The
2007 Atlanta Code Camp held on January 20, 2007 was a tremendous success! Over 290 attendees were able to enjoy the free all-day geek fest which featured presentations delivered by speakers from five states. There also were some notable guests from Microsoft in attendance including Alan Griver, who is architect of Microsoft.com community properties. In addition, a new local record for free swag was established. Massive quantities of books, software, and t-shirts were graciously donated by Code Camp sponsors. I am quite sure that everyone walked away with something.
I had the privilege of being able to present two sessions as part of the .Net University track. I delivered presentations on Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) and Windows Cardspace. Both of these technologies are part of the new .Net Framework 3.0 release, available for free download from Microsoft. If you happen to have a computer running the Vista operating system, .Net Framework 3.0 is installed by default. .Net Framework 3.0 also runs on XP and Windows 2003 Server operating systems. The slides for both my WF and Windows Cardspace presentations are available for download from
Dot Net-U .
WF is the programming model, engine and tools for building workflow enabled applications. WF enhances a developer’s ability to model and support business processes. My WF code is available for download
here. To install WF, you will need to download .Net Framework 3.0 (on top of an existing VS 2005 installation). To obtain the Workflow project templates, within Visual Studio 2005, WF extensions for VS 2005 are required. In November, 2006 I did a technical review for Apress’s “Foundations of WF” book. The publisher donated three copies which I gave away during my WF session.
Windows Cardspace enables users to provide digital identities in a familiar, secure, and easy way. It is launched from the Windows Control Panel. Rather than typing in your username and password every time you authenticate, you select an InfoCard (information card) from your local store, which is encrypted and stored in an ACL. Some common misconceptions are that it is the same as Passport, or is a “single sign-on”. Neither of these is the case! To learn more about Cardspace, try out this
IE7 demo that I used in my presentation. To install Windows Cardspace, download .Net Framework 3.0 available from Microsoft and install it. Start up Windows Control Panel, and at the very end you should see an executable called Windows Cardspace. Fire it up, and start learning about it. There currently are no project templates available for this technology, but you can create self-issued InfoCards from Windows Control Panel.
It was also great to socialize with some of the other out-of-town speakers. I enjoyed seeing Tom Fuller, Wallace Allison, Jose Fuentes, John Holliday, and J.T. Taylor again and having a chance to chat with them.
I would also like to thank
Jim Wooley and everyone else associated with the event including volunteers and sponsors. A good deal of effort was required to make this event a true success. Great job everyone!! Last but not least, we thank DeVry University, which for the second consecutive year offered us a perfect location to host the event.
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