Microsoft and Telligent go way back. Rob Howard (the owner of Telligent) wrote the original ASP.NET forums code way back wen he worked at Microsoft with Scott Guthrie.

 Telligent makes Community Server, and all of my Team's web properties (www.asp.net, www.iis.net, www.windowsclient.net, www.silverlight.net) are built on top of Community Server code base.

Telligent just released GraffitiCMS - there is a free version for non-commercial use and commercial use versions start at $399.

Check it out at : http://graffiticms.com/

My blog posts on Visual WebGui have generated allot of interest so I thought we'd have a couple of webcasts and dive into the VWG experience.

Live from Redmond: March 13th 01:00PM Pacific

Visual WebGui - An Enterprise AJAX application in 20 minutes.

It is all about simplicity: Simplicity in programming next generation complex AJAX application that makes the productivity difference.   In this Webcast we will demystify Visual WebGui. We will build a fully blown application in less than 20 minutes, and strip off the covers, showing you how you can cut your development cycle by as much as 90% .  

Visual WebGui is open source, so you can dive into the code. Throughout the webcast we will demonstrate that while VWG enables rapid application development (RAD) , the developer is free to create custom controls, wrap third party controls , invoke HTML resources and interop with standard ASP.NET applications like DNN and others, all in a matter of minutes.

Click HERE to attend !

Live from Redmond: March 14th 01:00PM Pacific

Visual WebGui - Silverlight for line-of-business application.

In this webcast we will "light up", in minutes, the fully blown line-of-business application that we built in our previous webcast adding the rich look and feel of Silverlight as well as its enhanced performance.
You will see how we accomplish this by a "push of a button". We will demonstrate how to make WinForms controls available to your web application and  how you can style your UI by using fully enabled Expression Blend. The outcome is a very light footprint client, unaffected by application size and weight, and as a bonus, secured by design.  You will be shown how you  can, extend, invoke, interop and customize your application using Visual WebGui.  

Click HERE to Attend !

I'm adding to my How-Do-I Video Series with 4 new videos to help you with a variety of upload scenarios, from simple file uploads to AJAX-style to multiple files. !

• Simple File Uploads in ASP.NET
• Multiple File Uploads in ASP.NET
• Multiple File Uploads in ASP.NET Revisited
• File Uploads with an AJAX Style Interface

I'm not going to work for them, but I got a challenge to work the ratings on Technorati.

To help me get started - please click and Visit My Technorati Profile

We're Web Developers.... But there is still a place for rich client apps.

recently we published a "Syndicated Client Starter Kit" over on www.WindowsClient.net (my team owns that site too. )

In the showcase for that starter kit there is an AWESOME MSDN Reader application.

ITS FREE - Install it !

http://windowsclient.net/wpf/starter-kits/sce.aspx

There seems to be allot of interest with ASP.NET Developers doing DOM manipulation with JQuery there days. I'm finding it a very powerful addition to my client side toolbox so I thought I would share some links that might be of interest.

JQuery Home Page
http://jquery.com/

JQuery Defivition at Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JQuery

Video: Introduction to JQuery
http://aspalliance.com/1495_Video_Introduction_to_JQuery

jQuery Asp.net Controls by David Taylor
http://www.codeplex.com/jqueryaspnetcontrols

Using JQuery to Make Asp.Net Play Nice with Asp.Net
http://blog.spontaneouspublicity.com/2007/08/20/using-jquery-to-make-aspnet-play-nice-with-aspnet/

Using jQuery with ASP.NET MVC
http://www.chadmyers.com/Blog/archive/2007/12/13/using-jquery-with-asp.net-mvc.aspx

ASP.NET and JQuery - first example
http://www.aspcode.net/ASPNET-and-JQuery-first-example.aspx

JQuery and ASP.NET - lets involve ASP.NET
http://www.aspcode.net/JQuery-and-ASPNET-lets-involve-ASPNET.aspx

Visual JQuery
http://visualjquery.com/

JScript IntelliSense: Working with jQuery
http://blogs.msdn.com/webdevtools/archive/2008/02/08/jscript-intellisense-working-with-jquery.aspx

Intellisense for jQuery in Visual Studio 2008
http://brennan.offwhite.net/blog/2008/02/01/intellisense-for-jquery-in-visual-studio-2008/

I've had a couple of emails recently from ASP.NET developers asking about how to get a jump start on learning Windows Workflow Foundation.

So, I dug up this list of links to a seven part Webcast Series on the subject.

Have fun !

Intro to Windows Workflow Foundation (Part 1 of 7): Workflow in Windows Applications (Level 100)

Intro to Windows Workflow Foundation (Part 2 of 7): Simple Human Workflow Using E-mail (Level 200)

Intro to Windows Workflow Foundation (Part 3 of 7): Hosting and Communications Options in Workflow Scenarios (Level 300)

Intro to Windows Workflow Foundation (Part 4 of 7): Workflow, Messaging, and Services: Developing Distributed Applications with Workflows (Level 300)

Intro to Windows Workflow Foundation (Part 5 of 7): Developing Event Driven State Machine Workflows (Level 300)

Intro to Windows Workflow Foundation (Part 6 of 7): Extending Workflow Capabilities with Custom Activities (Level 300)

Intro to Windows Workflow Foundation (Part 7 of 7): Developing Rules Driven Workflows (Level 300)

UPDATE: Check our these two great articles by Igor.

Part 1: How to define an SMTP protocol state machine in a Workflow

part 2: Marrying PowerShell into Workflows (Part 1 of 4)

Axosoft is a really interesting company and I've been using OnTime for a couple of years now.

They have just released a Chat Application, Single  User is FREE - Unlimited is on sale for $99

Visitors to your ASP.NET web site are presented with this simple and straightforward chat client. It's made to be super easy to use while also providing users with visual cues that help them follow the conversation.

• Depending on your preference, users can chat instantly or provide name and topic prior to chat.
• Color-coded messages: user, operator and system notifications
• Custom skins / logo images via simple css edits

• "Operator is typing..." indicator
• End-of-chat rating (optional)
• End-of-chat print / save options
• Opportunity to send an email in case an operator does not respond
• Send web page links

PureChat is written entirely with C# and javascript, against the 2.0 .NET framework. It uses Microsoft's ASP.Net AJAX, as well as selected controls from the AJAX Control Toolkit.

If you have ever been on hold waiting for a conference call with Microsoft to begin, then this video will ring bells for you, if not make you laugh out loud.

Since I was on campus last week I spent time trying to catch our Dev Leaders Like ScottGu, Shanku, and BradA doing stuff like you see in the video, but didn't have any luck !

Click Here if you need to see the video at YouTube!

Visual Studio® 2008 Web Deployment Projects - Released

Visual Studio 2008 Web Deployment Projects provide additional functionality to build and deploy Web sites and Web applications in Visual Studio 2008. This add-in provides a comprehensive UI to manage build configurations, merging, and using pre-build and post-build tasks with MSBuild.

Get Visual Studio® 2008 Web Deployment Projects HERE.

Read ScottGu's Post about Visual Studio® 2008 Web Deployment Projects HERE.

Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for the Microsoft Office system (version 3.0 Runtime) - Released

This download (VSTOR30.exe) installs the Visual Studio Tools for the Office system 3.0 Runtime, which is required to run VSTO solutions for the 2007 Microsoft Office system built using Microsoft Visual Studio 2008.

Get VSTO HERE.

Boston.com is reporting today that Microsoft will open a research lab in Boston (Just down the road from me.)

"Microsoft Corp., building up its long-term research capability at a time when other corporate research powerhouses have scaled back, is set to disclose today that it will open a laboratory at its new offices in Cambridge this summer.

The Microsoft Research New England lab, to be led by veteran Microsoft researcher Jennifer Chayes, will focus on the intersection of computer science and social science, and seek to tap into the expertise of academic researchers in the Boston area and worldwide. It will be the company's sixth research center and its first on the East Coast."

Click HERE to read the whole article.

Please check out Maarten Balliauw's great blog posts on ASP.NET State Partitioning and Load Balancing.

I'm still at the Lang.NET Symposium.

I cornered Miguel today to ask him a question about Novell's Distos.

He said "Joe !!, You always &^%-slap me in your blog."

I felt bad. My negative opinions about Mono have only been about the IP issues and never about the technology or Miguel.

If you don't know Miguel, he's the genius behind The Mono Project, and when I say genius, I mean he's a friggin' genius. (Not to mention he's a super nice guy, the kind you want to come to your dinner party.)

What he was referring to is that I've comment in the past about mono as it equates to my personal opinions about Microsoft's Intellectual Property.

I have been harsh, but Microsoft LIKES Miguel. (I don't know specifically but I'm sure that Miguel would be working for Microsoft if he choose to.)

In fact, Miguel is one of those rare people in the Open Source community that is an advocate without being a zealot.

What Miguel and a few of his very clever friends have accomplished is truly amazing.

Mono is cool enough. C#, ASP.NET, Winforms in a Cross Platform Way.

More recently, Miguel and Friends and built Moonlight.  Moonlight is an implementation of Microsoft's SIlverlight for Linux.

So Miguel, at this very moment, I'm downloading the VM on your site for Moonlight.

I'm going to try to confirm with Tomas that Phalanger will run on Mono and build a Phalanger demo, complete with Silverlight that runs on both .NET AND MONO !

.... and I will SHOW both in my spring Open Source Conference Presentations.

And.....

If there is a hatchet to be buried, dinner and drinks are on me one night at Mix !

Some of you have noticed :) there are a number of new bloggers on weblogs.asp.net.

Some are adding great posts of technical value.

Others are posting less useful information like letting us know that the overslept today.

Thanks to all of you have have emailed me to share your frustrations (ScottGu included.)

I've been doing feature planning for some time to add much greater "Social Networking" functionality to www.asp.net including blog and post rating and a variety of related RSS features.

Unfortunately,  developer resources are limited, etc, etc, etc.

In the mean time, if you are a brand new blogger and have noticed that your blog posts are not appearing in the main aggregation, it's because you made a non technical post and included it in the main feed, and it got some negative attention.

As a compromise, I'll be manually tailoring the aggregate RSS feed to filter out blogs that are still "learning the ropes".

Don't worry if you get filtered, it's just temporary until the community is ready for you :)

To avoid this, simply keep your non-technical posts out of the aggregate feed.

It's easy to do !

When you write a new blog post, BEFORE YOU CLICK PUBLISH !, hit the advanced options tab and click NO next to "Publish to sites aggregate list."

The old timers here will love you for it !