* IndiMix 2010

http://www.microsoftindimix.com/default.aspx

* MSDN and TechNet Blogging platforms getting updated

MSDN and TechNet blogs have become the most efficient ways of receiving latest updates on Microsoft products. While most of the blogs are unofficial, the official product team blogs provide the latest updates really fast and best too.

After many years these blogging platforms are finally getting upgraded and becoming more social. The updates have started and will continue till 24th.

Catch all the latest updates about the ongoing update on this blogging platform’s PM blog.

http://blogs.msdn.com/seanjenkin/default.aspx

* Gartner : CIOs Top 10 Business and Technology Priorities in 2010

http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1283413

Top 10 Business Priorities	Ranking	Top 10 Technology Priorities	Ranking
Business process improvement	1	Virtualization	1
Reducing enterprise costs	2	Cloud computing	2
Increasing the use of information/analytics	3	Web 2.0	3
Improving enterprise workforce effectiveness	4	Networking, voice and data communications	4
Attracting and retaining new customers	5	Business Intelligence	5
Managing change initiatives	6	Mobile technologies	6
Creating new products or services (innovation)	7	Data/document management and storage	7
Targeting customers and markets more effectively	8	Service-oriented applications and architecture	8
Consolidating business operations	9	Security technologies	9
Expanding current customer relationships	10	IT management	10

Source: Gartner EXP (January 2010)

The green ones are new entrants to Technology list with respect to 2009.

* Software Architecture : SATURN 2010 announced

Each year, the SEI Architecture Technology User Network (SATURN) Conference brings together experts from around the world to exchange best architecture-centric practices in developing, acquiring, and maintaining software-reliant systems. Architects at all levels meet to share ideas and lessons learned, network, and learn about new and existing technologies.

SATURN 2010 Theme: Architecting for Change

http://www.sei.cmu.edu/saturn/2010/index.cfm

* SharePoint 2010 : 12th May is Launch Day

Watch Stephen Elop, President of the Microsoft Business Division, announce the launch of Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 on May 12, 2010 at 8 a.m PST or 11 a.m. EST. The live Microsoft keynote focuses on the next wave of productivity that delivers:

• End user productivity across the PC, phone and browser
• IT choice and flexibility
• A platform for developers to build innovative solutions

Join the virtual launch event with Microsoft executives, product developers, partners and customers to:

• Find out how peers and partners are already seeing benefits to their business by leveraging the next wave of productivity.
• Submit your questions through live Q&A.
• Participate via blogs, tweets, social media networks, commenting, and more.

* OASIS Members Approve Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) Standard

Adobe, Alfresco, ASG, Booz Allen Hamilton, Day Software, dotCMS, EMC, FatWire, fme AG, IBM, ISIS Papyrus, Liferay, Microsoft, Nuxeo, Open Text, Oracle, SAP, Saperion, WeWebU, and Others Agree on Standard to Link Disparate Content Systems

Boston, MA, USA; 4 May 2010 - The OASIS international consortium today announced the approval of Content Management Interoperability Services

(CMIS) version 1.0, a new open standard that enables information to be shared across Enterprise Content Management (ECM) repositories from different vendors. Advanced via a collaboration of major ECM solution providers worldwide, CMIS is now an official OASIS Standard, a status that signifies the highest level of ratification.

Using Web services and Web 2.0 interfaces, CMIS dramatically reduces the IT burden around multi-vendor, multi-repository content management environments. Companies no longer need to maintain custom code and one-off integrations in order to share information across their various ECM systems.

CMIS also enables independent software vendors (ISVs) to create specialized applications that are capable of running over a variety of content management systems.

"CMIS makes it possible for business units to deploy systems independently and focus on application needs rather than on infrastructure considerations.

With CMIS, integrating content between two or more repositories is faster, simpler and more cost-effective. This is how it should be," said David Choy of EMC, chair of the OASIS CMIS Technical Committee.

"CMIS has the potential to be a game-changing standard, not only through its promise to facilitate affordable content management, but also as an enabler of whole new classes of high-value, information-rich applications that have not been feasible to date," said Mary Laplante, vice president and senior analyst for the Gilbane Group. "At the end of the day, companies simply need better approaches to integrating systems. Business agility increasingly separates the winners from the losers, and agility is perhaps the biggest single benefit that CMIS offers."

CMIS is offered for implementation on a royalty-free basis. Participation in the OASIS CMIS Technical Committee is open to all companies, non-profit groups, governments, academic institutions, and individuals. As with all OASIS projects, archives of the Committees' work are accessible to both members and non-members, and OASIS hosts an open mail list for public comment.

http://www.oasis-open.org/news/oasis-news-2010-05-04.php

* Microsoft Office Communications Server ‘14’ announced

Here are highlights :

• ‘Office Communications Server’ has been renamed to ‘Communications Server’. That’s on the same line as word ‘Office’ has been removed from SharePoint too.
• Expected to see final release at the end of 2010.

As it was announced at VoiceCon 2010, mostly telephone related features announced as of now.

New features from Inside OCS

Location Awareness Capabilities:

• Built into the next release of Communicator (Wave 14) and used by OCS on the server-side.
• Location information can be manually set by the user, or it can be auto-set on the corporate LAN.
• The location information can be sent on the SIP channel and used for 911 features.

Native E911 Support (in Microsoft Communications Server 14).

Tighter integration with SharePoint, Exchange, and Office.

SharePoint Integration:

• New Communicator “skill search” functionality built into the next release of Communicator that searches SharePoint profiles to find people with the skills you are looking for.
• Initiate audio and video communication directly from SharePoint search results.
• Phonetic based search in Communicator to locate associated SharePoint information.

Voicemail Features:

• Visual voicemail capabilities directly integrated into Communicator 14.
• Multi-language translation capabilities (with Exchange 2010 voicemail integration).
• Ability to jump to a specific point in voicemail.

Call Admission Control:

• The ability to use bandwidth information and policies to know if a video call can be initiated.

Branch Office Survivability:

• Several Microsoft Partners (i.e. AudioCodes, Dialogic, Ferrari electronic AG, HP, and NET) announced Branch Appliances that provide local telephony services in the event of a wide area network failure.

MCS ‘14’ website

* Top Architect Contest – TechEd India 2010

With TechEd, Top Architect Contest is back.

ENTRY PERIOD: The Contest begins at 9:00 AM IST on 13th March 2010 and ends at 11:00 pm IST on 28th March 2010 ("Entry Period"). All entries must be received prior to the close of the Contest Entry Period

Check all the details here : http://www.microsoftteched.in/toparchitect/default.aspx

* SharePoint 2010 & Office 2010 Launch Dates

Microsoft has officially announced that May 12th, 2010, is the launch date for SharePoint 2010 & Office 2010.

RTM is expected to happen during April 2010.

Launch event : May 12th at 11am You can register for the event @ http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/businessproductivity/proof/pages/2010-launch-events.aspx.

Important SharePoint 2010 Links :

SharePoint 2010 : What’s new in SharePoint 2010

SharePoint Foundation 2010 : Software Platform Requirements

SharePoint Foundation 2010 What’s New Overview

MOSS 2007 vs SharePoint 2010

* Join me at TechEd India 2010

TechEd is an excellent conference that I think you should consider attending with me.

Here are the highlights:

• 21 Technical Tracks,
• Tons of experts that you can talk to and learn from,
• Hands-on Labs,
• Certifications,
• Access to 4000+ peers/colleagues.

If you want to discuss further, please email me or check out http://www.microsoftteched.in.

* Custom XML and i4i patent judgment impact

Here are few important links which will help solving some of the confusing around custom xml and i4i patent judgment for all those who are big fan of OpenXML specification and specially ‘Custom XML’ concept.

What’s affected and what’s not ?

http://blogs.technet.com/gray_knowlton/archive/2009/12/23/what-is-custom-xml-and-the-impact-of-the-i4i-judgment-on-word.aspx

Microsoft’s Official Statement

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/dec09/12-22statement.mspx

* OCS 2007 R2 Trial : Urgent Fix

Microsoft has just released the following Knowledge Base articles (KB972041, KB972042) to address the incorrect calculations of license expiration dates for Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 R2 and Office Communicator (OC) 2007 R2 Evaluation Edition. The current expiration dates were calculated based on build time, causing the OCS 2007 R2 and OC 2007 R2 Evaluation Edition to expire after June 13, 2009. By applying this fix, the expiration date will be correctly based on installation date of the server.
Office Communications Server 2007 R2
Office Communications 2007 R2

* bing : reviews out

Microsoft Bing: Much better than expected

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10251432-2.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Hands On With Microsoft’s New Search Engine: Bing, But No Boom

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/05/microsofts-bing-hides-its-best-features

* Tech Ed comes back to India

Tech Ed India 2009 is scheduled to happen during May 13 – 15. Its a great news. Follow the other related news @ http://twitter.com/techedindia2009.

Original announcement made @ DPE India blog : http://blogs.msdn.com/msdnindia/archive/2009/02/25/tech-ed-india-2009.aspx