Microsoft Tech·Ed North America in Atlanta, May 15 – 19, 2011

The BOF recordings are now available at:
http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/teched2011.aspx?tab=videos&id=44721

GITCA and Penton Media at Tech·Ed North America

At Tech·Ed North America in Atlanta GITCA and Penton Media [Windows IT Pro] began discussions on a mutually beneficial working relationship. Since then there has been a number of further discussions on how we can work together which we hope to announce in the future. In the meantime the following link has a couple of videos recorded at Tech·Ed which feature Ashwin Kini, GITCA Global Chair and Thomas Dawkins, Microsoft Sr. Audience Marketing Manager for Community - http://bit.ly/lTdjXc

GITCA Alliance Member ACM takes second place in Microsoft Imagine Cup

Team Note-Taker led by ACM Professional Member John Black of Arizona State University won second place in the 2011 Microsoft Imagine Cup Software Design competition at a gala ceremony at New York's Lincoln Center. Note-Taker is an assistive technology to help low-vision and legally blind students take notes in their secondary and post-secondary classrooms as quickly (and with the same ease) as their fully sighted peers. The competition, which honors student innovations that address global problems, included more than 350,000 students from 183 countries. The finals featured more than 400 students from 70 countries.

An ACM member since 2004, Black is also a member of ACM SIGACCESS , the Special Interest Group on Accessible Computing. He has participated in numerous ASSETS conferences, which explore the potential of computer and information technologies to support individuals with disabilities as well as those around them.

The Note-Taker project combines a portable, custom-designed camera and a touch-screen tablet PC to allow the user to simultaneously view live video and take typed or hand-written notes on a split-screen interface. View a one-minute video at http://youtu.be/ZlNEjY0ZUbU

System Admin Day - IT Pro of the year by Windows IT Pro

GITCA is very pleased to help promote the System Admin Day – IT Pro of the Year event by Windows IT Pro.

http://www.windowsitpro.com/awards/system-administrator-of-the-year

To celebrate Systems Administrator Appreciation Day—which falls on July 29, 2011, this year—Windows IT Pro, Cloud IT Pro, SharePoint Pro, and Business Technology are sponsoring a contest for readers to submit (and vote on) the best IT pro of the year. The winner will be announced on August 19.

They’re looking for your most creative, ingenuous IT success stories. If you or someone you know has applied a particularly interesting solution to an IT problem, be sure to nominate it! IT pros submit up to a 500-word essay describing why they (or the person they’re nominating) should be considered IT Pro of the Year.

All entries will be judged using the following factors:

• Creativity: Did the IT pro use an especially creative or ingenious way to solve his/her IT issue?
• Cost-savings: Using third-party products and services is acceptable, but entries that essentially say “I had a problem and purchasing product X saved it” are discouraged.
• Best use of available and emerging technology: Using available products and tools to solve the problem is a big plus, as is adopting new solutions that have operational and cost-saving benefits.
• Business value: The best IT solutions are ones that also advance the broader goals of the company or organization the IT pro is employed by. Solutions that increased operational efficiency *and* saved the company money are encouraged.

Judging: An online form to process submissions was posted on Wednesday, July 6th, and will remain open for submissions until Wednesday, July 27th. Editors from Windows IT Pro, Cloud IT Pro, SharePoint Pro, and Business Technology will review the applications and select 10 finalists. These finalists will be posted online on Friday, July 29th, and site visitors cans then vote on which systems administrator should be selected as Systems Administrator of the Year. The winner will be announced Friday, August 19th

Annual Elections

There are still a few open positions. If you are interested in volunteering please contact the Regional Chair for your region as shown at the end of the newsletter.

Stephen Ibaraki Interviews of Prominent People in the Industry

Stephen Forte: Chief Strategy Officer, CTO, Scrum Master, Author, Serial Company Founder, Microsoft MVP, Keynote

Stephen Forte is the Chief Strategy Officer of Telerik a leading vendor of developer and team productivity tools, automated testing and UI components.

Stephen is also a certified Scrum Master. Involved in several startups, he was the co-founder of Triton Works, which was acquired by UBM in 2010 (London: UBM.L) and was the Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of Corzen, Inc.,which was acquired by Wanted Technologies (TXV: WAN) in 2007. Stephen also speaks regularly at industry conferences around the world. He has written several books on application and database development including Programming SQL Server 2008 (MS Press). Prior to Corzen, Stephen served as the CTO of Zagat Survey in New York City and also was co-founder of the New York based software consulting firm The Aurora Development Group.

He currently is a Microsoft MVP award recipient, INETA speaker, and is the co-moderator and founder of the NYC .NET Developer User Group. Stephen has an MBA from the City University of New York. An avid mountain climber, Stephen leads a trek in the Mt. Everest region every fall to raise money for charity

Atul Varde: Senior VP and CIO Affinity Credit Union, Speaker World CIO Forum (WCF)

Atul Varde is currently Senior Vice-President and Chief Information Officer at Affinity Credit Union. With over 108,000 member-owners, 44 branches and an innovative governance structure that ensures grassroots connectedness, Affinity is one of the largest and fastest-growing co-operative financial institutions in Canada. Mr. Varde provides strategic technology management and innovation leadership to the organization, and is responsible for ensuring that IT investments possess an appropriate risk-return profile while being aligned with the overall business strategy. Due to his recognized leadership standing, Atul is an invited speaker at the World CIO Forum (WCF) November 1-4 2011.

Prior to his current position, Atul founded and managed a successful IT company that specializes in financial data processing, software development and information systems consulting. In addition to financial services, his overall IT career has covered an eclectic mix of domains including nuclear engineering, post-secondary education and healthcare.

An engineer by training, Atul has a Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Saskatchewan, with continuing professional education in corporate finance, project management, intellectual property law, and strategic management from the University of California, Berkeley - Extension Division and from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Atul holds the I.S.P. and ITCP professional designations from the Canadian Information Processing Society and serves on the Board of CIPS-Saskatchewan.

Stacey Cerniuk: Founder and CEO of Annex Consulting Group, Top Award Winning Entrepreneur, Innovating Executive, Business & Technology Authority

Stacey Cerniuk is the founder, President and CEO of Annex Consulting Group. Stacey has a Bachelor of Science degree in Computing Science from Simon Fraser University and 23 years of IT industry experience as a business analyst, project manager, management consultant and entrepreneur. He was a Forty Under Forty winner recognizing the top business people in British Columbia under the age of 40.

Stacey is actively involved in a number of IT industry associations and academic programs:

• He is a member of the Project Management Institute, its Canadian West Coast Chapter and its Information Systems Community of Practice. He has been a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) since year 2000.
• He is a member of the Society of PMPs of Greater Vancouver.
• He has been on the Advisory Council for the University of British Columbia's Certificate in Project Management program since its inception. The program previously won the Canadian Association for University Continuing Education (CAUCE) Award of Excellence.
• He is also on the Advisory Council for UBC's Certificate in Business Analysis program.
• He is a mentor for S.U.C.C.E.S.S. helping new immigrants to Canada find work in the IT industry and adapt to Canadian culture.
• He is a Past President of CIPS [Vancouver section], one of the largest associations of IT professionals in Canada, and served on the Board for eight years.

New Hosted SharePoint Site Requests

All new requests for hosted SharePoint sites will be fulfilled using SharePoint 2010 Enterprise Edition. To request a new SharePoint 2010 site for your group, please go to:
http://sharepoint.msugss.com/AboutUs/Pages/Technical-Support.aspx and follow the instructions under “Request a SharePoint site”.
We would like to offer an apology for the recent problems with access to the hosted SharePoint sites and our inability to create new sites. This was caused by a server problem with our service provider which took several days to correct. We are taking steps to try and avoid any repeat occurrence.