Professionally, I have barely presented in the past six months. Besides the recent life-changing events, I’ve also been inundated with project work. The good thing about being swamped with work is that you collect a wealth of topics about which to blog. The downside is that you have very little time to blog. In the end, a blogger simply has to make time. That’s what I’m doing now. I plan to get back on the speaking circuit soon. I hope to do more writing as well. I also hope to turn over a new leaf and start creating some training videos. We have new partnerships in the works at my office. But probably the biggest change professionally has been my acquisition of a MacBook and iPad! I never thought I’d see the day, but I’m excited about it. I have been a fan of the iPhone since I bought my 3GS. After a short stint with WP7, I went back to the iPhone (at least for now). Why the MacBook and iPad? Well, in the fall I will begin teaching an Introduction to iPhone and iPad Development course at Vincennes University. I will be teaching using Objective-C and the Cocoa framework, although I would have loved to take advantage of MonoTouch. I am going to make MonoTouch development a hobby if time allows, and Windows 8 development as well. This is definitely going to be the year for the tablet in the enterprise, and I want to be a part of that. Of course, I’m growing deeper SharePoint development skills at the same time – and hopefully will be able to mesh it all together.

So better late than never: here’s to a happy 2012 and the new adventures it will bring!

The Vincennes University team, EpicFacePalm, entered the Software Design competition. The team was made up of Information Technology and Computer Programming Technology majors, including: Kiersten Clark, Mario Goodwin, Seth Stockrham, and Johnathan White. Our project, DiapersForSadie.org, was an online directory for international orphanages to identify themselves and their top five needs for supplies. Visitors to the site could make commitments to donate supplies and learn where to send them. Ultimately, donors would earn “badges” for their gifts and share their activity on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The project was inspired by a local family who recently adopted a daughter, Sadie, from Ethiopia.

Our team made it past the first round in short order. The second round – which included a working prototype of the software and a video of the students presenting the software – was the end of the line for this year’s team as the field of 74,000 US students was narrowed down to twelve (three US finalist teams consisting of four people each). Less than a week after we were informed of our fate, we received a second email from the Imagine Cup officials. The text of the email is below:

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EpicFacePalm,

While you were not an Imagine Cup US finalist, we wanted to commend you on your exceptional project that caught the attention of our judges.   To recognize the effort and quality of your idea and project we would like to provide you with this ‘Honorable Mention’ certificate.

As you talk with faculty, professionals in industry and potential employers you should talk your Imagine Cup project and this certificate, which is a recognition of your teams outstanding work.  Potential employers are often eager to hear about your role on the project, the technology you used, the goals of your project, and especially what you learned from the process.

Your team scored very well overall and definitely has what it takes to stand out against the thousands of students that compete in Imagine Cup each year.  We sincerely hope that you’ll continue working on and further improving your project and consider submitting again next year for Imagine Cup 2012.

Congratulations on behalf of the Imagine Cup US team!

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I wanted to take the time to encourage everyone to participate next year. We are looking forward to participating again – it was a rewarding experience. I also want to take the time to congratulate Kiersten, Mario, Seth and Johnathan! I’m proud of what they accomplished and proud that they took the initiative to get involved. It was a real pleasure to work with them on a real project outside of the normal classroom environment.

Of course, work comes first. My SharePoint and .NET development projects are keeping me more than busy, but as time allows I will continue to follow my passion for writing and sharing with others. Hopefully soon you will see some of my work show up in some additional SharePoint publications -- one in particular I will be especially proud of. Stay tuned...

About the MCC (Microsoft Community Contributor) Award

Through the Microsoft^® Community Contributor Award, we express our thanks to individuals who freely volunteer their time and energy to help improve the Microsoft online technical community experience for others.

More and more technology users are seeking ideas and solutions for enhancing their technology experience through online resources. At Microsoft, we help our customers find answers when and where they want them through online forums such as TechNet, MSDN^® and Answers.

Today, up to 4,000,000 people gain valuable information through Microsoft online forums--and that number is growing.

These valuable resources are enhanced by the contributions of Microsoft Community Contributor awardees, who help other participants in a range of ways, such as providing helpful answers, translating online resources into local languages and serving as moderators.

Source: https://www.microsoftcommunitycontributor.com/overview.aspx

It will happen. They should call it “Funnel Cloud”…since it brings all your cloud stuff together into one place. Never mind. I was contemplating the notion that things could definitely get out of control with all this cloud stuff. There are so many services available already, and so many more in the works. I can imagine scenarios down the road, in large organizations, where one department may have apps and data hosted at one provider while another department uses another provider and so on. You think governance is painstaking on your intranet? Imagine governance in the cloud? Thank goodness the internet just ran out of IP addresses, right? Just kidding.

So what is this cloud stuff? The cloud has gone mainstream. It is no longer a question of “will it happen?” or “when will it happen?”  It has happened…and without my permission. Several weeks ago I would have told you “it will never fly.” Now I’m amazed at the possibilities. Although some pretty large enterprises are partaking in the cloud, I think its greatest potential still lies with the small businesses. In fact, it is a great equalizer that way. Small businesses can run the software they need to operate without having to invest in the infrastructure to do so.

It’s exciting to read about Azure, Amazon Web Services, Office365, etc. I’m particularly excited for software developers and the opportunities that the cloud presents to us. Of course, most of all, I’m excited about what it means for SharePoint. There are some great SharePoint hosts around already. With Office365, SharePoint will become more mainstream (it’s been a household name at the Wilson residence for about 6 years now). So I’ve been focusing a lot on Sandboxed Solutions and will continue to do so. It’s also a good time to jump more into Silverlight and buy a WP7 phone. It’s going to be an exciting turn of events.

I recently got a new follower on Twitter: @CloudShare. Hadn’t heard of them beforehand, but after looking just briefly at their site I am definitely intrigued. What cloud services are intriguing to you? What impact will the cloud have on your business? And what will it take for you to decide to do more business in the cloud?

My two favorite courses to teach at VU have been Systems Analysis and Design, and Portals and Collaboration. In Portals and Collaboration each Fall semester, we explore content management, workflow, search, collaboration and search engine optimization using SharePoint as a basis. In the Fall of 2010, the students each built a fictitious company Web site on SharePoint 2010, complete with an employee intranet. The focus of the intranet was a Human Resources Department portal – including document management, forms and approval workflows. For the text, we use a study guide and labs I developed based on my own experience with SharePoint over the last few years. If the right textbook surfaces, I will happily adopt it.

In the upcoming 2011 Spring semester, I will be teaching the Systems Analysis and Design course. Typically, in this course the students design and develop a business system using the programming language of their choice. The requirements document must include a database design, screen mockups and other documentation such as sequence diagrams, use case diagrams or ERDs. Some choose to write a Web-based application while others prefer to stick with a Windows application. This semester I am going to mix it up a bit and require both. While I will still require the students to develop a managed client application against a relational database, they will also work with content from their SharePoint portals via the REST API or the Client Object Model. In my opinion, the more a student can learn about SharePoint the better. This will give them year-round exposure the fastest-selling product in the history of Microsoft (at least before Kinect, right?).

How about you? Do you teach SharePoint courses at an accredited university? Leave a comment and tell me about it (textbook, topics covered, student testimonials).