I am attending a set of "Open Space" sessions, I think the idea of getting people together on like minded topics is great. But the "Philosophy of Open Space" suffers from the same problems of any other "Purist" self help/focus/delivery solutions i.e. it works great if the mediator is …

I at the MVP summit in Seattle and so far have seen the hottest and chilliest days I have seen this year. it has been great to catch up with old friends :) only 20 minutes in and Barry Dorrans is up running loud and true to make the world right with the goodness that is card space (don't ask what the subject actually …

A big thanks to everybody who came to the Server 2008 launch event last week. Andy and myself had a great time presenting to such an enthusiastic crowd. In the end we ran long because of the amount of dialogue around the new features of Server 2008 and I hope everyone went away having got something useful. Now I need …

Microsoft Research have been working on the next generation of compiler optimisation and analysis tools for sometime, if this is your area I recommend looking at the Phoenix Connect Web Site. I saw Jim Hogg ( with a surname like that , how great must this guy be :) ) , present on Phoenix a few years ago and it promises …

I thought it would be useful to keep my links for BizTalk in my blog, I will keep updating this list when new BizTalk items ( or old ones I have missed ) present themselves. Tools BizTalk Server 2006 Best Practices Analyzer V1.1 BizTalk LoadGen 2007 Tool BizTalk Undeploy Tool ESB ESB Guidance ESB Installation - …

Well the IMTC has finished , it was great fun and it was really nice to see so many great presenters presenting on a wide range of great subjects. I managed to see some of the slots but I was busy preparing for my two sessions. Overview of Microsoft Live Labs Volta Well the writing was on the wall as soon as I had …

A busy time in the next few weeks for free community launch events for Windows 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL 2008. This week we at Black Marble are hosting a series of three evening events (See online booking) where you can see virtually the whole set of Black Marble speakers. On the 30th of April there will be a …

After an uneventful journey I have got home from the IMTC conference in Dublin. Thanks to the organiser for running the event, it seemed to go well. I hope I managed to answer any question my sessions on SQL BI and Scrum raised, if not send a message via this blog. I suspect there might be a few from the Scrum session …

It is the school holidays, so I am sitting in a children's indoor jungle gym sorting out my slides for Ireland while my son rushes around. Having someone working on a laptop here seems to be a bit of novelty. I have had a number of children rush over to see what I am doing. They don't stay watching long when they spot …

But I am now a MVP for BizTalk , Hurrah. My thanks for the support the VS team has given me in the last year and I look forward to working with the BizTalk chaps and chapettes over the next year even more than I have this year. Also many thanks to the MVP support team as I know due to the broad areas of the community I …