Showing off your photos has always been a lot harder than it should be. So we thought that might make an interesting topic for a Silverlight reference application.

Vertigo Software have been working hard on a follow up to their previous reference example application for WPF, family.show and are now happy to announce the release of Slide.Show, a Silverlight 1.0 application open to the public. The source, available on CodePlex. Slide.Show, shows off some of the latest Silverlight technologies while also providing an elegant and simple photo sharing user experience

For more information you can visit either the Vertigo landing page or the codeplex site: 

The Vertigo landing page: http://vertigo.com/slideshow.aspx

The CodePlex project: http://codeplex.com/slideshow (please go kick the tires and add cool new features to the code base)

Yes it’s true. We are now in the process of rolling out the first ‘Mercury’ kits!

If you’ve been working with us over the last 12 months during this early phase of Silverlight and Expression, attended one of the agencies events we’ve held in London or had one to one briefings with us then keep your eyes peeled over the next couple of weeks for your kit to arrive.

Acceptance to Mercury in the UK is through nomination only, via either John Allwright, Expression Product Manager, Jon Harris – User Experience Evangelist or Emma Bateson – Channel Development Manager.

As a member you get access to:

• Free Expression Studio via Mercury Agency Kit

• Local Instructor Lead Workshops & Online Training

• Demos/Samples/Access to ‘How-to Content’

• Free Design & Web Developer Support

• Partner Marketing & PR

• Conference Sponsorship

The home for Mercury is: http://mercury.visitmix.com – which is only available to Mercury members.

There is also a site available for people in the broader design community – http://phizzpop.visitmix.com/

Look forward to seeing you in the forums soon

Just made available …. 23 hours of Video from MIX:UK now live on www.microsoft.com/uk/mix07

…. and of course its a Silverlight player!

As well as the keynote the videos include :

• 4 hours of Scott Guthrie on Silverlight and ASP.NET.
• 2 Hours of Windows Live with Danny Thorpe and Angus Logan
• Agencies covering Viral Gaming, Silverlight, Video and getting started with Silverlight (Kerb, Metaliq, Kempt, Conchango)
• Iron Python, Tablet and mobile, Accessibility, SEO
• Community sessions
• Inspirational Sessions

And apparently we still have a further 13 hours still to be posted!!

Web Experience Stack DVD

The DVD includes trial versions of:

· Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition, SP2

· Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 and .NET Framework 3.0

· Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition, SP2

· Microsoft Visual Studio Professional

· Microsoft Expression Studio (includes Microsoft Expression Web, Expression Blend, Expression Design, and Expression Media)

You can order the DVD here.

One of the most time consuming things about picking up a new technology is the amount of time it takes to get fully under the covers and pull apart the various nuts and bolts.

A great way to get started, I know how it’s how I originally got going in Flash, is to pick apart work that has been done by others.

Family Show is an end to end WPF sample that we are continuing to build out and extend. This has been designed from the outset to be used as learning for the community at large and has had a lot of features added in this, its second full release.

The application can be downloaded from the developers here:
http://www.vertigo.com/familyshow.aspx

The code is available on Codeplex at:
http://www.codeplex.com/familyshow

For more background information on the project visit Tim Sneath’s blog as he has a full write up and history of the project http://blogs.msdn.com/tims/archive/2007/07/17/announcing-family-show-2-0.aspx

In the next few weeks you should see a similar style of posting for the Top Banana Silverlight application. Something to look forward to

There is new content on the Microsoft WW Partner Portal to provide info about the resources available to our Web Partners.  Of course this content has been built in Silverlight and it address the web for different audience types – IT Generalists, Custom Development Companies and Agencies.  

Take a look at this.

We have also produced a DVD – the “Microsoft Web Experience Stack”.  This is a DVD with a VPC image of Windows Server  2003 R2, .NET Framework 2.0 and 3.0, SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio Professional, Expression Suite (Web, Blend, Design, Media).  Partners can order this DVD from here where you will also find webinars, case studies, and white papers.

There’s a lot going on in Microsoft right now as we continue to build out the tools, runtimes, technologies and services that will enable great user experiences on the web, on the desktop and on mobile & devices.

Unfortunately, this can mean trying to find information on our UX-related technologies can lead you to a variety of Microsoft and non-Microsoft websites; making it hard to get a quick overview of the technology, download trial/release software and locate learning materials from one location.

So, to make things a little easier I’ve created a page for each of the key UX-related Microsoft product/technology areas that aims to provide a “5 minute guide to…” resource – providing a quick overview and links to online resources that will help you get started as quickly as possible.

Links to each of the pages, covering ASP.NET AJAX, WPF/E, WPF, Windows Live and Expression Studio, are below:

• ASP.NET AJAX downloads & resources
• Microsoft Expression downloads & resources
• Windows Live downloads & resources
• Windows Presentation Foundation downloads & resources
• “WPF/E” (codename) downloads & resources

Please let me know if these are useful, or if you come across additional resources/links that should be added to these pages.

Posted by: Andrew Shorten