microsoft System Center for managing hosting server operations.
• In addition to the core program offering, BizSpark startups may be eligible for other Microsoft offerings, such as Virtual Earth
• Startups may also work with a BizSpark hosting partner to deliver their software–plus-services solution using the latest Microsoft server products. For specific details on technology offerings and hosting scenarios refer to the Microsoft BizSpark Program Guide for Startups

Ask Jason: (05 min.)

1. Tommy Russo, Maui, Received gift and caught Jason’s attention (the packaging was very personalized and detail oriented) a ukulele.   He publishes a weekly newspaper.  Where and what type of financing can I get? Media companies are not a venture capitalist type investment, the return on investment is lower, try find a platform type company.  Try finding local investors (Angel Investor) that are passionate about where they live, where ego may help.  Investors look for scale therefore you will find it difficult to find VC funding.
2. Scott Simko, The Fly Buy (in development), What is the best way to handle price point for initial sponsorship for a small startup with little traffic?  Create a “Founding Sponsorship” program and give them a good deal for initial sponsors and offer discount for later sponsorship if the fees increase.  Go visit the sponsors tell them your vision and create a personal relationship, business is personal, sales is transference of enthusiasm in the beginning and then relationship afterwards, check in with them.  What is the least and most prepared you see companies that attend TechCruch?  Things have changed drastically; we prefer a launch at the conference.  Need to do a show how to pitch.
3. Michael Rubin, Over time my partner seems to have lost interest, what do I do?  This happens all the time, do you guys have any type of written agreement?  Joint venture agreement split things 50/50, equal partners, next time a vesting over time type relationship would be better.  Sit down and have a frank calm conversation about where to go, consider offering reducing his ownership if he lets you take control and if necessary leverage you leaving letting the project die and move on.  When negotiating silence is your friend.  Jason offers to help mediate if necessary.
4. Chris Hourihan, employee at a small start up, he is a developer, fundamentally disagrees with position of CEO.  Tough position it is not his ship, your job is to give your best advice, direct boss agrees with Chris.  CEO will be defensive, if he is enlightened will allow employees to fight for their position.  Jason has them argue each other’s point, lists pros and cons sometimes both will work.  Sit down with Boss and try explaining that you don’t get it and want to go over it one more time because you care so much.  May want to ask to put it up to a vote and see where support lies.   Ask yourself, is this a bet the business decision, where if you are wrong you are dead, then you need to discuss it, if not you can try his idea first and track success.  Self reflect your position.
5. Noah Hendrix, expand on what role a lawyer play in a startup, What type of Lawyer and fees should one expect?  There are lawyers that specialize in startups, most every firm has an arm that does this, they usually reduce fees and are flexible for entrepreneurs.  Try finding a startup in your area and try getting a lawyer referral.
6. Justyn Howard, he has invested his own money, don’t necessarily need money, would like to find an Angel more for an advisory role, what is different about finding these opportunities and structuring a deal.  Bring them on as an advisor first then worry about structuring the deal later.  Start by emailing, don’t ask for money, explain how you respect their work, explain that expertise might be useful (be precise and short) and ask to meet them anywhere their time and place.  Post on their blog something intelligent, this may be a way to gain an audience.

Discussion: (01 min.)

• Emerging business team
• Business development
• Bing the product, will continue to invest in search
• 5 years at Microsoft
• Microsoft’s diversity (games, database, servers, Zune

The News: (1:15) Lon Harris

• Apple Iphone 3GS, live from Apple store in Santa Monica, Rachit Shukla founder of Two Toasters, hardware has a lot more RAM biggest benefit for developers.  Question to Jason, How do you your App. to be seen?  Jason not sure, have it be seen outside the app store or get 100 people to buy the app. the same day and offer to pay them back, that idea is out the window because everyone will be doing it tomorrow, lol.
• MySpace, layoff 30% of workforce about 400 employees – Good move, good leadership, in a recession right sizing is the correct thing to do, sad for employees, part of being an entrepreneur is making the hard decisions and thinks MySpace will be fine.  Back story is Google’s advertising deal is expiring this October so they have to adjust.
• Twitter and Iran, is role overstated? – Journalists are now using Twitter as source material, it is important for the people there, internet is game changing, not overstated.
• Michael Arrington, your startup is more likely to be acquired if you are located in the valley – yes location is advantageous but not the only reason to be picked up, relationships matter.  However, if your product is good you can get acquired anywhere.
• Boseman, MT – government jobs, must hand in usernames and passwords for hiring decision – no one can be this stupid, insane, feels like a gag.
• Hunch , decision making site – nice place to start research, not competitive to Mahalo Answers, clever idea, if it can be added to personal site can be a nice experience.
• Local Search Summit, July 17th

Dead Pool: (1:37)

• Flowgram

Notable Quotes:

• (28 min.) Jason “Somebody told me once, I don’t remember who but sales is transference of enthusiasm”
• (44 min.) Jason “That pain and frustration of this project will go into your next project and make you a stronger and better entrepreneur”
• (50 min.) Don “It is easy for us to say but thing about entrepreneurs is, entrepreneurs never give up they never give up they are passionate, so any little thing like this you are going to try fight and try work it out and make it happen and sometimes it’s not worth it you have to just walk away.”
• (1:42) Jason “No offense to the good people of Bozeman but we are going to take the internet back if you don’t learn how to use it properly”

Homework: (1:47)

• Paul Capestany, Man On Wire, Which did you like more between the two movies?  Man On Wire was more optimistic, What can we learn from Philippe? Set out to do something crazy but Philippe actually prepared for his stunt.  Is it ethical for people to support Philippe complete his task?  Yes, if they have prepared it is their dream. No, not ok if it is only their dream and they are not prepared.  (B+)
• Next assignment: The King Of Kong, A Fistful of Quarters

Tech Crunch Ticket:

• Tommy Russo
• Scott Simko
• Michael Rubin
• Chris Hourihan
• Noah Hendrix
• Justyn Howard
• Rachit Shukla
• Paul Capestany

TWiST Sponsors:

• Ustream
• DNA Mail
• Webspy (discount code: twist)

Two weeks back on May 6, 2009 marks a significant milestone for BizSpark  from the time it started 6 months back. The program has enrolled 12,000 startups which is significant achievement!

Microsoft BizSpark is a great DEAL!  It is a program designed to help accelerate the success of early stage startups by providing key resources – software, support, and visibility.

The qualification criteria is very simple (if you are a startup):

• Privately held software development startups in business for less than 3 years that are generating annual revenue under USD $1 million can join.
• Connect with a BizSpark Network Partner or a Microsoft BizSpark Champ to get your BizSpark enrollment code.  Or email me at Raj.Ramabadran@microsoft.com if you are not sure who to contact.
• Enrollment is free, however, at exit of the program, you just pay a USD $100 program offering fee.

Learn more about this wonderful program here.

The way-too-excited-for-gym Dtan and I arranged to go for a gym session yesterday. Being the ever cheap-os, we headed to the public gym at Toa Payoh Sports Council. It was a good 1 hour spent and all for SGD2.50 (okay, plus SGD1.00 for a towel since the noobs in us didn’t know we had to bring one along). Since we were both so new to the gym facilities, we headed to the one equipment we know best – the treadmill and ran for a good 20 minutes. It was a good workout but I doubt I pushed myself as hard as I should for we still had energy to continue with the cycling machine for another 15 minutes.

It was fun doing it with so-very-determined-to-lose-weight dtan but we should definitely learn to use the different kind of gym equipments. So anyhow, we have set the date for our next gym session together! I do hope we do this on a regular basis and especially since kchea will be leaving us soon, the two of us had better keep ourselves occupied.

Continuing our cheap-o streak, we headed to Subway for dinner only to have them tell us that the SGD5.90 (only SGD5.90!!) for any meal has been discontinued on Sunday after we have ordered. I was so disappointed, I haven’t exactly ripped much from the latest promotion! Darn.

It was a brainstorming session of sorts where we both poured out our current business ideas and discussed on the feasibility, business models and such. It was indeed a fulfilling dinner when we both – *snaps finger* – decided on one idea to develop. Of course, thanks to kchea (our most practical friend), we now have some work to do before we can take this further.

I am rather excited about Pet Project PB

Thanks to Network World for their article, Microsoft’s software pipeline set to burst. The product roadmaps for the coming year were announced at TechEd this past week.

• Windows 7 offers key features for developers: Windows Touch, Taskbar, Scenic Ribbon, Scenic Animation, Sensor and Location Platform, Windows Installer 5.0, Internet Explorer 8, PowerShell 2.0. The release candidate is currently available publicly.
• Windows Server 2008 R2 offers new group policy features that will help with power management and cost cutting, Hyper-V improvements, File Classification Infrastructure, Server Core, APIs and tools to help your tune your parallel applications using NUMA, PowerShell 2.0, Windows Web Services, background services and tasks, Background Intelligence Transfer. The release candidate is currently available publicly..
• Exchange 2010 designed and developed to work on-premises and as an online service, and introduces a new integrated e-mail archive and features to reduce costs and improve the user experience. The public beta is currently available publicly.
• Microsoft Code-named ‘Geneva’ is an identity federation platform that simplifies user access and secure collaboration across organizational boundaries. The beta 2 version is currently available publicly.
• Microsoft Code-named ‘Dublin’ will be an Application extend Internet Information Services (IIS) to provide a standard host for applications that use workflow or communications. For more information, see Overview of WF 4.0, WCF 4.0, and Windows Server “Dublin”.
• Microsoft Code-named ‘Stirling’ is an integrated security suite that coordinates protection and visibility across desktops, servers, applications and the network edge a client console for Forefront security software. The beta 2 version is publicly available.
• Microsoft Project Code Named “Velocity” is a distributed in-memory application cache platform for developing scalable, high-performance applications. Community technology preview 3 (CTP3) is currently available publicly.
• Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 is being designed inside and out to give developers and development teams every advantage in getting groundbreaking applications to market—faster and easier than ever. The beta 1 release will be available soon.
• Windows Mobile 6.5 with Windows Mobile Marketplace, Windows Phone
• Windows Azure is a cloud services operating system that serves as the development, service hosting and service management environment for the Azure Services Platform. Windows Azure provides developers with on-demand compute and storage to host, scale, and manage Web applications on the Internet through Microsoft® data centers. Commercial availability for Windows Azure will likely be at the end of calendar year 2009. Currently available as community preview publicly.
• Microsoft Hyper-V™ Server 2008 R2 is addition of new features such as live migration and expanded processor and memory support for host systems, it allows organizations to consolidate workloads onto a single physical server. Publicly available as a release candidate.Will continue to be free.

• Office 2010 — including Office Web applications, SharePoint Server 2010, Visio 2010 and Project 2010 — will enter a technical preview in July 2009 and will release to manufacturing in the first half of 2010. Nominate yourself for the preview at Office The Movie.

• SQL Server 2008 R2 will empower end users to make better decisions through self services analysis (‘Gemini’) and self-service business intelligence code-named “Kilimanjaro.” It will help IT drive greater efficiency and reduce costs through new capabilities such as multi-server management and Master Data Services. The community preview is due by the end of 2009.
• Microsoft Code-Name ‘Madison’ is an appliance version of the database for massively parallel processing. It will be able to handle the most demanding data warehousing workloads spanning hundreds of terabytes of data and thousands of concurrent users at the low total cost of ownership (TCO) businesses have come to expect from SQL Server.

• Silverlight 3. introducing more than 50 new features, including support for running Silverlight applications out of the browser, dramatic video performance and quality improvements, and features that radically improve developer productivity. Currently in publicly available beta. Also includes Microsoft Expression Blend 3 Preview, Silverlight Toolkit, and .NET RIA Services.

For more details on the roadmaps, see

• Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 Anticipated for Holiday Release
• Simplify User Access, Secure Collaboration Across Organizational Boundaries with ‘Geneva’ Beta 2
• How to Get Started Leveraging Windows Server 2008 R2 Features
• ‘Velocity’ Preview Updates In-Memory Caching Platform
• Top 10 Scenarios; ISVs Add Customer Value with Windows 7 Features
• First Look of Visual Studio 2010, .NET Framework 4.0 Available On Demand During May, June
• Walkthrough to Get Your Applications Ready for Windows 7
• Opportunities for ISVs to Step-up, Subscribe, Upgrade, Switch to Visual Studio, MSDN
• Exchange 2010 Beta Highlights S+S
• Alpha Version of Windows Logo Testing Kit Ready April 14

Students can get current Microsoft technologies at Dreamspark.

Startup businesses can get current Microsoft technologies at BizSpark.