So what’s with the “super secret” PowerShell session being given by Jeffrey Snover at TechEd 2013? First, if you’ll be in New Orleans, plan to attend this. The deal is pretty simple: Microsoft has got a lot of information pertaining to v.Next under embargo, which means people can’t talk about it yet, or even tell you the title of the session. But trust me, if you’re interested in the world of DevOps (and if you use PowerShell, you are), you’ll want to be at this session. PowerShell MVPs were given a sneak peek at what Snover will be discussing, and it’ll frankly blow your mind. It will, over the long haul, put PowerShell in a completely new place - and you’ll want to get in on the ground floor. Like most sessions at TechEd, it appears as if they’ll be recording this, so even if you can’t attend in person be sure to check back once the recording is live. That usually takes a day or two after the talk itself. And spread the word a bit. There’s a bit of a worry that, because even the title of the session won’t be announced until TechEd formally commences, folks won’t have much time to realize the session exists and it’ll go empty. We don’t want that to happen - as with any new developments in PowerShell, it’s crucial to get folks thinking about it early, to get their feedback early, and to start planning for it early.
We’re putting together our schedule for 2014 (yes, already), and we’re looking to hold premier-level PowerShell master classes throughout the world. But… we need your help. If you’ve got a really top-notch training center in your area that might be interested in working with us, contact me. We’ll need the name of someone there - the training manager, the marketing manager, someone like that. We co-market our classes, but rely on a local center to market to their existing customer base as well. These are premium classes, and they do go for a premium price, so the center has to be comfortable marketing that kind of class. We’re not the run-of-the-mill “official curriculum;” my Master Class packs in around eleven days of “normal” training, covering toolmaking, scripting, and advanced topics as well as the introductory-level stuff. _ _ International contacts are fine, and in fact it’s something I’m excited to get going, as international classes also help me set up future PowerShell Forum and PowerShell Saturday events in a country or region. So think about your area and see if we might be a fit, and if you’ve got a really top-notch training center you can put us in touch with!
We’ll be doing some maintenance on the site Friday and Saturday, and it may be down for periods during the maintenance. Don’t panic. This will not affect access to The Scripting Games Web site at all.
Here’s the schedule for our Forums migration: From Now until May 4th, the old forums will remain online and in-use. However, you should consider creating an account here on the “new” site (distinguishable by the different visual theme). Your new account will have no connection to the old one, and may be a Twitter, Facebook, Live, or other login. To create an account, just click “Login” at the top-left of any site page (in the dark gray toolbar). On May 4th we will activate the new forums. From then on, the Forums menu link will go there. The old forums will remain available at https://powershell.org/discuss. You can continue to use the old forums to wrap-up old topics, or if the new ones stop working for some reason. On May 13th we will shut down the old forums and direct everyone to the new ones. By May 20 we will have migrated the content from the old forums into the new ones. These will be imported as static threads that are closed for new messages, but they’ll still be searchable.
At our first annual Shareholders Meeting (shareholders will receive an e-mail from me later this week about that meeting), we will be voting on our Board of Directors. Our corporate articles permit our existing Board members to serve indefinitely, and so all are automatically re-nominated. The current Board includes:
Myself (Don Jones)
Kirk Munro
Richard Siddaway
Jason Helmick
Jeffery Hicks
The Board is responsible for appointing a CEO (which is currently myself) to run the company; the CEO then appoints other officers as needed to conduct the corporation’s business. I’ll reiterate that PowerShell.org is a not-for-profit business, meaning our goal is to more or less break even. We obviously have expenses - Web site hosting, running the Summit, and so on - and the corporation provides a place where the needed funds can be managed, without running through anyone’s personal checking account. If you would like to nominate someone for the Board, please e-mail president/at/powershell.org no later than May 15th, 2013. Provide the person’s name and e-mail address. You are welcome to nominate yourself. Each shareholder will receive 5 votes per share owned, and can distribute those votes however they like amongst the nominees. The top 5 vote-earning nominees will comprise our new Board. They will then elect their Chairman, who presides over Board meetings, and either reconfirm the existing CEO or appoint a new one. If you are interested in becoming a shareholder, please see this post. Note that shares must be purchased before May 1st, 2013, in order to be eligible for voting in the upcoming cycle. We are also nearing the end of our capital campaign, so time is running out to own a piece of PowerShell.org.
If you are attending the PowerShell Summit next week in Redmond, you might want to make sure you have copies of the schedule on hand. There are two tracks, and I have created two pdf documents, one for each track, that provide the full schedule including session abstracts and speaker bios. PowerShell Summit 2013 Conference Schedule - Track 1 PowerShell Summit 2013 Conference Schedule - Track 2 While those details are very useful, some of the conference attendees have expressed an interest in having a consolidated view of the agenda so that they could see which sessions were taking place on each of the tracks and choose which they were more interested in. Ask, and ye shall receive. Here is a consolidated view of the conference sessions on all tracks, with each day on a separate page. PowerShell Summit 2013 Conference Schedule - At at glance Note that if you don"™t have a ticket for the conference, it is sold out for this year. We"™re planning the 2014 conference now, so keep watching this blog for news about that conference as it becomes available. There are already a few posts about it that are worth reviewing if you missed them. Thanks, and enjoy the conference next week! Kirk out.
As you probably know, we’ve been running a survey for PowerShell.org, which helps us both improve the site and create demographic information that makes us appealing to sponsors (who, you know, pay for everything here). We’ve gotten a ton of great feedback. Yeah, we really are reading every single comment you left. Let’s start with the biggies:
Maybe some more guest writers for articles? I imagine it’s difficult with all the articles that get posted all over the net every day, but maybe some of those folks (like the scripting guys or scripting wife) can do some to help the Powershell.org community.
If you’ve been on the site today, you’ve doubtless noticed some of the visual changes. In addition to providing a simpler theme that - over time - will be more mobile-friendly, we’re also lining up for a major move of our discussion forums. That’ll probably happen after TechEd, but we may be able to squeeze it in prior.
The existing forums are fine, but they’re a bit heavy in the code department, and hard to maintain. We’ve also gotten a bit bloated with the categories. Sorry about that. Anyway, the plan is to move to an integrated forums, a simpler hierarchy, and better notification options. It’ll make it a lot easier for us moderators to help answer questions. We’ll be archiving the old content, so it’ll still be accessible and searchable. However… and here’s the rub… we’re gonna ditch your user accounts. We have to. The old database is cloggy with spambots, and we just need to get away from it. We’re going to offer integrated login (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, a bunch others), so you won’t have to entrust your password to us any longer if you don’t want to. We are not linking the old forums to this WordPress site. You’ll be creating a NEW login here, and it can use those external authentication systems. The NEW login you create HERE will be completely separate from any login you have in the existing, old forums. You don’t need to create a new account now - you can wait until the new forums go live. Anyway… that’s all ahead. Love to hear your thoughts as we continue planning. There’s another thing: The PowerShell People site. To be honest, that was created as a kind of… game/toy. Something to see if I could do. We’ve gotten a few people using it but not many, and it just kind of sits there on its own. We’re probably going to be spinning that down, but we’re going to take what we learned from it and try and incorporate something into this main site. No firm ideas, yet, and we’d appreciate any you may have. In the meantime, we’ve already implemented a few changes. The new site theme is perhaps the most obvious; you’ll notice that we’ve also moved a lot of static pages - like the newsletter, Scripting Games, and Summit pages - into the new theme. We’ve also enabled single sign-on to the site, using Facebook, Twitter, Google, OpenID, WordPress.com, and Live ID (or whatever Microsoft is calling it this week). Thanks!
Believe it or not, we are coming up on our one year anniversary, and will be winding down our capital campaign. If you’d like to become a stockholder in PowerShell.org, you will have until June 1st May 15 to do so. Read the details at https://powershell.org/discuss/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=239 if you’re interested! Updated to show May 15 as the cutoff date. Our shareholder meeting notices and ballots will go out on May 16, so we can’t accept new stock purchases after that date.
It’s now available globally. I suggest downloading the Program Guide, which includes the agreement and directions for enrolling. There’s also a specific guide for the PowerShell 3.0 Toolmaking examination, which you should read prior to paying. Once you’ve paid, and sent in the necessary signed paperwork, you’ll get your exam info via e-mail. You can log in at any time to download your exam scenario and begin working. From the time of your first login, the clock starts ticking and you have 24 hours to upload your results. After uploading your results, you’ll hear back within 5 business days - these are graded by a human, not a machine, so be patient.
