In case you missed it, MS AJAX 1.0 is now released. Now you can play for real :) Check out Scott Guthrie’s blog for details. Or if you want to go strait for the download, you’ll find it at ajax.asp.net.

The guys at Microsoft Patterns & Practices have created a new site for upcoming releases. Nice to see what’s going on release wise. Take a look at Tom Hollanders blog to get the complete story.

Just wanted to let you know that we have put out the agenda for the january meeting at NNUG in Bergen. You’ll find it here: http://www.nnug.no/Avdelinger/Bergen/Moter/Brukergruppemote-Januar/. Don’t forget to register so we know how much food to order. See you there.

Last year I was in Stavanger speaking for NNUG. After the
meeting some of the guys went out to have a beer and invited me with them.
While we were sitting there and talking about stuff we’re only aloud to in
circumstances like these, joined by fellow .Net mates (as appose to when we’re
out with <normal/> people), we came across the subject of Scrum. I
mentioned we were going to adopt Scrum, and in next sentence started talking
about how we had grouped our office landscape. Not using cubicles but having
all tables in the centre of the room, all looking in. One of the guys
interrupted me and said: “You’re not suggesting that Scrum has anything to do
with how you organize your landscape do you?” I responded; “Of course not!” and
continued.

In this room we are 12 developers sitting around this “table”. We love it! (Thanks Torbjørn for the picture)

After doing some more studying on Scrum and having practiced
it for a few weeks, this somehow came back to me. If I had that same
conversation today I would have answered; “I sure do. Don’t you?“

Scrum is all about Team communication. Letting a team being
a team, performing as a team, talking as a team, making decisions as a team and
so on. Very often Scrum starts out as a desperate solution for a team that
keeps failing. They adopt Scrum and the team starts having success again,
together, as a team. Why is that? I think it’s mainly because scrum (if
properly adopted) focus on team communication. How do you communicate best with
your team mate? If you turn your head and talk to him or if you have to climb
over a wall (or maybe two, three…) to make contact?

This is a topic that has been widely discussed
by many. I know one guy in particular who disagree with me on this; Joel Spolsky
(Joel on Software). I must admit that
he has done a great job getting me to doubt if we’re doing the “right” thing.
Joel says that if you get interrupted in your work, you lose concentration and
focus. It will then take you about 15 minutes before you’re back on track.

I think this has a lot to do with who you are as a person, if
you’re working on the same functionality (same problem domain) or actually in which
country you live. Some people communicate well, others don’t. Some like talking,
some don’t. If you’re working on the same problem as the guy next to you I think
that could be really beneficial. If you live in Norway (like I do) we usually don’t
sit in cubicles. We usually sit in an open landscape communicating freely. It might
be a European thing, I don’t know…

Anyway, I am a strong believer of Scrum and I think
it’s easier to adopt if your team is sitting in a landscape. Do you?

I’m now officially the new leader of Norwegian .Net User Group
in Bergen. I’d like to give Jon Andreas
Bygstad great thanks for his excellent work and making NNUG in Bergen possible.
And also for retire from his position to make room for me. Just kidding.

Even though Jon Andreas decided
not to have the main responsibility anymore, he will still be on the board participating
like before. I have a lot to learn and will depend on his experience to
be able to make NNUG in Bergen even better than it is today. I think NNUG’s future
looks very promising and I hope you as a developer, architect, student or whatever
position you have know how to take advantage of NNUG. We work hard to give you free
updates on technology, speakers and pizza every month. So if you’re not a member
of NNUG yet, go register now! Did I say it was FREE?!!

If you’d like to participate,
that being demo something you think is cool or try how it feels to be a speaker,
we will be glad to hear from you. Our main goal is to make our .Net community in
Bergen learn from each other by participating with subjects that is of interest
to others. Also if you have any suggestions to how NNUG can be better, tell us about
it! Go here to send us an email