What's in this issue
The APAC .Net Channel
.Net User Groups in APAC
Australia
Bangladesh
India
Malaysia
New Zealand
Singapore
Sri Lanka
If you would like to include your user group in this list, please drop the editor an email.
Contributing Authors
About INETA
INETA is the next evolution in user group communities—a non-profit, independent organization, chartered with supporting all user groups interested in the Microsoft .Net platform.
INETA is run by a Board of user group leaders, elected by their peers, and supported by Microsoft Corporation and other sponsors.
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Happenings around Asia Pacific
I did a whirlwind tour of Australia and New Zealand(ANZ) along with Edmund Quek from Microsoft. We met with a number of leaders explaining the various benefits that user groups can take advantage of via INETA. One of the key things we’re looking forward to doing is select a number of new speakers in our speaker bureau from ANZ, this will help towards providing a pool of speakers and ease the task of leaders out there.
On another note, most of you should be receiving your Community Launch kits now. Note: Even though Microsoft is bearing the cost of customs duty, we’re aware that due to an error on the part of the shipment company some of you'll are being charged a customs duty, if you face this issue, please email clt06@microsoft.com for a resolution to the problem.
Wishing all of you the best in your community launch events. Do let us know if you require any assistance
Telerik one of our software sponsors is making available NFR(Not for Resale) copies of their excellent software for all our user group leaders, you can read more about it in our Special Offers section.
Sanjay Shetty,
President, INETA APAC sanjay.shetty@ineta.org
| Editor's Note |
In this issue, we would like to welcome Ivan Wong who has joined the newsletter team as the online publisher. We invite Ivan to introduce himself.
The newsletter committee is looking for volunteers in this team who can assist in various areas such as data collation, editing, proof reading, design and formatting etc. Please feel free to drop an email to weehyong.tok@ineta.org
Wee Hyong
Editor, INETA APAC
Newsletter Team
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| New Addition to Newsletter Team |
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Hi, my name is Ivan Wong and I am a volunteer of INETA APAC. Currently, I am a Software Developer working in Melbourne, Australia. I believe the .NET framework will be the next generation Software Development Framework. |
In Australia, there's a growing number of software projects making use of the .NET Framework, and the estimated value of the project is over 300 Millions.
As a newsletter team member, I will work hard with the rest of the team to bring you the latest .NET user groups news and activities in APAC. |
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Usergroup Activities around APAC |
India
- Madurai
By Padmashree B
MaduraiDotnet usergroup organized a two-day campus reach program on Microsoft Windows Vista at four colleges in and around Madurai.
The event had its inauguration with a session on Windows Vista by Ajay Thomas Abraham of Microsoft India at Thiagarajar College of Engineering in the morning of 8 Jan 2007 followed by a similar session in the afternoon at KLN College of Engineering.
Sessions were conducted in KLN College of Engineering and Sethu Institute of Technology on 9 Jan 2007 in the morning and afternoon respectively.
Quizzes were interleaved between the sessions and prizes given to the winners. B.Padmashree,J.NirmalAnand and Deepika,student partners from Madurai coordinated the entire event. The event was a big success with over 1000 students benefiting from the event.
- New Delhi
By Surendra Mishra
Venue:-Professional Training and Development Academy, Gargi College Campus, Siri Fort Road, New Delhi.
We had a wonderful session with Aman at the PTDA Gargi College Campus on 29 Dec 2006, from 10am to 1pm. The event was attended by 20 passionate .Net developers. It was really a wonderful experience, and we hope to organize similar events in the future.
 
Malaysia
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By Chua Wen Ching (INETA APAC Volunteer)
I was invited to Samarahan, Sarawak for a talk in University of Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) on January 17, 2007. UNIMAS is the biggest university in Malaysia and locates in east of Malaysia. I was very grateful that I was sponsored by UNIMAS itself. I stayed at Merdeka Palace which was the best hotel in Kuching.
Wen Ching at the main entrance of Merdeka Palace hotel
They provided a driver for me to bring me around in Kuching and to the university’s campus. They had also provided me a good air flight “Malaysian Airlines” to Kuching. This was my 1st time seeking funding directly from a university. All together it was 4 days 3 nights in Kuching.
I attended the MSDN event in Kuching on January 16, 2007 held by Microsoft Malaysia. Actually I was there to support my friends at Microsoft Malaysia. At that night, we went for dinner together with other Microsoft Malaysia’s friends, MVP and UNIMAS staffs. I did not manage to take their pictures, but I managed to take the biggest coconut I had seen in my life.
Biggest Coconut in Buntau.
Basically, I had joint event together with Microsoft Malaysia Academic Evangelist, Mr. Ian Su. I tried to highlight to the students about INETA Academics initiatives this year “INETA Academic: Preparing Students for the Software Industry”. This event will be the 1st step and I will be looking for future opportunities in UNIMAS again. The UNIMAS person in charge was looking forward for me to come back for a 2nd time. She had sent me the UNIMAS Academic schedules for new intakes. I will love to have some competitions going around universities and train these students to be ready for next year 2008 Imagine Cup. I believe students in Malaysia had less exposure and confidence for competitions.
Fauza, the UNIMAS facilitator
I spoke on 2 topics “Software Migration: From ASP.NET 1.1 to 2.0” and “A Journey of a Software Developer”. There were around 55 students who attended this event.
Wen Ching preparing for his talk
Wen Ching demonstrating his passion and working experiences
Later that night we had a dinner in Barok. The food was okay but I prefer the seafood at Buntao. It was much better.
From left – Wen Ching, Ian (Microsoft Malaysia Academic Evangelist), Walter (Microsoft Malaysia Evangelist), Koh Ping (UNIMAS Microsoft Student Partner) and Fauza (UNIMAS Facilitator)
Lastly, I will like to thanks UNIMAS and Microsoft for giving me such a great opportunity to speak there. Thanks to Ming Man, the only MVP in East Malaysia for helping me to arrange this event together with Fauza.
Hoping this session “INETA Academics: Preparing Students for Software Industry” will help these students. I am in the middle of building contacts with other to build a platform for students.
Lastly, I will like to thank Nauzad for guiding me along to achieve the 2 things on top. I never had believed that university like UNIMAS will fund me same to O’Reilly. Now I start to have more confidence with myself and I am looking forward for more sponsorship which will benefit everyone in INETA.
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| Up Close with .Net Leaders |
In this issue, we got in touch with Vinod Kumar, who chairs the Membership committee, INETA APAC. He shares with us the role of the Membership committee, and the exciting initiatives happening in 2007.
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Vinod Kumar
Membership Committee
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1. When did you join INETA APAC?
As far as I recollect it was in the 2004 timeframe. It all started when I had just brought a new UG into existence at my native town in Madurai. Since then it has been interaction with many UG leaders and surely INETA has been a good platform for networking with some great UG Leaders.
2. What is the role played by the Membership committee within INETA APAC?
This is one of the core teams that user groups interact with. There are a number of activities the Membership team does, some of them are listed below:
- All volunteers showing interest will first be contacted by the UG relations team before they get linked with the other team leads. All other committee bank on the volunteer induction provided from this team.
- Approval of the UG into the INETA family after proper validation from various sources.
- Collating necessary information, making a write-up, collecting feedbacks, interviewing UG Leads, getting freebies announcement from the marketing division etc.
- Find ways to increase membership in the region across UG’s. This include activities like running the Community Launch type events.
- Coordinate and find innovative ways like DevCon, Security Day, Executives Day, Date with .NET, Code Camp, BizWiz etc type of events for the UG’s they are associated with. This involves coordination with the other committees and keeping the health and spirits of the UG members high.
- The list keeps going...
3. How can users groups specifically take advantage of the Membership committee? Could you share with us a recent example?
The Membership team is all geared to helping the UG’s to move to the next level. There are so many ways people can access, the easiest way is for a UG Leader to place a request at the http://apac.ineta.org/ (Support Link) with the type of support wanted. How INETA can help (like speakers, sponsorship etc)? With a minimum of 2-3 months of lead time all the requests can be easily taken care. Remember we are still a volunteer organization.
One typical example, in a recent event in India for the Hyderabad Usergroup’s DevCon event INETA sponsored for specific event needs. Another example, for CDNUG Usergroup in SriLanka we worked along with the Speaker Bureau and had sponsored a speaker (Praveen Srivatsa – MS RD, MS MVP and CEO astra.net) for the event. These are testimonies by themselves. In a nutshell, the Membership team is here to help you in big-events. With a bit of planning you can realize your dreams with us.
4. What new initiative is your committee doing to help user groups grow?
There are a number of initiatives the committee is involved with. But in the immediate future, it is the Community Launch of Vista, Office and Exchange that we are concentrating. It is very important for all the UG’s registered with INETA take advantage of this unique experience. With the tons of resources in hand the UG’s must be able to have a blast of an event.
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| Special Offers | |
telerik Inc. is a leading vendor of User Interface (UI) components for ASP.NET and Windows Forms. Building on our expertise in interface development and Microsoft technologies, telerik helps customers build applications with amazing richness, responsiveness and interactivity. Built with passion, Telerik products help thousands of developers every day to be more productive and deliver reliable applications on time. telerik Inc. is a privately-held corporation with offices in Boston, Massachusetts and Sofia, Bulgaria.
If any UG leader is interested in getting NFR licenses for telerik software or swag, please tell them to contact Nadia who is responsible for dealings with user groups around the world.
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