It's been awhile since I last blogged, but I was reminded today after devChix gave me props for starting to plan a Women's Barcamp for this coming Fall in SF (thanks gals!) that I probably should start to re-engage here... plus, I miss telling you guys what's going on at Microsoft (if you're not reading between the lines of my twitter account, that is.. )
So, I'll just give you guys a quick update on what's been going on at Microsoft, and what my travel schedule looks like over the next few months so if you're traveling to the same shows we can try to meet up...that, and I'll have some more things to blog about a bit later this week, but I can't give away too much right now :)
MICROSOFT:
After a few changes over at Microsoft, my team has grown two-fold over the past few months. Not only are we driving product management, product marketing, and go-to-market for The Microsoft Web Platform, but we have several announcements coming down the pipeline in the next month or so...
So, the Microsoft Web Platform - is this a re-branding of our current web products? Yes and no. It's the free web products that you're familiar with, including IIS/Windows Server, SQL Server, ASP.NET, Visual Web Developer, MVC, Silverlight, Ajax, and much more - but we've packaged this all up into one product download called the Web Platform Installer or the WebPI as we call it. So now there's little hassle when you go to download this - just one click/pick/download/install process - and yes, it's that fast. And no, you don't need to download everything - we actually give you a choice. :)
Let's just say it's a new focus - something my team is calling the customer-focused Microsoft Web Platform- that we're working on. What else does this include? Well, packaged OS PHP and .NET apps that are optimized to run on Windows. Did I say PHP? Yes. And Open Source? Yep. Does that mean you can use either SQL Server OR MySQL to run with this? Yes. Seriously? Yes. And overall, what does this mean? An increasingly developer, community, and customer centric focus that you *may* be surprised to see from Microsoft - and let me tell you - there will be MUCH more to come.
With that, onto TRAVEL:
- MIX09, Las Vegas: March 18-20th. Come on, you know you want to go. I've actually never been to a MSFT conference so this will be my first - and the rumor has it this is by far the most fun (or from what people can actually remember about it)
- Web 2.0 Expo, San Francisco: April 1-3rd
So, hit me up if you're traveling to either show, or if you have feedback on the platform. We're open for business.. /LC
