Topic: Building Connected Apps with Mobile Services

Abstract: Today’s users don’t live on just a workstation or a laptop. With the proliferation of laptops, smart phones, and tablets people work from a variety of forms and clients. Building applications that can leverage a consistent view of identity, data and services will enable the workforce to be productive wherever they are. In this session we’ll explore how to design and build applications using Windows Azure and Mobile Services that span the various device forms and platforms using the tools and features of the Cloud that make it all possible and easy.

Speaker: Mike Benkovich (benkotips.com)
Mike Benkovich is a former Microsoft evangelist who has spent his career helping developers explore and apply new technologies to solving information challenges. His website, benkotips.com, provides developers with resources to get started and work with technologies including cloud, data and devices. Follow him on Twitter @mbenko.

If you plan on attending our meeting on May 6th, please RSVP.

April brings us a visitor from the north, with Scott Davis bringing one of his outstanding presentations to Cedar Rapids. Scott is a regular, well reviewed speaker at Iowa Code Camp and many other venues. You’ll want to join us for this one on April 1st at 5:30pm.

Topic: Gaming, Start-ups, and Everything in Between

Abstract: In this no-code tech talk, Scott will talk game theory and game development. We’ll talk about how game principles are applied to business such as banking, healthcare and retail. We’ll talk mobile and the challenges of building native apps on iPhone, Windows Phone, and Android platforms. We’ll cover any questions anyone has on starting their own business. Patents, marketing, equity, investors, etc. This grab bag of topics will pull from many different presentations Scott has given in the past to fit the audience needs. If you have every wanted to build a game, start a business, or do both at the same time, this session should answer some of your questions.

Speaker: Scott Davis (@scottkdavis)
Scott Davis is CEO of QONQR (pronounced Conquer), a mobile gaming company in Minneapolis, focusing on location based games. QONQR is a massively multiplayer mobile game on iPhone and Windows Phone (Android under development) that allows players to capture cities and towns on the map of the real world, using their phone’s GPS location. Scott holds and MBA in Entrepreneurial Business for the University of St Thomas and is an adjunct professor in the master’s program at St Mary’s university.

If you plan on attending our meeting on Apr 1st, please RSVP.

March brings us a visitor from the north, with Scott Davis bringing one of his outstanding presentations to Cedar Rapids. Scott is a regular, well reviewed speaker at Iowa Code Camp and many other venues. You’ll want to join us for this one on March 4th at 5:30pm.

Topic: Gaming, Start-ups, and Everything in Between

Abstract: In this no-code tech talk, Scott will talk game theory and game development. We’ll talk about how game principles are applied to business such as banking, healthcare and retail. We’ll talk mobile and the challenges of building native apps on iPhone, Windows Phone, and Android platforms. We’ll cover any questions anyone has on starting their own business. Patents, marketing, equity, investors, etc. This grab bag of topics will pull from many different presentations Scott has given in the past to fit the audience needs. If you have every wanted to build a game, start a business, or do both at the same time, this session should answer some of your questions.

Speaker: Scott Davis (@scottkdavis)
Scott Davis is CEO of QONQR (pronounced Conquer), a mobile gaming company in Minneapolis, focusing on location based games. QONQR is a massively multiplayer mobile game on iPhone and Windows Phone (Android under development) that allows players to capture cities and towns on the map of the real world, using their phone’s GPS location. Scott holds and MBA in Entrepreneurial Business for the University of St Thomas and is an adjunct professor in the master’s program at St Mary’s university.

If you plan on attending our meeting on Mar 4th, please RSVP.

Topic: Year in Preview – Advice From the 2013 Software Craftsmanship Calendar

Abstract: Now in its third year, the Software Craftsmanship Calendar this year features a dozen development practices and principles to help you craft better code, from SOLID and DRY to YAGNI and SoC. Come participate in (or simply observe) what’s sure to be an entertaining if not educational discussion on what these topics mean to me, to you, and to other local developers.

Speaker: Keith Dahlby (@dahlbyk)

If you plan on attending our meeting on Feb 4th, please RSVP.

Topic: Lightning Talks!

Abstract: The topic is yours. You use this stuff everyday. This is your chance to share a little bit of it. Nothing is too small. Remember, we live in our little world, not yours. Share a bit of yours with the group!

Speaker: It’s you, of course! This is a friendly group. Great chance to say a few words.

If you plan on attending our meeting on January 7th, please RSVP.

Topic: Automapper – There’s a Map for that

Abstract: Transforming objects to a new form (projection) is coding that we’ve all written hundreds of times. Automapper is an object to object mapping framework that provides some great conventions to make this kind of operation much more simple. This talk will show how to use Automapper in your code. We’ll cover basic mapping and projection, flattening objects, overriding default mapping, overriding naming conventions and building customer type conversions and resolvers.

Speaker: Nate has been developing business applications for over 12 years. The last 9 years have been spent working primarily with C#. In addition to being incredibly dashing and ruggedly handsome, Nate is also very, VERY lazy. Because of this, he’s always looking for ways to leverage existing code and frameworks to increase productivity in his work. Some other things of note about Nate: 1) Nate has been known to do some amazing coding that he does not remember the next morning. 2) Nate is the “Coolness Czar” at his current company and flogs coworkers for not meeting his rigid coolness standards. 3) Nate always blames the Rules Engine. 4) Nate is known in three countries for his “luscious beard” and won last year’s beard/mustache growing contest at work with his version of the “monkey tail.”

If you plan on attending our meeting on December 3rd, please RSVP.

When carefully selected and used, Domain-Specific Languages (DSLs) may simplify complex code, promote effective communication with customers, improve productivity, and unclog development bottlenecks. In Domain-Specific Languages, noted software development expert Martin Fowler first provides the information software professionals need to decide if and when to utilize DSLs. Then, where DSLs prove suitable, Fowler presents effective techniques for building them, and guides software engineers in choosing the right approaches for their applications.

This book’s techniques may be utilized with most modern object-oriented languages; the author provides numerous examples in Java and C#, as well as selected examples in Ruby. Wherever possible, chapters are organized to be self-standing, and most reference topics are presented in a familiar patterns format.

Armed with this wide-ranging book, developers will have the knowledge they need to make important decisions about DSLs—and, where appropriate, gain the significant technical and business benefits they offer.

The topics covered include:

• How DSLs compare to frameworks and libraries, and when those alternatives are sufficient
• Using parsers and parser generators, and parsing external DSLs
• Understanding, comparing, and choosing DSL language constructs
• Determining whether to use code generation, and comparing code generation strategies
• Previewing new language workbench tools for creating DSLs

With the new book comes a new night — we will now meet on the third Thursday of every month, starting this Thursday, November 15th at 7pm. Due to the tight schedule of this announcement, at this first meeting we will gather to discuss what we (think we) know about DSLs, why we want to learn about them, and how we want to tackle the book.

Book club is held at Roasters Coffee House in Hiawatha.

Topic: What’s New in Windows Azure

Abstract: Windows Azure enables you to quickly build, deploy and manage applications across a global network of Microsoft-managed datacenters. With this past summer’s new feature release, you can build applications using any operating system, language or tooling. In this session, we’ll bring you up to speed on all the amazing services available to developers in Windows Azure including web sites, cloud services, and virtual machines.

Speaker: Clint Edmonson is a Developer Evangelist for Microsoft focused on Windows Azure. His home base is St. Louis, Missouri but on any given day you can find him touring the US Central Region talking about cloud computing and cloudy architectures. Although educated as a Mechanical Engineer, he’s spent his entire 20 year career building software. His development experiences span a variety of industries including electric utilities, education, calls centers, construction, and beer brewing. He loves seeing technology applied to solve real world problems.

If you plan on attending our meeting on November 5th, please RSVP.

Topic: Introducing Agile to Your Organization

Abstract: Software development can be a difficult and daunting thing to manage. Agile was introduced to try to help make development easier to control and manage in the face of constant change. Many of the ideas that encompass Agile are quite different from how enterprises manage projects and require both technical and cultural changes in order to be utilized effectively. This talk will introduce some of the concepts and will cover how to introduce them to an organization. Also, this talk will cover some of the hurdles that are commonly encountered in the transition to Agile methodologies and how to best mitigate them.

If you plan on attending our meeting on October 8th, please RSVP.