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Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Resource Kit
The definitive resource for administering Communications Server 2007—from those who know the technology best

Get the definitive reference for deploying, configuring, and supporting Office Communications Server 2007—with expert insights direct from the Microsoft Office Communications Server Team. This official Microsoft RESOURCE KIT delivers in-depth technical guidance on architecture, deployment, security, administration, performance tuning, and troubleshooting Communications Server 2007. You’ll also discover the essential information for working with VOIP and phone integration features. In addition, you get more than 150 timesaving scripts, tools, and other job aids for automating administration, plus an eBook for the entire RESOURCE KIT on CD.

LINK:  http://www.microsoft.com/mspress/books/10482.aspx

Office Communications Server 2007 Resource Kit Tools
DOWNLOAD:  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b9bf4f71-fb0b-4de9-962f-c56b70a8aecd&displaylang=en

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Resource Kit Sample Chapters
DOWNLOAD:  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=407A3E40-350A-4E3D-B60E-C9505668B231&displaylang=en

The 2007 Microsoft SOA & Business Process Conference is only six weeks away! During 4 days of breakout sessions, chalk talk discussions, hands-on-labs, peer networking, social events, and interaction with the Microsoft product groups you will learn about both Microsoft’s current portfolio and long-term strategy for SOA & Business Process initiatives. Whether you are a developer, architect, or business decision maker we will have something for you with tracks spanning the full spectrum of technology, architecture, and business value topics. Every session at the conference is focused on providing Real World guidance based on proven practices and solutions.

What You Can Expect

• Keynote Sessions by Senior Microsoft Executives and Technical Leaders
• Over 60 Breakout Sessions
• Hand-On-Labs
• Customer Case-Studies & Roundtables
• Community Birds of a Feather Reception
• Ask The Experts Reception
• Partner Expo
• Discounted pre/post conference training

Registration is filling up fast so check out the details below and register at the conference website:

Please direct any questions including press, analyst and sponsor inquiries to MicrosoftEvents@DynamicEvents.com.

Keynote Speakers

Don Ferguson
Technical Fellow, Office of the CTO, Microsoft Corp.
Dr. Donald Ferguson is a Microsoft Technical Fellow in Platforms and Strategy in the Office of the CTO. Don focuses on both the evolutionary and revolutionary role of information technology in business. Microsoft expects that Don will be involved in a variety of forward-looking projects.
Prior to joining Microsoft, Don was an IBM Fellow and Chief Architect for IBM’s Software Group (SWG). Don provided overall technical leadership for WebSphere, Tivoli, DB2, Rational and Lotus products. He also chaired the SWG Architecture Board (SWG AB). The SWG AB focused on product integration, cross-product initiatives and emerging technology. Some of the public focus areas were Web services, patterns, Web 2.0 and business driven development. Don guided IBM’s strategy and architecture for SOA and Web services, and co-authored many of the initial Web service specifications.
Don’s primary hobby is martial arts, specifically Kenpo Karate. He earned his black belt in December, 2005.

Robert Wahbe
Corporate Vice President, Connected Systems Division, Microsoft Corp.
As corporate vice president for the Connected Systems Division at Microsoft Corp., Robert Wahbe leads the team responsible for Microsoft’s service-oriented architecture and Web services platform. His key product responsibilities include Microsoft BizTalk Server, Windows Server Active Directory, Microsoft Certificate Lifecycle Manager, and the wide array of distributed system technologies available in Windows and Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0. Through these efforts, Wahbe leads the Connected Systems Division’s efforts to make it substantially easier to build, deploy and manage distributed applications.
Since joining Microsoft in 1996, Wahbe has served in a number of product development roles with a focus on enterprise development tools in Visual Studio. In 2000 he co-founded the team chartered to deliver Web services and the Windows Communication Foundation; out of this grew the Connected Systems Division.
Before joining Microsoft, Wahbe was co-founder of Colusa Software Inc., a privately held software company acquired by Microsoft in 1996. Wahbe graduated in 1992 from the University of California, Berkeley.

Content Tracks

SOA & Business Process issues reach across the entire organization from developers service enabling existing investments to architects recommending IT standards to business analysts optimizing processes and business owners investing in their IT portfolios. The Microsoft SOA & Business Process Conference will provide guidance across this spectrum through tracks focused on Solution Architecture, Infrastructure Architecture and Business Value.
Frameworks & Tools
The Frameworks & Tools track will provide details on the broad portfolio of SOA and business process tools and technologies available from Microsoft and its partner ecosystem. You can expect sessions on everything from the new designers coming in Visual Studio “Orcas” to the wide array of offerings from our SOA & Business Process Alliance partners. You will also see how to leverage new tools in the .NET Framework, BizTalk Server 2006 R2, Office System 2007, System Center, and others.
Solution Architecture
The Solution Architecture track will focus on the design and implementation of service oriented and business process solutions. We will provide best practices and proven patterns for handling challenges with many aspects of solution architecture including: data, identity, user experience, messaging, workflow, and rules. We will also focus on key capabilities such as service and process analysis and design, service enablement, service composition, process modeling, service instrumentation, service & process lifecycle management and others.
Infrastructure Architecture
The Infrastructure Architecture track will focus on the organizational and technical issues faced when planning and establishing service oriented and business process infrastructures in the enterprise. We will provide guidance and best practices on topics ranging from designing and implementing shared infrastructure for service and process management to overcoming cultural challenges when defining standard governance processes. We will also focus on key infrastructure capabilities such as service virtualization, SLA management, policy enforcement, service and process monitoring, governing service consumption and others.
Business Value
The Business Value track will focus on issues ranging from business capability analysis to establishing a SOA roadmap to defining metrics to measure your return on investment. We will provide case studies and guidance to ensure your SOA and business process initiatives demonstrate value quickly and stay focused on business goals. Whether you are a partner practice manager evaluating the business opportunity of SOA and business process or an enterprise decision maker evaluating the potential return on investment of your SOA/BPM initiatives, the Business Value track is for you.

Breakout Session List

Anatomy & Business Value of BPM Solutions

Full-Lifecycle BPM: Process Modeling, Execution, and Implementation in the Microsoft Ecosystem

Driving Value and Alignment Across IT and Business through Business Architecture

Implementing Decision Services in a SOA Infrastructure: Disease Identification Case Study

Enhance the Power of BPM with Workflow and Business Rules

From Shopping Cart to Delivery: Comprehensive Order Lifecycle Management on the Microsoft Platform

Extending the Reach of ERP Solutions through SOA & BPM

Legacy Modernization Best Practices

Lessons Learned from Implementing Multi-Channel B2B Services

Architecture of the Microsoft ESB Guidance

Building Solutions with the Microsoft ESB Guidance

Architecting a Real World Business Process: Loose Coupling and Best of Breed Technology Selection

Facilitating SOA Roadmap Discussions using the Microsoft SOA Maturity Model for Application Platform Optimization (SOAMM)

Aligning, Planning, and Delivering Enterprise Service Oriented Architecture: Microsoft IT Case Study

Driving Successful SOA Platform Conversations with the Microsoft Customer Engagement Solutions

From IT Agility to Business Agility: Deliver Business enabled SOA and New Level of People-Driven Operational Excellence with A Modern BPMS

Industrialized Service Delivery Platforms: Today and Tomorrow

Internet Service Bus: Service Connectivity at Internet Scale

SOA in Banking: Building a Roadmap

Carrier Grade BizTalk: Lessons Learned from a Mission Critical SOA Solution

SOA in the Commercial Sector: Overcoming Challenging LOB Issues in Manufacturing, Retail, and Financial Services

Healthcare Enterprise Integration: Examining the Impact of SOA & BPM on Healthcare Initiatives

Building and Evolving a SOA Solution in a Rapidly Changing Business Environment: A Case Study in Agility

Connecting the Digital and Physical Worlds through RFID and SOA

Designing a Flexible Governance Infrastructure

SOA Governance and the Microsoft Ecosystem

Service Integrity: Using Visual Studio Team System to Deliver the Right Services at the Right Time

Service Lifecycle Management: Overcoming Challenges in Managing the Provider/Consumer Relationship

Building a Service Monitoring Infrastructure with BizTalk Business Activity Monitoring

Gaining Control of Your SOA: Management and Visibility of Your Services

Defining and Measuring Service Levels in Distributed Systems

Service Virtualization with .NET and BizTalk Server

Building Composite Applications on the Office Platform: A Loan Origination Case Study

Microsoft Excel: Software + Services Made Real Today

The Human-Facing SOA: Realizing the Value of Process and Services with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

User Experience Today: An Architectural Perspective of Silverlight, AJAX, and ASP.NET

Building Service Oriented UI using Smart Client Software Factory and Acropolis

Demystifying Identity for Developers

Interoperability of .NET and WebSphere: .NET Stock Trader Reference Application

Comparing and Contrasting .NET and J2EE Programming Models

Integrating EJB, JMS and CORBA Assets with BizTalk Server 2006 R2

Real World Interoperability with WCF

Web Service Software Factory: Driving Consistency and Best Practices into Your Service Design

Choosing Between BizTalk Server and Windows Workflow Foundation

Robust Error Handling for BizTalk Solutions

BizTalk Adapters for WCF

Reliable Messaging on the Microsoft Platform

Building HIPAA Solutions with BizTalk Server 2006 R2

Unifying Line of Business Integration: Introducing the .NET LOB Adapter SDK

Best Practices for Testing BizTalk Solutions

Best Practices for Creating Composite Activities in WF

BizTalk Server Advanced Orchestration Concepts

Discounted Training Offers for Conference Attendees

We are pleased to announce discounted training offers from our training partners QuickLearn and PluralSight. These courses have been scheduled to run either immediately before or after the conference in an effort to maximize your travel investment and provide as many learning opportunities as possible. You can find course schedules and links to the training partner sites with more details on the contents, price and style of each offering on the conference website.

Sponsors & Exhibitors

Sponsorship and exhibition opportunities including expo booths, general sessions, and co-branding are available to partners to showcase their latest solutions and innovation allowing attendees to test-drive key technologies and receive one-on-one, informed answers to questions. If you are interested in sponsorship, please email MicrosoftEvents@DynamicEvents.com.

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This site hosted for Microsoft by Dynamic Events MicrosoftEvents@DynamicEvents.com

Live Meeting: Microsoft Forefront – Comprehensive line of business security products

The Microsoft Forefront comprehensive line of business security products provides greater protection and control through integration with your existing IT infrastructure and through simplified deployment, management, and analysis. Forefront is a comprehensive solution that helps provide protection for the client operating system, application servers, and the network edge.

Join this monthly Live Meeting to learn how Microsoft Forefront family of business security products helps provide greater protection and control over the security of your network infrastructure. Microsoft Forefront’s products easily integrate with each other, with your organization’s IT infrastructure, and can be supplemented through interoperable third-party solutions, enabling end-to-end, defense-in-depth security solutions. This session will be led by SoCal’s Microsoft’s Security Technology Specialist covering the following agenda:

• Microsoft Forefront Overview
• Forefront Client Security
• Forefront Server Security
  • Forefront Security for Exchange Server
  • Forefront Security for SharePoint
• Forefront Edge Security
  • Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2006
  • Microsoft’s Intelligent Application Gateway (IAG) 2007

Registration:

Please RSVP for this “invitation only” event by clicking the links below. Call 1.877.MSEVENT (877.673.8366) or visit http://msevents.microsoft.com/ and search on the Event Code.

• September 24:              Event Code: 1032351688           12:00pm – 1:00pm
• October 29:                   Event Code: 1032351690           12:00pm – 1:00pm
• November 26:               Event Code: 1032351692           12:00pm – 1:00pm
• December 17:               Event Code: 1032351694           12:00pm – 1:00pm

Live Meeting: Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007

System Center Configuration Manager 2007 is the next version of Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003. Configuration Manager 2007 contributes to a more effective IT department by enabling secure and scalable operating system and application deployment and desired configuration management, enhancing system security and providing comprehensive asset management of servers, desktops, and mobile devices.

Join this monthly Live Meeting to learn how System Center Configuration Manager 2007 delivers adaptive, policy-based automation to manage the full deployment, update and extension lifecycle for servers, clients and handheld devices, across physical, virtual, distributed or mobile systems. This session will be led by SoCal’s Microsoft’s Management Technology Specialist focusing on different topics each month:

• September 24: Focus on – Comprehensive overview of Microsoft System Center
• October 29: Focus on – Asset Intelligence
• November 26: Focus on – Operating System Deployment
• December 17: Focus on – Desired Configuration Monitoring

Registration:

Please RSVP for this “invitation only” event by clicking the links below. Call 1.877.MSEVENT (877.673.8366) or visit http://msevents.microsoft.com/ and search on the Event Code.

• September 24:              Event Code: 1032351680  11:00am – 12:00pm
• October 29:                   Event Code: 1032351682  11:00am – 12:00pm
• November 26:               Event Code: 1032351684 11:00am – 12:00pm
• December 17:               Event Code: 1032351686 11:00am – 12:00pm

Live Meeting:  Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 – End to End Service Monitoring

As companies grow their businesses, add more employees, and roll out new applications or services, their Information Technology (IT) environment becomes more challenging to manage. The result is ever-increasing costs and complexity which hinder the ability of IT to focus on delivering value to the business. According to analysts, seventy percent (70%) of current IT budgets are spent maintaining existing projects and IT services vs. adding new business value.

Join this monthly Live Meeting to learn how System Center Operations Manager 2007 solves the end-to-end service management challenge. System Center Operations Manager 2007 provides best of breed end-to-end service management for Microsoft Windows®, helping you increase efficiency and achieve greater control over your IT environment. This session will be led by SoCal’s Microsoft’s Management Technology Specialist covering the following agenda:

• What is a Distributed Application?
• Monitoring Challenges
• Design your Distributed Application
• Monitoring Individual Components
• Recording Synthetic Transactions
• Edit Distributed Application – Reprise

Registration:

Please RSVP for this “invitation only” event by clicking the links below. Call 1.877.MSEVENT (877.673.8366) or visit http://msevents.microsoft.com/ and search on the Event Code.

• September 24:              Event Code: 1032351538           10:00am – 11:00am
• October 29:                   Event Code: 1032351677           10:00am – 11:00am
• November 26:               Event Code: 1032351678           10:00am – 11:00am
• December 17:               Event Code: 1032351679           10:00am – 11:00am

It’s apparently a video documenting a monument created to remember the war against the Covenant and Master Chief Petty Officer John 117: 

"Rebuilding the memory without the assistance of machines, by only the hand of man"

VISIT:  http://halo3.com/believe

This apparently accompanies the "Believe" commercial that is being broadcast on TV & Xbox Live, showing a testimonial of a Covenant War Veteran.

Judging by what’s still "left to be added" there are 4 videos still to be revealed on the web site.  The Making of the War Monument and the Testimonial of Pawel Czernek are just two videos posted so far.

Brandweek wrote a very interesting article describing Microsoft’s advertising campaign for Halo 3.

Strategy: Anatomy Of An Onslaught: How Halo 3 Attacked
Ten months in the making, Halo 3 went gold weeks before launch.

September 10, 2007
By Kenneth Hein

This week, Microsoft breaks its Halo 3 "Believe" TV ad campaign touting the Xbox 360 title’s highly-anticipated Sept. 25 launch. The estimated $10 million-plus effort centers on an immaculately constructed diorama depicting the great battles of lead character Master Chief. With this as a backdrop, warriors that did battle with the game’s hero provide testimonials as to his greatness in the ads created by McCann-Erickson, San Francisco.

The goal of the campaign is to bring Halo fans and nonfans up-to-speed as to where we are in Master Chief’s epic battle to defeat the evil Covenant. While most major game titles begin their ad campaigns weeks before launch to build buzz, Halo 3 differs greatly. This mass-market push is actually the end of the of Halo 3 campaign.

The TV push is the grand finale of a five-pronged attack Microsoft quietly launched last December. The carefully orchestrated onslaught was designed to make casual fans interested and core fans rabid as Microsoft aims to eclipse Halo 2’s record-breaking $125 million in sales on day one. To date, Halo 3 is already on the books for one million preorders and counting.

…

FULL ARTICLE:
http://www.brandweek.com/bw/magazine/current/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003637129

This is cool:  A Halo 3 Branded Newsreader.  It’s actually a sponsored tool from Mountain Dew & Microsoft, so don’t worry about the file coming from Skinkers.com… we hired Skinkers to build the product.  It’s auto-populated with several major Halo new sites however it can work with any newsfeed.  I don’t know how to import an OPML file into it however but I’m sure it’s in there somewhere. 

It has a news ticker as well as a systray notifier when new news is discovered.

DOWNLOAD:  http://www.xbox.com/halo3newsreader

Nuff said?

http://www.gamersyde.com/extstream_4339_en

For those of you who hadn’t heard yet, the Halo 3 Launch is happening in Los Angeles at:

Gamestop
1000 Universal Studios Blvd
Universal City, CA 91608
(More on this launch and other promotions here)

Additionally, there will be Midnight Madness Halo 3 releases at game stores all throughout Los Angeles.  A Midnight Madness event is where Halo 3 can be picked up by individuals who’ve preordered their copy ahead of time at the stroke of Midnight at the store they purchased their copy from:

An unprecedented number – more than 10,000 retailers in the United States alone – will be opening their doors at midnight on September 25 to usher in the biggest day in entertainment history. Fans will be invited to participate in a variety of activities at local retailers to countdown to “Halo 3’s” launch. Major regional events will be held in select locations including New York City, Seattle, Los Angeles and Miami. Those who make the trek to be a part of the countdown could score free merchandise and get a chance to play “Halo 3” with local celebrities in on-site Game with Fame sessions!