Looking back at SharePoint Sri Lanka User Group

2011 was a successful year for the SharePoint community in Sri Lanka. Few of us with the help of Microsoft, started the SharePoint Sri Lanka User Group.  I will never forget the great help and encouragement received from Dinesh Priyankara and Gogula in making this dream come true. Oh! special thanks goes to Wellington Perera. Thanks all who contributed by conducting sessions and to all who attended and making each session a success.

I gave a promise of giving T-Shirts to the first 10 users. Let’s see, what if someone sponsors to give T-shirts to the first 100 users .

Keep on counting… it’s 2012, we have a lot planned for you.

1st Session

2nd Session

3rd Session

4th Session

5th Session

6th Session

7th Session

8th Session

9th Session

Launch of www.SharePointSriLanka.org

This was a dream came true. Finally on 12th of January 2011 we were so happy to announce the launch of the Sri Lankan SharePoint Forum. The online forum which can be reached at www.SharePointSriLanka.org or www.SharePointSriLanka.com or www.SharePointSriLanka.net. The offline forum which will take place on second Wednesday of every month.

These forums are the official Microsoft Approved forums dedicated to SharePoint and related products. What you see above is the  logo of SharePoint Sri Lanka Forum. This logo has the meaning of collaboration which is the idea behind the product SharePoint. Its represented by the 4 colored people.

For the launch there were over 130 attendees. And there were two technical sessions held. The first sessions which was a the 1st of a series, on SharePoint branding hosted by Abul Azad a SharePoint UX Expert. The second session was on Claim-based Authentication hosted by me.

I’m so happy to be one of the founders of SharePointSriLanka forum. Also my special thanks goes to Gogula (One of the founders of SQLServer Universe and MVP SQL Server) who came up with the idea and was behind me nagging all times till we launch it. How can I forget, Dinesh Priyankara (One of the founders of SQLServer Universe and MVP SQL Server) the BI Guru for being there for me always (even paid for the soft drinks ) and helping in all matters to make the SharePoint Forum a success.

Also many thanks to Dinusha Kumarasiri and Abul Azad for the sleepless nights spent to bring the www.SharePointSriLanka.org up and running. And not to forget the one and only Wela, Wellington Perera, without your support this wont be a success, you know it well buddy.

Okay, this offline forum is not only for SharePoint Experts. We have planned to have two sessions each day, giving a chance for a newcomer to do a session on any SharePoint related technology or product. And the second session will be hosted by a person with more experience on the product.

Now you know, you have a place to publish your articles, blogs, ask questions on related technologies. So guys get registered soon and help make SharePointSriLanka a better place for you.

Knowledge Sharing with Peradeniya Engineering Undergraduates

As for my understanding it’s the most beautiful University in Sri Lanka, the Peradeniya University. Thanks to Microsoft Technology Evangelist Wellington and Dinesh Priyankara (MVP – SQL) I got a chance to host two technical sessions for Engineering students at Peradeniya University.

First session was an Introduction to .NET Framework and Visual Studio IDE hosted by me. Windows Server 2008 and IIS was done by Susantha Silva. Third session which was an Introduction to MS SQL Server was done by Dinesh Priyankara (MVP). Back again the fourth session was a Deep Dive session which was on LINQ (Language Integrated Query) done by me. Wellington hosted a session on Silverlight. Also not to forget, Tharindu Nanayakara explained the importance of communities-Student Champ.

Well, it was a good experience as 99% of the students were from an open source background. But I’m sure they were so impressed seeing the new UI and features of Visual Studio 2010. One thing that worries me is, I didn't have enough time to go through all the wonderful features of VS 2010.

Presentations are available to download…

Some pics of the event after the break.

Many thanks to Chanarangana Rathnayake and all who supported to make the session a success.

Code Camp

Code Camp!! A Code Camp is bit of a new word for the Sri Lankan tech community. But as the Sri Lankan .Net Forum we are proud to announce the 1st Code Camp held in Sri Lanka. It was on 6th August 2009 at Excel World.

The event went very well, there were 7 tables hosted by MVPs and techies from the .Net community. Just to name them Joy Pradeep - SharePoint, Jinath Premarathne – ASP.Net, Prabath Fonseka – Patterns and Practices, Dinesh Asanka – MS SQL, Chanaka Gamage – Windows Workflow Foundation, Chandana Athauda - Azure and Uditha Bandara – Windows Presentation Foundation.

5th Anniversary of the .Net Forum Sri Lanka

I know I’m late on the below post and the one to come next. But it’s better to be late than never.

24th July 2009 was a remarkable day for the Sri Lankan .net forum community. It was the fifth anniversary of the .Net forum. It started with a nice “a look back” video from Wellington. First session on “What’s new in Visual Studio 2010” was carried by Joy. “What’s new in .Net Framework 4.0”, the second session was conducted by me. Third session “MVC” was hosted by Fikri.

It was nice to see the auditorium on 3rd floor was filled with the members of the forum. This wasn’t an end of a journey but another promising step towards a long way ahead and a look back of the successful journey we have come.

Thanks Wela for the beautiful pic.

Design Patterns in .NET Framework

First of all I would like to thank all who participated for Sri Lanka .NET Forum June 4th Session and to make it a success. Also my special thanks go to Wellinton and Jinath who gave me this opportunity.

Time to apologies, I’m extremely sorry for getting delayed [3 days] to upload the presentation. Presentation is uploaded here in PDF format [PDF reader required].

http://cid-ffdefd872b33a2df.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/.Public

Please do not think twice in putting your comments about the session… all kinds of comments are welcome.