[phileysmiley]

<img src="http://parcom.pronetworks.org/PROneT-News/microsoft.jpg" align="right"> SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE -- SEE PICTURES ON PAGE 3
------------------------------
<b>Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2005 -- A First-Person Account</b>

Hello from Minneapolis! PROneT was chosen by Microsoft to attend WWPC 05 as their guests. We are one of only 3 websites, of the 26 Featured Community Sites (see <a href=http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/related/default.mspx target=_blank>HERE</a>) who have received this honor.

The event is taking place today through Sunday in Minneapolis, Minnesota. There are 6,000 attendees representing MS Partners from around the world. The conference sold out quite awhile ago.

I am here representing PROneT in an official capacity as the Chief Branding Officer of Pronetworks Corporation. You may recall my experience at WinHEC in April which I wrote about <a href=http://www.pronetworks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=54799 target=_blank>HERE</a>.

I will be filing brief reports during the conference. I invite you share the experience with me in this somewhat informal first-person diary.

[ginogsm]

Hey Larry. Congrats to you and on PROneT.

I hope you have some great news to share with us , soon.

Enjoy mate.

[SCgone]

Thanks for the update Larry, have a great time.

[phileysmiley]

MORE
-----------------------
1 - Windows Lounge

If you have never seen a city completely taken over by a convention, it is quite a sight. When I tried to book my room a few weeks ago, all 24 of the "official" MS hotels were sold out. These are the hotels for which MS provides shuttle buses to transport attendees to and from the Convention Center. Fortunately, with the assistance of the powers-that-be at MS, I was able to secure a room. The hotel is about 20 miles away, but at least it is on one of the shuttle routes. These aren't little vans, either. They are big tour buses. They travel every 10-15 minutes and there are 8 routes. I am on Route 6, which only hits 2 hotels, so I can get in and back in about 20 minutes. Since most events are within sight of a hotel, it amounts to a private mass transit system set up by MS for the 6,000 conventioneers. For example, I needed to attend an event at Le Meridien Hotel last night. That is on Route 3. So I hopped on the 6 bus at my hotel, took it to the Center, then hopped on the 3 to Le Meridien. I returned the same way. They run until well after midnight, so there is no need for cars or cabs.

My first big event was a welcoming party at the "Windows Lounge" at Le Meridien. But since I had to go to the Center first, I took the opportunity to pick up my credentials and "goodie" bag. I think some of the folks here only come for that. Anyway, once I have my "Press" badge around my neck, I have all access to all events to bring you the most up-to-date information that I can.

The party was mainly for Partners (companies who do business with MS, or use their products) to run elbows with MS people. Naturally, my sights are set on meeting up again with the MS staffers we had the pleasure of getting to know at WinHEC. I was happy to see Jay Kenny arrive. He was the x64 Product Manager about whom we wrote extensively in the WinHEC diary. Now he is working on Longhorn. He introduced me to Tim Tiscornia, Product Manager for Longhorn. As soon as I saw the sign, "Longhorn Preview Room," I knew that's where my feet would take me.

In the Longhorn Preview Room, an extremely wide screen was setup running LH. The purpose was to shoot a video to show partners around the world, in order to get them excited about Longhorn. The company shooting the video is spending $20,000 on it so you know it will look good.

In the main room, amid the huge ice sculptures with the Windows logos inside, were some tasty hors d'ouevres, lavish buffet, and top-shelf drinks being poured. But there I was, huddled with Jay Kenny and Aaron Coldiron, who invited us to attend and is my host for the weekend. I began the process of arranging interviews which I will be reporting on.

In the meantime, I had a chance to play with a hot product that was introduced yesterday: the Motion Tablet PC LS800. I know there has already been a lot written about it in the last 24 hours. It is a 9" wide tablet running XP Pro Tablet PC Edition. You can see it <a href=http://www.motioncomputing.com/products/tablet_pc_ls.asp target=_blank>HERE</a>. Once I had one in my hands, you couldn't pry me away. Other sites have written about it since it was introduced yesterday, but PROneT got the very first interview with Motion Computing to talk about the new product.

It was a great start to what is sure to be an exciting few days, and I accomplished what I came here for -- to reconnect with the folks from MS with whom we established a relationship at WinHEC.

[OsirisX]

Sounds good, thanks for the update.

[Grav!ty]

Thanks for the news Larry your'e doing a great job for PROneT

[phileysmiley]

MORE
-------------------------
2 - Longhorn Keynote

I call this the Longhorn Keynote because of all the "keynotes" being given here this weekend (about 10 a day), this is the first one for "us." I sat with Aaron Coldiron from MS. The lead speaker was Mike Sievert, Corporate VP for Windows Client Group. He oversees all Windows -- XP, MCE, Longhorn, etc. He put a new spin on the 3 "Pillars of Longhorn" -- instead of the WinFS, Avalon, and Indigo (which it was at one point), they are now referring to the "Pillars" of Longhorn as "Confidence," "Connect," and "Creativity," all adding up to "Clarity."

The most exciting segment was when Mike brought up Shanen Boettcher onstage to do the Longhorn demo. You may remember reading about him in the WinHEC thread. He is the lead developer of Longhorn and I had some terrific one-on-one time with him in Seattle. So it was good to see him again, albeit in front of a large crowd.

Much of the demo was similar to what we saw at WinHEC. I'll be posting lots of "screenshots" when I get back. The main difference was that we were looking at Build 5086. The one part of the demo that was new to us was a walk-through of some of the new P2P features. We saw how 2 people with wireless laptops, sitting in a cafe somewhere, can share files and connect (like remote desktop). This can be done where there is no internet connection. Anyone with Longhorn and wireless capabilities can "join in" on the meeting.

Many of the features we saw demonstrated today (and at WinHEC) will not show up until Beta 2. But there was quite a bit of talk about how MS is anxious to get Beta 1 into our hands, since they really need to ramp up the excitement level among developers and vendors.

MS has launched a major effort to push vendors to get PC's "Longhorn-ready," both in terms of hardware and drivers. They are also launching a "Premium Logo" program, where they will stamp the Windows Logo not just on any application or program which meets MS testing requirements, but on products of "special quality" which go the extra mile to take advantage of what Windows has to offer.

We saw a video shot as part of the "Start Something" program, which is the largest marketing effort in MS history. We have written about it here. It is a multimillion dollar advertising campaign to get businesses and the general public excited again about what they can do with Windows. This is all part of the push towards Longhorn.

Finally, there was a brief discussion about IE7, which will be compatible with XP SP2, x64, and Server 2003.

The timeline for Longhorn hasn't changed since what we saw at WinHEC. As far as Beta 1 is concerned, internally, it is finished. All the parts have been delivered by the Team and it is in the final stages of testing before release. It will not be given out here in Minneapolis. But it will definitely be out before the PDC in September. The "Summer" window has not changed.

We have speculated here about when it will be released. The prevailing opinion seems to believe it will be out at the end of July. I was told publicly that it will be out "within weeks." Some MS staffers say they actually don't know the date themselves, since it is really in the hands of the final testers to make sure it is ready. Based on what I have heard here so far publicly and privately, I believe it will be available to testers July 27th.




















Aaron Coldiron (Product Manager, Community Sites) and me after the above keynote


And again

[InsaneScientist]

Thanks for the update, Larry.

There's definately some interesting info in there.

Since you haven't locked this thread, I'm going to assume that we can ask questions about what you posted, so....

The one part of the demo that was new to us was a walk-through of some of the new P2P features. We saw how 2 people with wireless laptops, sitting in a cafe somewhere, can share files and connect (like remote desktop). This can be done where there is no internet connection. Anyone with Longhorn and wireless capabilities can "join in" on the meeting.

Am I missing something? This doesn't sound too special.... It souds like it's just an ad-hoc wireless network.

[mfwit]

Sounds like some awesome stuff is going on their.

Cant wait to hear more!

[DRAGON OF DARKNESS]

Thanks Larry, this WWPC is cool. Im proud to be a pronet member.