If you do, we now have a place for you to submit your ideas for others to see and vote on!

This morning I established a User Voice site for Windows Phone Starter Kit Ideas – you can find it at the following url:

http://wpsk.uservoice.com

User Voice is a great feedback system that allows companies (or initiatives, like this one) to capture feedback from their customers in a prioitizable way – each suggestion can be “up-voted” by others as well as commented on. I have put one suggestion out there, based on some emails I’ve already received, but I need your help to populate this list with more ideas for future starter kits. I can’t guarantee that we’ll build them all – but you can! If you’re really passionate about your idea, then we can work together to get something built and deployed as part of this initiative.

Keep the lines of communication open, and building applications for Windows Phone will contiue to get easier and easier

Props to John Weston for sharing the new Futures Video from his blog - I LOVE these videos from the Office Productivity team!

The Kinect for Windows SDK beta is a programming toolkit for application developers. It enables the academic and enthusiast communities easy access to the capabilities offered by the Microsoft Kinect device connected to computers running the Windows 7 operating system.

The Kinect for Windows SDK beta includes drivers, rich APIs for raw sensor streams and human motion tracking, installation documents, and resource materials. It provides Kinect capabilities to developers who build applications with C++, C#, or Visual Basic by using Microsoft Visual Studio 2010.

THE SDK includes the following features:

• Raw sensor streams

  Access to raw data streams from the depth sensor, color camera sensor, and four-element microphone array enables developers to build upon the low-level streams that are generated by the Kinect sensor.

• Skeletal tracking

  The capability to track the skeleton image of one or two people moving within the Kinect field of view make it easy to create gesture-driven applications.

• Advanced audio capabilities

  Audio processing capabilities include sophisticated acoustic noise suppression and echo cancellation, beam formation to identify the current sound source, and integration with the Windows speech recognition API.

• Sample code and documentation

  The SDK includes more than 100 pages of technical documentation. In addition to built-in help files, the documentation includes detailed walkthroughs for most samples provided with the SDK.

• Easy installation

  The SDK installs quickly, requires no complex configuration, and the complete installer size is less than 100 MB. Developers can get up and running in just a few minutes with a standard standalone Kinect sensor unit (widely available at retail outlets).

This SDK is designed for non-commercial purposes only; a commercial version is expected to be available at a later date.

GiveCamp is a weekend-long event where technology professionals from designers, developers, and database administrators to marketers and web strategists donate their time to provide solutions for non-profit organizations. Since its inception in 2007, the GiveCamp program has provided benefits to over 150 charities, with a value of developer and designer time exceeding $100,000 in services. If you have already been involved in a GiveCamp, you also know what a rich, rewarding experience this is personally and for the community. For more information, visit givecamp.org and http://givecampstartersite.codeplex.com/.

In 2011, the weekend of October 21-23, has been designated National GiveCamp weekend. If you currently have a GiveCamp scheduled, you do not need to move it. However, if you can move it, Microsoft is putting together several partnerships to help ease some of the logistics for the National GiveCamp weekend so organizers and participants can focus on supporting non-profit organizations:

• Free Venue: We are putting in national partnerships to provide venue space. Space is limited and available on a first come, first served basis – so sign up early! Send your request to usgcamp@microsoft.com.
• Food & Beverage sponsors: We are enlisting national sponsors to have food and beverage service delivered to participating GiveCamp volunteers throughout the weekend of 10/21 – 10/23.
• Promotion: We will provide you email templates and resources for your use in promoting to non-profits, as well as soliciting potential volunteers. We will also put resources behind amplifying the impact of your GiveCamp to your community by helping create buzz around your GiveCamp event to help draw volunteers and increase community awareness for the non-profits benefiting from GiveCamp.

GiveCamp is a great opportunity for people to work together, develop new friendships, and do something important for their community! It is our dream to see over 50 Give Camps held over the National GiveCamp weekend of 10/21 – 10/23.

Will you join us?

Next Steps:

1. If you are interested in organizing a GiveCamp: by Monday, 8/1 reply to usgcamp@microsoft.com with the information below

2. Set-up your GiveCamp site with the starter site kit here: http://givecampstartersite.codeplex.com/.

3. For more information, visit givecamp.org.

I've added a new plugin to my WordPress on Windows blog titled "Where's Chris?".  I've gotten some feedback that people are interested in knowing when I'm going to be visiting their area, and what I'll be talking about or doing while I'm there. To make that easier on all of us, I've created this list so that everyone will be able to find me easily. It's not the same thing as Tungle.me, which is intended to help people find time on my calendar for meetings and stuff.  Instead, it's a listing of events where I'll be as I travel TX, OK, LA and AR, which Microsoft defines as South Central District.

So – visit my blog at http://chriskoenig.net and check the sidebar titled "Where's Chris?" for up-to-date information on where I'm going to be!

I just learned about two cool announcements coming from our friends at MSDN related to availability of Office for Mac 2011 and Windows Azure:

Office for Mac 2011 Home and Business Inclusion in MSDN

Office for Mac 2011 Home and Business, and Communicator for Mac 2011 will be included in all MSDN Premium and Ultimate Subscription Levels as of October 26. It will ship simultaneously in all languages.

Windows Azure Platform MSDN Offer Extension

We are extending the availability of our current Windows Azure Platform MSDN offer through March 31, 2011. Anyone signing up for this offer is guaranteed to receive the current monthly benefit for 16 months from the date of their enrollment. As the monthly level of benefits is greater than what was previously being considered for this offer’s replacement, we believe this is a win for our MSDN subscribers.

Below is an overview of what customers will receive each month:

Windows Azure	750 hours of a small compute instance / month 10 GB of storage 1,000,000 storage transactions / month
SQL Azure	3 Web Edition databases (up to 1 GB of relational data per database)
Windows Azure AppFabric	1,000,000 Access Control transactions / month 1 pack of 5 Service Bus connections / month
Data Transfers	North America and Europe (per region / month) 7 GBs in 14 GBs out Asia Pacific Region 2.5 GB in 5 GB out

For more information, see MSDN Subscriptions – Azure Benefits Overview

Two great announcements this week! 

First, the Windows Phone 7 Team is proud to announce the final (RTM) release of the Windows Phone 7 Developer Tools! These tools include everything you need to build Silverlight applications and XNA games for Windows Phone 7. This release also marks the unveiling of three of the most requested Windows Phone Controls, including the Panorama, Pivot and Bing Maps controls.  Additionally, the WP7 team has updated the Silverlight Control Toolkit to include a number of new controls specifically for use in a Windows Phone application.  Highlights here include a DatePicker, TimePicker, ToggleButton, and some controls to help you interpret various touch gestures in your applications.

Here are some links to help you get all these awesome new tools!

• Windows Phone 7 Developer Tools: http://bit.ly/CRDevWP7Toolkit
• Windows Phone 7 Toolkit: http://silverlight.codeplex.com/
• Windows Phone 7 Jump Start Training – http://bit.ly/JumpStartWP7
• Windows Phone 7 Launch Events – http://bit.ly/GetRegisteredWP7Event

On a related note, the Internet Explorer team announced yesterday that Internet Explorer 9 is now in BETA! I got a chance to see this in action earlier this summer, and am very excited to give it a try on my own. This new release includes a number of compelling new features including a much faster, hardware-accelerated rendering engine, integration with Windows 7 (can you say Pinning, JumpLists, and Aero-Snap?) and, of course, HTML 5 support!

Head over to http://microsoft.com/ie to upgrade your experience today!

On a more personal note, CONGRATULATIONS to both of these teams for these amazing releases!  I can’t wait to start using them!

Annouced on MSDN this morning, Scott Guthrie will be announcing the release of Silverlight 4 to the web at the upcoming DevConnections event in Las Vegas!

If you haven�t already signed up for DevConnections, here�s some additional incentive (from the website):

The first 100 to sign up between 3/23-3/29 will get a free Zune HD and a $25 discount on your registration! Make sure to enter "ZUNE" in the Coupon Code field when registering to be eligible for this promotion** Winners will be notified via email with instructions for pick up at the launch event.

Now, more than ever, is the time for you to make your investments in learning Silverlight.  The power of what Silverlight gives you over the web, plus the cross-over to WPF and recently announced inclusion in Windows Phone 7 Series platform makes Silverlight a very compelling technology.

Attention all  current and potential public speakers!  Are you a technical person with loads of great information to share with your peers? Do you get nervous speaking in front of crowds? Would you like to develop your public speaking, demonstration and group interaction skills?  Then DFW Technically Speaking is for you!

Led by some of our top local presenters, here�s a summary of what Technically Speaking will help you learn to do:

• Overcome public speaking nervousness by gaining confidence in your presentation skills
• Present technical ideas and speak more effectively at user groups or technical events
• Communicate your ideas more effectively using stance, gestures, movement, and voice
• Structure your presentations to emphasize and reinforce key points.
• Create visual aids and improve your use of them while interacting with your audience
• Target your presentations to match your audiences by use of research techniques

Featured speakers include:

• Dave Gunby �The successful speaker: Techniques for �Techies�
• Chris Koenig � Art of the Demo
• Caleb Jenkins � Gauging and engaging your audience
• Tim Rayburn � Let�s get started!!

The first Technically Speaking event will be held on March 27th, 2010 from 9am � 5:00 pm at 4121 International Parkway in Carrollton. The cost to attend is $50 per person, which will include a nice lunch. 

Seats are limited so sign up soon by going to http://technicallyspeaking.dfwnav.com or contact Teresa Burger at tburger@woot.com.

Our team bought cowboy hats for all of our MVPs in TX, OK, LA and AR (what we call South Central District). These are a few of the first folks to get their hats yesterday afternoon at the MVP Summit kickoff meeting/mixer/meal. The bandanas say �MVP Summit 2010 South Central District�. Rest assured, a good time was had by all!