Last week was MIX in the UK and we had quite a few of the team attending.

It was a good couple of days, meeting people and talking about what we and they were doing. One of the recurring themes seemed to be the continued integration of design and development teams when working on Silverlight type projects.

This is something that we’ve been doing for a while now, moving everyone around so that they sit next to each other when working on projects, making sure they have joint project ownership, regular integration sessions, regular deployments, etc. Over the last year or so, this has totally changed how we work, not just on these projects but on everything we do, and while the technology has accelerated us into improving things, the bit I find most encouraging is the impetus that this has provided to continually challenge and improve how we work. A great ethos for all companies.

From a technical perspective the ADO.NET Data Services presentation seems to have been the one which the developers enjoyed the most.

At Mix I went to more of the design focused sessions, a few of which were presented by Bill Buxton and while his presentation style may take a little getting used to you, can certainly get value from what he’s saying. One of my favourite bits was his ‘Long Nose of Innovation’ concept which he published on Business Week.



I’ve seen this happen, sometimes with a long time frame, sometimes with it being short, but on the whole it’s always there. I’ve spent some of the weekend trying to think about what I can do to shorten the time frame more consistently. I’ve not come up with any concrete ideas yet but definitely got a few options which I’m going to try out. I’ll try to post those that work.

Tags: MIX, Bill Buxton, Silverlight, The Long Nose of Innovation, ADO.NET Data Services