Dan Rigsby – Coding Up Style

Today Microsoft announced 54 new PDC 2008 sessions.  This brings the total from 84 to 139.  They are promising over 200 total sessions.  There will be more sessions announced early in October, and a handful more announced at PDC (after they make the big announcements).

You can see the full session list here: https://sessions.microsoftpdc.com/public/sessions.aspx

If you haven’t yet registered for PDC 2008, the registration is still open, but today is the last day to register to get $200 off.  Hurry, before registration ends.  If you have questions, read this post to see why you should attend.

I did a bit of analysis and here is a break down of how many new sessions were added to each of their tags:

2 Ad Platform (2 total)
0 ADO.Net (3 total)
6 ASP.Net (9 total)
10 Cloud Services (27 total)
2 Dynamics CRM (3 total)
0 Entity Framework (3 total)
2 Expression (2 total)
0 HPC (1 total)
0 Hyper-V (2 total)
4 Identity (8 total)
0 IIS (2 total)
0 Internet Explorer (2 total)
3 Languages (5 total)
2 LINQ (4 total)
2 Live Mesh (5 total)
3 Live Platform (11 total)
2 Office (4 total)
-2 Oslo (6 total)
3 Parallelism (7 total)
3 SharePoint (2 total)
5 Silverlight (11 total)
2 SQL Server (14 total)
2 SQL Server Data Services (6 total)
2 Sync Framework (2 total)
2 TFS (3 total)
2 Unified Communications (3 total)
0 Velocity (1 total)
0 Virtual Earth (1 total)
6 Visual Studio (13 total)
2 VSTS (6 total)
4 WCF (6 total)
3 WF (8 total)
1 Windows 7 (5 total)
0 Windows Home Server (2 total)
0 Windows Mobile (2 total)
0 Windows Server (1 total)
0 WMI (1 total)
3 WPF (5 total)
1 XNA (1 total)

Not many surprises around tags that got new sessions.  I am surprised though that the Oslo tag lost 2 sessions.  My guess is that they just cleaned up the tags a bit.  We still se a large number added to Cloud Services, WCF, and WF.  This still reaffirms all of the speculation that a lot of the big announcements will be around services in the cloud.

One of the more interesting finds in the session lists is the introduction of yet another identity technology codenamed “Zermatt”! Maybe we will get identity done right soon?

I am still waiting for someone at Microsoft to call me to ask if I will speak at PDC (operators are standing by), but since this will never happen, here is a summary of some of the more interesting additions to the Cloud Services and WCF tags:

“Oslo”: Building Textual DSLs
The “Oslo” modeling language can define schemas and transformations over arbitrary text formats. This session shows you how to build your own Domain Specific Language using the “Oslo” SDK and how to apply your DSL to create an interactive text editing experience.

“Zermatt”: Deep Dive
In this session we examine the architecture of “Zermatt” next generation identity technology, and how it can be customized and extended for advanced security scenarios. At the center of the discussion is the Security Token Service (STS), a core component providing authentication and identity services. Many applications will benefit from an embedded STS, and many scenarios will call for an STS that is built on a specialized user store.

“Zermatt”: Enabling Next Generation Identity
The security demands of applications continue to evolve in the face of compliance requirements, new online threats, and SOA and cloud re-engineering. See how to use the “Zermatt” next-generation authentication framework and services and the claims-based identity model to enable single sign on, strong authentication, federation, and the ability to flow user authentication between applications. Find out how to use “Zermatt” with ASP.NET, WCF, Active Directory, and Windows CardSpace.

A Lap around Building Block Services
Learn about the building block services that enable developers to easily create or extend their applications and services. From consumer-targeted applications and social networking web sites to enterprise class applications and services, the building block services make it easy for you to give your applications and services the most compelling experiences and features.

A Lap Around Cloud Services
Hear about key problems that cloud computing is solving and how these services fit into Microsoft’s cloud computing initiatives. Learn about the pillars of the platform, its service lifecycle, and see how they fit with both Microsoft and non-Microsoft technologies. Also, hear about the services roadmap over the next few years.

Modeling Data for Efficient Access at Scale
Learn how to model data for cloud services. Topics include: mapping common data idioms to tables, tuning data models for common access patterns, and creating efficient queries.

Windows Communication Foundation: Tips and Tricks for Performance and Scale
Join us for lunch to discuss the different kinds of performance and scale requirements that are a crucial part of any distributed systems development life cycle. Learn great tips from Nicholas Allen on WCF throughput and responsiveness optimization throughout the lifecycle of a distributed system. Hear about WCF scalability improvements in the next version of the Microsoft .NET Framework. (Nicholas Allen is presenting this one.  I might get to meet him!)

Microsoft .NET Framework: Developing RESTful Services
Learn the latest features in Windows Communication Foundation for building Web 2.0-style services that use URIs, HTTP GET, and other data formats beyond XML. See how these features can be applied to AJAX web sites, “REST” applications, and data feeds.

Live Platform: The Future of the Device Mesh
Live Mesh provides the infrastructure for devices to share and listen: communicating status, accepting remote management, and synchronizing and sharing files and applications. See how the combination of software running on devices, services running in the cloud, and open protocols and APIs make it all happen.

Microsoft .NET Framework: Declarative Programming Using XAML
If you’re using Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), or Windows Workflow Foundation (WF), then XAML is your new best friend! Learn how an entire application-from presentation to data to services to workflow–can be authored using simple, declarative XAML notations introduced in the next version of the .NET Framework. Learn about XAML additions like: support for generics, object references, non-default constructors, and more.

Architecting Services for the Cloud
From design to implementation, building a scalable, available web service is different from building other kinds of applications. This session discusses the impact that designing for the cloud has on all stages of the service lifecycle, and how the Microsoft cloud platform works for you to meet the scaling and availability goals of your service. Also learn how the cloud services platform is architected to isolate and protect your service.

Architecture of the Building Block Services
Dive into the architecture that links many of the building block services and lets ISVs and businesses deliver compelling solutions. Learn how to compose these services to create applications in the cloud and connect them with on-premises systems. In this session we cover the next generation of messaging, data, identity, and directory services, and how they help developers.

Architecting Services for the Cloud
From design to implementation, building a scalable, available web service is different from building other kinds of applications. This session discusses the impact that designing for the cloud has on all stages of the service lifecycle, and how the Microsoft cloud platform works for you to meet the scaling and availability goals of your service. Also learn how the cloud services platform is architected to isolate and protect your service.

Architecture of the Building Block Services
Dive into the architecture that links many of the building block services and lets ISVs and businesses deliver compelling solutions. Learn how to compose these services to create applications in the cloud and connect them with on-premises systems. In this session we cover the next generation of messaging, data, identity, and directory services, and how they help developers.

Developing and Deploying Your First Cloud Service
In this session we take a tour of the capabilities of the Microsoft cloud platform by building and running a simple service using the platform SDK. The sample service highlights some of the features of the platform including service management, storage, and an integrated developer experience. This is a demo-heavy session.

Services Symposium: Enterprise Grade Cloud Applications
Today, hosted applications do not offer many of the features that large enterprises expect related to identity, management, and data. See detailed examples of “enterprise grade” hosted application design. Learn how to implement a federated identity scenario, enable remote application management, and provide richer control of data storage.

Services Symposium: Expanding Applications to the Cloud
Take an enthusiastic–yet pragmatic–look at cloud opportunities. First, hear about a model for determining what should be pushed to the cloud and what should be kept in-house. Second, explore examples of cloud-based infrastructure as part of an existing application. Finally, discuss architectural tradeoffs and best practices.