Archive for Community
June 12, 2008 at 1:16 pm ·
Filed under Community
I’ve been nagging before about Facebook and the utter overload on ‘apps’ which are in fact total time-wasters, but today when I logged in… I was kind of surprized to see how much activity there’s been in my network the last couple of days. Quite ridiculous in fact, and here’s why:
Pretty neat heh :)
I’m still not cancelling my account, but I really don’t want it to go any further than this. I’ll probably just go check the boxes to make myself no longer available for these toys. Hooray for Social Networking.
May 19, 2008 at 10:17 am ·
Filed under MicroLife, Community, Live Services, Photography
This Saturday (the 24th of May), I’m organizing an event for amateur-photographers in downtown Amsterdam. The day starts around 12 noon with a welcome and introduction at ‘De Rode Hoed‘, a pretty classy venue naar the waterside. Around 40 photographers will be divided into 4 groups of 10, and will then board a ship that will be docked right outside the building. Right then, the challenge starts. Every group will take pictures over the course of 2 kilometers, so that in total we’ll span an 8 kilometer route from the boat. All the pictures will be collected and then stitched together using Windows Live Photo Gallery to form the world’s largest panoramic picture. The end result will be put into a DeepZoom viewer so it’ll become scrollable and zoomable and it will be sent to the Guiness Book of World Records.
The day is sponsored by Zoom.nl, Kodak, Canon and Olympus. They’ll be present to show off their latest cool gadgets and cameras, and at the end of the day some really cool prizes will be handed out in a raffle. Govert De Roos will be present during the day to guide the photographers with some tips and tricks, and he’ll host the closing keynote when everyone is back from the boat, around 5 PM. After that, there’ll be a walking dinner and a moment to network or talk to the sponsors.
If you’re an amateur photographer and would like to participate in this project, surf to the dedicated Live Space for more information (in Dutch) or send an email to photo-event@live.nl to enroll.
The event is co-hosted by the OSG and DPE department of Microsoft -The Netherlands.
May 16, 2008 at 10:51 am ·
Filed under MicroLife, Community
There’s an initiative here at Microsoft that’s called ‘Give’. I wasn’t really aware of it until recently when disaster struck China and Myanmar. Here’s how it works: Microsoft partners with a variety of international organizations that support relief efforts, including The American Red Cross, CARE, MercyCorps - US, Save the Children, NetHope and World Vision. If you’re based in the US, you can donate to these or any qualifying organization via Give (internal site) and Microsoft will match your donation. If you’re based in China, Microsoft China will match earthquake relief donations made through a specially created site. If you’re based outside the US and China, you can go directly to the organization’s website to make donations.
Microsoft is aiding the various response efforts in China and Myanmar with technical resources, corporate donations and volunteer support. Our disaster response team is working with subsidiary teams in China and Thailand to help where it’s most needed, while Microsoft.com and MSN are highlighting ways the public can help. In addition, employees in many Microsoft subsidiaries have been working non-stop to support relief efforts. The Chinese Microsoft Employees (CHIME) Community has reached out to relief organizations in China and created an internal website with additional information.
A few things then became clear to me. We have our own disaster response team, which is - to say the least - pretty wow. And there’s a lot of social efforts within the company amongst the employees of all countries to contribute in any way they can, which I find really cool too. The Citizenship Program, as it is called, helps a load of organizations take advantage of tools, technology and resources that enable them to respond effectively when disasters occur.
I admit, things like these make me proud to be part of this company.
April 29, 2008 at 2:14 pm ·
Filed under Video, Community
Hah! Here’s something I didn’t know yet. Apparently we have an online Office community! All you need to do to start using it, is have a Windows Live ID. Plain and simple. So what exactly is this? Well, there’s a site called Office Labs and that’s a proving ground for ideas that come from regular employees and interns who work anywhere in Microsoft. Most of the code prototypes are developed by the Office Labs team in partnership with the teams that make the products. After all, they produce most of the ideas. Some of the things you find here will be web-based, others are downloads. Some will be a combination, something we call “software + services.”
So, one of those projects is Community Clips, a portal for viewing, sharing, and discussing informal “how-to” videos (screencasts) on Microsoft Office products. It also includes a client application for easy recording of screen views and voice. Think of it as a dedicated MSN Video for Office tips and tricks. I’ve been checking out some of the clips and already I’ve learned some small things that make me master the Office products even better.
Here’s an overview of how Community Clips works:
Check out the tutorials and how-to’s
April 25, 2008 at 12:14 am ·
Filed under MicroLife, Community, Mix Event
Ah! A joyful day it was. Steve Ballmer came to Belgium. I got up around 7 this morning and hopped in my car with my camera and flaptops. Drove aaaaall the way to the other side of the language border in my country and joined the local DPE team in helping to deliver a pretty sweet combo of events, hosted by Microsoft. I invited a bunch of bloggers and put them on the list of the Press so they could attend a press conference with SteveB and ask him some questions in a Q&A. As soon as I arrived, I helped out on the Silverlight demo a little by taking pictures and uploading them to Flickr so they could be pulled in live within the demo. I had 15 minutes to take pictures, upload them to Flickr and tag them so the API could fetch them. Sucked some bandwith uploading the 30 pictures (I added more later on), and saw the demo work juuust fine.
A little bit through the demo, I got the message that the press conference was about to start. I pulled some sleeves with the bloggers I saw in the keynote room, and we went to the press mezzanine. During the announcements, one of the bloggers asked Steve about social networks, and that ended up in coverage on valleywag! Talk about the power of blogging :) I bet if Steve would have burped, we’d get coverage on CollegeHumor and trillions of hits on YouTube. But let’s not drift away. Here’s the clip, courtesy of another blogger who recorded it:
In the mean time, another blogger was streaming the entire event, because as promised, there was wi-fi, and so the press conference has been broadcasted and recorded in full at the same time. Live streaming from the press conference of Ballmer, some Belgian politicians and the general manager of MSFT Belux. The news couldn’t have been hotter on a blog. Other bloggers in the room (they move in flocks) sat back and watched the scene.
The rest of the day, everyone could enjoy some sessions from the Remix event, the Beyond Hypertext or Digital Marketing track. Hundreds of attendees ate chunks of code, enjoyed exploring the tracks or sat aside in the lobby to network and discuss. Some even found their way to the sunny outdoors at the border of the lake. I loved it.
Quote SteveB: “Whooosh, and there it is.
Ballmer closed the day with a pretty interesting keynote, followed by a funny Q&A. I’m currently converting and compressing the session, and it’ll be online tomorrow. Then I drove home, got changed and was right on time for my Tai Chi lessons. I’m happy. High-Five ! Yeah!
Quote SteveB: “Bam!”
My impressions of the day: here on Flickr
Picture above: copyright by Bart Claeys
Pictures 1 - 2 - 3 - 4
April 22, 2008 at 1:22 pm ·
Filed under PR, Community, Releases
Climate change is a problem that affects everyone on our planet. As is often the case with problems of this magnitude, it’s hard to feel like one person can make a difference. In reality however, every little bit helps. Carbon Grove can help you make your small contribution to fixing things and hopefully also help you show others that you care.
The Internet Explorer team at Microsoft helped to launch this site. They were eager to create a special experience for their IE users as well as show one small piece of their commitment to the environment. Not only is Internet Explorer the exclusive way to take advantage of Carbon Grove, but Microsoft’s Silverlight technology has made browsing the three forests a breeze.
Check it out :)
So, I took the test and it said I need to cut back on driving to work and take a bike or go on foot for shorter trips. I’ll keep that in mind. :) I planted a tree too, it’s in the Rain Forest and it’s a coconut tree. You can see it grow below :)
Thanks for the pointer, Barb!
April 17, 2008 at 10:44 am ·
Filed under Community, Mix Event
I’m helping out a little bit on the Mix Essentials event at the Louvain La Neuve campus on the 24th of April. What’s going to be presented isn’t anything new if you are up to speed with what’s been announced at Mix08 in Vegas, but if you weren’t able to make it to Vegas and still want to get a hands-on experience, this event is your place to be.
There are two tracks to follow: Interactive Web Developers technical track and the Web Designers & Business strategists track. Each have their own breakout sessions with presentations and deep dives into the latest releases of our products.
Steve Ballmer is going to be present for the closing keynote, and I’ve managed to get a Q&A slot for the key bloggers who’ve attended our previous events or joined influencer programs in the past year.
Sign up for Mix Essentials on the dedicated site, and mark the date :)
April 17, 2008 at 9:02 am ·
Filed under Community
After an amazingly successful TechDays and Heroes Happen Here launch event in real life, it’s time to rejoin the virtual team and focus on the launch event in Second Life. The .Net developer user group has been growing and growing, and the time has come to launch Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008 in the virtual paradise on Microsoft Island. The planning of the day can be found on Zain’s blog.
I’m setting up a cool afterparty with live music to close the event after the sessions. Consider yourself invited. Mark the date: April 26th, 2008
Get a shortcut to Microsoft’s island right here
March 26, 2008 at 12:00 am ·
Filed under Community, Mobile
I’m a very satisfied user of Windows Mobile 6, and since I’ve signed up for their newsletter, I’m learning more and more shortcuts and tricks to handle my HTC Tytn with ease. It’s really cool how they make things better by sending out free ringtones, by giving you tips on how to maximize your experience and how to gain time by using shortcuts to handle your data. This month’s newletter pointed out how to easily put a phone number in your contacts book starting from a missed call. You can read all about that here. For a full overview of all tips and tricks so far, click here.
The Windows Mobile team actually tries really hard to make me happy, and they succeed pretty well. For instance, this link goes to their ‘themes’ web page, where you can download a bunch of cool themes to redecorate your phone. I’m not a guy that pimps the phone twice a week, but a nice change every now and then really is appreciated.
One of the best things I like about the Windows Mobile Owners section is the free ringtones. It’s always great fun to sit in the restaurant at Microsoft and hear the standard ringtone go off, only to then find a dozen of people grabbing their phone to see if it’s them. With the selection of free ringtones, I’ve already found quite a few really nice custom sounds that differ my device from a bunch of others. You can also compose your own ringtone, but I haven’t gotten into that yet. I’ll do that the next time I’m on holiday, somewhere in 2012 :-)
This month, the mobile newletter pushed out free invites for Zumobi, a really cool app you can download. Zumobi lets you use your smartphone to easily zoom in and out of snack-sized bites of entertainment and information throughout the day. When first downloaded, Zumobi includes a 16-subject arrangement, but you can download other subject-specific widgets for free or even create your own. From your Windows Mobile phone, go to http://wmoc.zumobi.com to download Zumobi directly. Your version of Zumobi will include a Tile first available only to Windows Mobile Owners Circle members, the On 10 Tile, which brings you great content from Channel 10, the Enthusiast Evangelist channel, which is definitely worth a look!
February 29, 2008 at 2:58 am ·
Filed under Community, Digital Life
The UK sub has launched a pretty trendy Silverlight section to their site to demo a range of Microsoft products that fit in ‘the digital life’ in a fashionable way. As my fellow UK EEs pointed out, this is a really cool piece of work that shows you the possibilities to maximize the full potential of the tools you have at hand. Check it out, you might find some nifty things to play around with and impress your friends/coworkers with.
Select one of the four journeys and find out how ‘our’ products can fit seamlessly into your life. I dare you :)
The Canadians made a lot of work of their Microsoft Home Magazine too, and they list a bunch of tips, tricks and tools to help you maximize your everyday products. don’t forget to check out the template gallery, it list some very nifty DIY tutorials that show you how to do cool things in a just a few easy steps.
In Belgium, we’ve got the WoW Factory. Basically it’s the same concept but it differs from the others in the fact that consumers are invited to upload and share their ‘recipes for fun’ with the rest of the world. The best recipes are rewarded with a cool webcam. I love the way the old classic product pages are being replaced with modern approaches that add value to the products we have out there on the market. Things like this make it interesting for consumers to explore, and (in my opinion) it invites them to connect on a more emotional level with Microsoft as a company.
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