Word has leaked out already (not that is was a big secret) so I had better blog about it myself.  We are organising a .Net Code Camp for November in Christchurch.  Currently details are a little sketchy, but I can tell you this:

Name: Code Camp Boot Camp

Theme:  Next generation, back to basics.  New releases of C#, VB, .Net, ASP and SQL are iminent.  This code camp will focus on getting up to speed with all of this, plus cover migration stratigies and many non-technology specific topics such as Architecture and Development Life Cycle.  Hopefully something for everyone - noobs, gurus, young and old.

Date: We don't yet have a fixed date, this is highly venue dependend - see Venue - but it will be a weekend (Sat/Sun) in or around Christchurch.  This excludes Show Weekend (17/18th) which is a very busy time here.

Venue: We don't yet have a venue, but are looking at a couple of strong possibilities.  There are many likely venues but finding one that is comfortable for a whole weekend and free is tricky. 

Speakers: Presenters will be mostly mainlanders with a few imports from north of the Kaikouras.  If you would like to present then please contact me ASAP.

Sessions: We have a list of possible topics that we want to see covered, but this is very dependent on the speaker and their area of expertise.  More details once we know who the speakers will be.

We have a great team of volunteers (some of whom don't yet know they have 'volunteered' :) and lots of great ideas so I'm sure this will be a very memorable event.

We are unsure of the level of attendence we can get so if you are at all interested in attending it would really help us if you pre-registered. For this and other details see http://codecamp.net.nz.

I'm late to the debate (here, here and here amongst others) and I don't have anything very intelligent to offer, but that has never stopped me before.

It occurred to me that since Microsoft has already released a major product (Office 2007) reliant on Open XML that it doesn't matter which way the vote goes.  Open XML IS a standard.  Get over it already.  Endless arguments and debates over it's technical or political merits are pointless.  Microsoft won't be adopting some other standard any time soon - they stuck with the previous closed standard (.doc etc) for many years and only changed it when they had to / wanted to.  At the very least they are now trying to do what everone has been nagging them to do for so long.  We should be grateful!

I was waving a quick meeting in a local restaurant last week about some user group activities when we were interupted by someone from the next table.  He asked if we worked for Microsoft.  We laughed and I said something like yes, but we dont get paid for it.  Well it turns out the crowd at the next table worked for a local Open Source development shop and the person who approached us was one of the most 'open source' of them.  When I realised this I made a lame joke about how we get paid for our software. 

Yes, it was a very lame joke but it turned out he didn't think so.  In fact I think he may have taken it a little to personally. So, if your reading this, I'm sorry.  I was just attempting a mild wind-up.

However, I really dont get it.  Why are so many open source advicates so incredibly sensitive?  I have never agreed with the open source fundemantal mantra that many part-time developers is better than a few well paid brialliant ones.  Yes, maybe software can cure cancer, foster global peace and be the eternal source of future happiness, but that doesn't mean we all need to have the right to change the code for this to happen. 

And will someone please explain to me why they think Microsoft is so anti open source?  What a complete crock!  Nearly every day I use source code provided free and openly by Microsoft. Ok, so I can't recompile Windows, but do I give a frac?  No.  In fact I'm sure it would be a much worserer world if every nerd and his pc could modify and recompile KERNEL.EXE.  I have no argument with Microsoft making money from software. Sometimes I think they ask too much for their software - especially in this part of the world - but I hardly ever have to pay for it so I dont care that much.

From my very limited field of vision it's all about productivity.  If someone can show me a platform that is as productive, powerful, flexible and open as Microsoft's, where it's possible to make lots of money, then I will be happy to consider retraining.  Until then, will all you open source preachers please take a pill and calm down!