Dave Bost

Start Dreaming. Start Building.

There has been a tremendous amount of buzz and excitement in the developer community as we get ready to launch Windows Phone 7. There have been over 300,000+ downloads of the Windows Phone 7 developer tools as developers are eager to take advantage of this next wave of computing. To help you along the way, my team is sponsoring a number of *free* Windows Phone 7 Boot Camp training events across the area. The purpose of these boot camps is to provide guidance around building apps and games that target Windows Phone 7 and lead  you down the path to start earning money in the Windows Marketplace.

Training and Hands-on Labs

Throughout the day, we’ll dive deep into the Windows Phone developer tools along with the services and components that allow you to light up your apps on Windows Phone 7. Bring your laptop! In the afternoon, we’ve set aside time for people to walk through various hands-on labs and give them an opportunity to get their hands dirty with the tools. We’ll have experts on hand to answer your questions as well.

Prerequisites for the Hands-on Labs

Unfortunately training machines will not be provided. You are welcome to bring your own machine with WiFi capability. To prepare for the labs, please download the Windows Phone Developer Tools and Windows Phone 7 Training Kit prior to the event. (Note: please check the system requirements on the Windows Phone Developer Tools download page)

App Testing – Bring your XAP!

Have you been working hard over the past few months building the next Angry Birds or the next great Social App? Bring your XAP and we’ll provide an opportunity for you to test it on a real device!

Windows Phone 7 Boot Camp

8:00 am – 8:30: Registration Opens

8:30 – 12:00pm:

• Overview of the Windows Phone 7 Platform
• An In-Depth View of Building Applications for Windows Phone 7 with Microsoft Silverlight
• WP7 + Data

12:00 – 12:30pm: Lunch

12:30 – 2:30pm:

• Building Games for Windows Phone 7 with XNA
• Making Money with the Windows Marketplace

2:30pm – 5:00pm:

• Hands-on Labs and App testing

And before you ask, we’re planning something special for Chicago, so stay tuned.

My colleagues over on the East Coast are running a series of Windows Phone training events as well. Check them out!

• Glen Gordon – Windows Phone 7 developers – free training and app building workshops!
• Joe Healy – Windows Phone Garage East Coast Tour – Fall 2010

Windows Phone, training

Have you wanted to check out all the technical goodness that the Windows Azure Platform gives you but didn’t want to pluck down a credit card? Have no fear!

You can get a 1-month *free* pass to kick the tires of Windows Azure and SQL Azure.

Once you’ve requested your pass, there is a plethora of training material to lead you down the Windows Azure path, including:

• Learning all about Windows Azure as a cloud computing platform
• Great tutorials to get you publishing your first Windows Azure application
• Watch videos about SQL Azure
• Learn how to publish your PHP Apps on Windows Azure
• Read up on how to Develop a Windows Azure Application
• Watch a series of Web Casts to lead you down the path of Windows Azure
• And by all means… download the Windows Azure Training Kit!

Azure, SQL Azure, training

In this weeks MSDN Flash newsletter, I had a chance to interview Midwest community leader, Scott Seely, on his recent recognition as a Microsoft Regional Director. Check it out.

Community

Two of our MVP’s and future MS Press authors, Andy Wigley and Rob Miles, will be presenting a 12-hour online course on Windows Phone development spread over two days. This course is organized into four virtual instructor-led sessions to give you the jump start needed to start building your phone applications.

• July 20 – 8am: Session One: Getting Started with Microsoft Windows Phone and Silverlight
• July 20 – 1pm: Session Two: Programming Game Applications with XNA
• July 22 – 8am: Session Three: Programming Applications with Silverlight
• July 22 – 1pm: Session Four: Review and Wrap up

All times are Pacific Daylight Time (PDT)

Get Registered!

Windows Phone, training

Starting this Friday, July 9, the months of tireless work of a few of your peers in the Midwest developer community and led by my co-hort, Clark Sell, developers and charities will come together for a marathon coding event pitting the skills of geeks along with the needs of a few charities to produce something special. Many smaller charities don’t have access to people with the technical skills to drive the needs of the charity in today’s modern setting. Whether its maintaining an operations contact management system of volunteers and philanthropists to a simple website to help advertise the great work the charity provides. As developers, we code as part of our day job, we code when we get home, we code (or at least think about) when we’re on vacation; we’d code in our sleep if we could – and some of us can! (I have stories) GiveCamp brings the talents and the inherent desire to JUST CODE together with the needs of local charities to do something great and give back to the community.

The GiveCamp effort was dreamed up by my colleague down in Dallas, Chris Koenig, and with the help of his technical community in Dallas, they kicked off the GiveCamp concept and now we’re seeing GiveCamps pop up all over the US. We figured it was high time we brought one to Chicago.

As I said, with the tireless effort of a few of our peers in the Midwest technical community and through the leadership of Clark Sell, Midwest Give Camp will be taking place this weekend (July 9-11) at the Microsoft offices in Downers Grove. Some of the charities participating in the first Midwest GiveCamp include: Bear Necessities Pediatric Cancer Foundation, Sit Stay Read, Porchlight – Solutions to Homelessness, Dreams for Kids, The Caregiver Connection, and Bridges to Digital Excellence.

If you could set aside your summer for one weekend and give your skills to a charity who needs it, your simple effort would go a LONG way.

For more information and to register as a volunteer, please visit http://MidwestGiveCamp.org.

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