It has been a long time since I spoke in a usergroup meeting. This time, I will replicate what I did in Microsoft TechED Asia 2007 in KL in the Dec 2007 SgDotNet Usergroup meeting.

Languages, Frameworks and Architectures
New language solution frameworks are emerging to make solution development less cumbersome. For example, AJAX for building rich, interactive, internet applications, SCA for composing components into services, Ruby-on-Rails for building web applications, and Blinq for generating ASP.NET websites based on a database schema. This session will look at how these languages are evolving to include architectural constructs and where that evolution will go.

If you are free, do come drop by with an open mind, dont take any notes and get ready to interact.

While there has been much talk everywhere in conferences, events, blogsphere about Web 2.0 and such, this video touched me more than anything else. It was created by Michael Wesch, the Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University. Amazing amazing summary of Web 2.0 in just under 5 minutes.

After you sit through this video, chances are that you will catch your breath and go "WOW" ... and play it again. To the layman, you cannot get a better implementation that forms part of the bigger picture of Web 2.0 than this recently-released piece of work by Yahoo! called Yahoo! Pipes. This concept is well-explained via O'Reilly Radar here. Of course, my famous colleague is quick to explain he came up with this concept first.

And doesnt the background music of that video just rock ? It is by Deus and is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 license, which is yet another example of the interlinking of people sharing and collaborating media ...

My good friend and extreme brain in Singapore, Wee Hyong, pointed out to me he has been working on that recently and giving a talk soon on a much related subject here: Danaїdes: Continuous and Progressive Complex Queries on RSS Feeds

Welcome to the social.

This little interview I had done with INETA APAC just got published here.

In this issue, we get up close and personal with William Tay (Microsoft Regional Director based in Singapore) to understand what makes him tick and his passions.

Check out his blog at http://www.softwaremaker.net/blog

I remember it was very late last year / early this year when I had a conversation with Martin Kulov, who is the Director .NET Development of the National Academy for Software Development in Bulgaria.

Basically, Martin pinged me and we talked about his idea and dream of bringing a PDC/TechED-style event to the Balkans, where he sees an increasing demand.

He then proceeded to invite me to present in this conference in Sofia, Bulgaria this year. I cannot tell you how honoured I was to receive this invitation. However, I had to put this on hold due to heavy work and family committments. Lest you dont know, while Sofia is generally only 2 spots below Singapore in the usual Country dropdownbox due to its alphabetical legacies, both countries are very spaced apart geographically. To compound this, airlines dont usually fly direct between these 2 countries and therefore, the end-2-end flight map (that routes you to so many different places) will be a lot more mileage than what it appears on a point-2-point straight line on a map. Ultimately, this trip for me alone will cost the National Academy for Software Development in Bulgaria a lot of money and cost me a lot of time (which still equates to money)

I am a person trained and educated in Economics and this, obviously, doesnt make much economic sense. It is not like they have that much money in their coffers anyways since there were no sponsors. So I told him that if I could hook him up with other influential speakers nearer his region, it makes much more sense. With great content comes great value for the participants and that ultimately means that it will be a well-attended event. Who knows - someone may come along and drop their golden coin to sponsor it.

I then proceeded to ping my peer Microsoft Regional Directors / Speakers I know who would be interested in speaking in the Balkans. Of course, there were many. Sofia, is afterall, a beautiful city, so I was told. People like Richard Campbell, Stephen Forte, Ted Neward, Goskin Bakir, etc gave their full support.

My wonderful friend in New York, Stephen Forte, deserves full mention as an ultimate leader who was passionate enough to make sure this event becomes a success in the Balkans. He tried all ways, including trying to negotiate with the airlines for a cheaper fare in exchange for more travel awareness to the Balkans. In the end, his passion and hard bargaining and negotiation skills shone through and he won over MSFT Corp to be the main sponsor for this event by convincing them that this is THE event for Microsoft in that part of the world and this is THE time.

With Microsoft declaring themselves to be the main sponsor, other vendors, like Telerik, follow suit as well and voila - We have the birth of DevReach in the Balkans.

If you are interested, you may want to sign up here. The PR of this event can be found here.

I believe years later, when I move on to a new career path and DevReach becomes the de-facto PDC/TechED of the Balkans, I will look back at this episode and smile. I had a big hand to play to make this event and dream come for Martin and all the wonderful people of Bulgaria. The bulgarian software industry will grow, develop and mature and keep abreast of time and everyone is better because of it.

How did this happen: Through 2 friends who have never met (one in Sofia, the other in Singapore), using the power and the reach of the global community at work (and MSN Messenger), through extensive and collaborative networking, this event became a concrete reality.

Dont underestimate that power of reach and the community - It may make or break you.

Now, if you ask: "How did you and Martin know of each other again?"

Easy - through another reach for the community by the community, via my article on MSDN, he posted a comment on this blog (another collaborative community-driven tool) and we hooked up. The rest is history.

Martin, I am happy for you. You have done a great deal for your community and it is only fair that you see this dream of yours come true.

Make some time for me, I am sure we will catch up over coffee in beautiful Sofia one day.

What a great turnout and what a great rousing response I got for my 2nd Microsoft TechED South East Asia 2006 session titled: Developing Web Services: Tips and Tricks.

I love the Malaysian crowd. It has shown so much technical maturity and passion over the years I have spoken there and I appreciate all of you very very very much.

Thank you for all the mail you have sent me over the past few years

• on your generous compliments for my presentations
• on your Thank Yous for the topics I have taught and the issues I have raised that all of you could identify with
• on your appreciation for my work I put in my topics and sessions because I work on the field - just like you and not just another Microsoftie
• last but not least - on the numerous questions (via hands and emails) that were asked over the years - which I hope I have helped and answered.

I have received numerous requests for my code demos for this second session and here is the download for that.

I hope this is NOT the last I hear and see from the Malaysian Tech.ED crowd. Thank you all again.

Apache Axis2/C version 0.93 is released. This should please the REST camp and highlights the momentum of how REST can be implemented in Web Services. If you are in KL next week, I will be briefly touching base on the REST-vs-SOAP style of implementing Web Services.

Key Features

1. AXIOM, an XML object model optimized for SOAP 1.1/1.2 Messages.
   This has complete XML infoset support.
2. Support for one-way messaging (In-Only) and request response
   messaging (In-Out)
3. Description hierarchy (configuration, service groups, services,
   operations and messages)
4. Directory based deployment model
5. Archive based deployment model
6. Context hierarchy (corresponding contexts to map to each level of
   description hierarchy)
7. Raw XML message receiver
8. Module architecture, mechanism to extend the SOAP processing model
9. Module version support
10. Transports supports: HTTP\
    1. Both simple axis server and Apache2 httpd module for server side
    2. Client transport with ability to enable SSL support
11. Service client and operation client APIs
12. REST support (HTTP POST case)
13. WS-Addressing, both the submission (2004/08) and final (2005/08) versions
14. MTOM/XOP support
15. Code generation tool for stub and skeleton generation for a given
    WSDL (based on Java tool)
    1. Axis Data Binding (ADB) support
16. Security module with UsernameToken support
17. REST support (HTTP GET case) - New
18. Dynamic invocation support (based on XML schema and WSDL
    implementations) - New

Major Changes Since Last Release

1. REST support for HTTP GET case
2. XML Schema implementation
3. Woden/C implementation that supports both WSDL 1.1 and WSDL 2.0
4. Dynamic client invocation (given a WSDL, consume services dynamically)
5. Numerous improvements to API and API documentation
6. Many bug fixes, especially, many paths of execution previously untouched were tested along with Sandesha2/C implementation

Download the above release here.

For the 4th year in a row, I will be speaking in Microsoft TechED 2006 Asia. This time, the event will return to its original roots back in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Unlike the previous rounds, I wont touch base on any Level 400 topics and going nitty-gritty into details of <angleBrackets/> messaging or gnarly-XSD'isms. From previous experiences, it doesnt sit too well with the asian crowd. Instead, I am going with a couple of very interesting topics. One focuses on a specific implementation of identity and service-orientation, the other is for the audience to have a better idea on what Web Services are all about first before embarking on that journey.

• ARC323 Federated Identities and the Metasystem \ Architecture & Team Development Track

This session, I will explain the basis forces driving the concepts of the Identity Metasystem that has the world watching and waiting. How do we plug the missing gaps of the Transactional Internet? Imagine the WWW without passwords. Not only that, I will explain how this infrastructure setup can be used for business transactions other than for authentication. See demos that are not  seen anywhere yet in this region. [Level 300]

• DEV243 Developing Web Services: Tips & Tricks \ Developer Technology Track

What exactly are Web Services and When and Why do we use them? William explains the basis of SOAP in clear concise terms and coins up some tips to help you in your Web Services Development today and tomorrow. [Level 200]

Of course, there are a whole hosts of reasons for you to attend this mega-event with tons of great speakers talking on some great topics gracing this event. KL has always been a very dynamic city and it should be a good time for all.

And even if browsing through the event site doesnt attract you enough yet, how about this?

I will be giving away 2 FREE MSDN Premium Subscription with Visual Studio Team Suite that is worth US Dollars 30,000 each to 2 lucky souls who will be attending my sessions. I may also give away other goodies like cannot-find and hard-to-get Microsoft Product Platform T-Shirts and NEW books.

So - c'mon - what are you waiting for ? Sign up today and "Change your Destiny" ...