Today I gave my first Webcamps session at Microsoft Belgium. The agenda for  the day was

9:00 – 10:30

Web Platform Overview and open source Web Apps

Get a good overview of the Microsoft Web Platform, free tooling like Visual Studio 2010, Web Developer Express, IIS web server and a peek at what’s coming in Visual Studio 11 and ASP.NET MVC 4.

After the general introduction we’ll show you around Orchard CMS, Umbraco and other open source CMS apps using WebMatrix.

10:30 – 11:00

Coffee Break

11:00 – 12:30

Practical HTML5

This session kicks off with a good overview of the different elements in HTML5 that make up this umbrella term. We’ll go over standards HTML, new CSS3 specs and font usage and web app specs. Most importantly, the session will also address how you can start taking advantage of new features in the specs while still supporting older browsers through the use of polyfills and frameworks like Modernizr.

To finish you’ll learn how to make your website shine on the Windows 7 taskbar through site pinning.

12:30 – 13:30

Lunch

Afternoon – Hands-on labs

13:30 – 17:00

Hands-on labs

The afternoon is hands-on, the perfect timing to apply the learning from the morning session.

Labs include creating a website using a web app by leveraging, practical HTML5 and CSS3 labs addressing Canvas, WOFF, CSS3 layout features and more.

At the end of the session you’ll have a good practical feeling on how to use and customize open source web apps as well as leveraging the best in HTML5 today.

17:00 – 17:15

Closing, discussion, top recommended resources

There were 2 hands on labs foreseen. One recycled from Microsoft Webcamps USA about HTML 5 and another one I completely wrote myself about Orchard and on which I got some great feedback from the people who made it during the afternoon.

About 35 people followed the course and I already got quite some questions after the first session was sold out if there were others going to happen. Luckily I can answer that question in a positive way as the following dates are foreseen for a redelivery:

• Wednesday January 11th 2012
• Monday February 6th 2012
• Tuesday March 20th 2012

Even though I got some great feedback in the evaluation round I also want to take the entire feedback with me into my next presentation to perform even better. Hope to see you in 2012!

Grz, Kris.

Yesterday evening I gave my first presentation in evening school for adults. The topic of the session was an introduction to WebMatrix. The reactions were great and it turned out to be that their regular teacher himself was a big fan of it for creating PHP based websites. It was the first encounter for the students with this technology stack but it clearly appealed to them.

For the second part of the evening, ranging from 7 till 10, I had foreseen a talk about Orchard CMS. A recap of my live meeting talk for Microsoft. Though that would’ve been interesting for them as well I found out during the break that there was also a big interest for an open discussion about career. I’m a master in Electronics (Industrieel ingenieur) but decided after getting my degree that I wanted to make web from hobby into real life work. The students that evening liked my talk how my career went as it could give them insight in a more traditional path with quite some ups and a couple of downs and what it could compare to their career path.

It was a great opportunity for me to talk about tools I came to like a lot and also to present for an audience I normally don’t get in front of me. Their regular teacher gave me as feedback that I did very well and hopes to see me again standing in front of his class. A great comment indeed.

Grz, Kris.

Last Tuesday I performed my first live meeting for Microsoft. Topic: Orchard the new CMS in town.

Check it out at http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/adebruyn/Orchard-Open-Source-CMS-the-new-CMS-in-town for the video and slides.

Grz, Kris.

On Wednesday I performed a presentation about WebMatrix and its components: Razor syntax, the WebMatrix IDE, SQL CE and IIS Express. All great products created by Microsoft.

Here are the slides:

Grz, Kris.

Scott Guthrie has been blogging several days since last week about new cool things coming out soon: IIS Express, SQL Server Compact Edition & Razor. That means in that order: a follow up for Cassini, an equivalent for SQL Lite and a new cool viewengine which can be used in ASP.NET MVC.

But today there was something new which got it all together to make websites: WebMatrix.

Taken from the announcement at the ASP.NET forums:

WebMatrix includes a complete Web development stack that integrates a Web server (IIS Developer Express), database (Microsoft SQL Server Compact 4.0), programming model (ASP.NET Web pages with Razor syntax), and a tool (WebMatrix Beta) into a seamless experience.  You can use WebMatrix to streamline the way you create an ASP.NET Web site from templates, or by starting a new Web site by using the world’s most popular free and open source (ASP.NET or PHP) apps like DotNetNuke, Umbraco, WordPress, or Joomla!. With WebMatrix you can code your Web sites, customize them, optimize them for good search engine ranking, test them, and deploy them to an Internet hosting company, all through the tool.

Learn more about WebMatrix through:

• What is WebMatrix? 
• Investigate the top 10 features of WebMatrix.
• Download WebMatrix Beta.
• More about IIS Developer Express.
• More about Microsoft SQL Server Compact 4.0.

For additional resources, visit:

• Learn more about WebMatrix Beta. More resources, links to forums and feedback channels.
• Visit the forums on the IIS Web site or the ASP.NET Web site.
• File a bug or suggestion on WebMatrix Beta.
• Learn to program the Web using ASP.NET Web pages with Razor syntax.
• Download applications with WebMatrix and the Web Application Gallery.
• Review the FAQs for Open Source and Free Web applications.

I like the stapled blocks which form the logo of this new free tool:

And here’s an introduction video about it:

If you want to play with it I say go! Razor’s pretty cool to play around with it and if you have question then there are 2 dedicated forums already available:

Over at forums.asp.net: http://forums.asp.net/1224.aspx.
Over at http://forums.iis.net/1166.aspx

Also be sure to read on Scott Guthries blog the announcement of WebMatrix.

The big question you might want to ask yourself now is, is this for me? And the answer would yes, it is. According to the Microsoft site:

WebMatrix is for developers, students, or just about anyone who just wants a small and simple way to build Web sites. Start coding, testing, and deploying your own Web sites without having to worry about configuring your own Web server, managing databases, or learning a lot of concepts. WebMatrix makes Web site development easy.

I would say: welcome to the (Web)Matrix! Be sure to take the right pill.

Grz, Kris.