DevCon 2010 added another golden feather to K-MUG, and it brought the K-MUG mission - Learn, Build Contacts & Socialize – into action. Software developers across Kerala got an opportunity to learn about the latest technologies from Microsoft and got opportunity to interact with speakers and peers.  Even though the event was conducted at Trivandrum (southern most state), we got many attendees from other parts of the state especially techies who travelled more than 350 KM. More detailed report can be located here

Last weekend K-MUG had conducted the Microsoft Office 2010 community launch at Technopark Trivandrum. Office 2010 includes extended file format support, user interface updates, and a refined user experience. Office 2010 marks the debut of free online versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, which work in popular web browsers. Microsoft Office 2010 is a productivity suite from Microsoft. This is the latest edition in the suite of office products. Right from the office 97 till the 2010 version, the product has evolved a long way from just a software towards being a platform

We got mixed audience and mainly developers, students and technology enthusiasts as our audience. Vijay Raj , Microsoft MVP, had demonstrated some of the cool features of the Office 2010 as part of the launch. Thanks to Abhishek Kant and Mera windows team for supporting the community launch.

Vijay made it excellent with the following demonstrations.

• Take a screenshot right inside the word or power Point, instead of using a print screen and then editing it in paint.
• Image editing capabilities to remove the background of an image
• Artistic features to design an image – Without using a third party software.
• Pinning a document to the recent list, or jump list for easy access
• How to add Visual text effects in Word to highlight a section of text or letters.
• The recovering capabilities of an office document, when closed prematurely
• How to create data trends chart for each row / column using Sparkline in Excel 2010.
• Improved Animation and Narration features in PowerPoint 2010.
• How to add a Video to a PowerPoint presentation, edit and format them in ease.
• Using sections within a presentation.
• Save presentation as a video
• Broadcasting a PowerPoint presentation to external users through internet.

At the end, We had given the trail version of Office 2010 DVD to all attendees.

We are coming with another mega event named DevCon 2010.  Still we are finalizing the speakers and topics. But you will get some idea about the topics and sessions now. We have some contests as well for the developers, and try to get free Nokia touch phone if you submit the best entry.

More details can be located here.

http://k-mug.org/events/DevCon2010/

Why attend DevCon 2010?

Because you’ll return to the office with cutting-edge insights and expertise that will make life easier for you (and everyone else) at work. Immerse yourself in IT learning opportunities and get your questions answered by renowned technology experts. Even more importantly, engage and collaborate with Microsoft MVPs and thousands of your IT peers, building connections that will last beyond your two days at DevCon.

When

03 (Saturday) and 04 (Sunday) – July – 2010

Where

ParkCenter, Technopark, Trivandrum, Kerala, India

Kerala Microsoft User Group (http://k-mug.org) received the best developer user group in India as part of the Microsoft Community impact award 2010 announced by Microsoft today.  Microsoft Community IMPACT Awards recognizes the great work done by members of the technology community in India to drive awareness, readiness and excitement about Microsoft technologies among the broad Developer and IT Professional ecosystem in INDIA.  Award selection criteria includes the various user group activities (such as technical sessions, trainings, developer conferences etc) conducted by the community in last year. More

Kerala Google Technology User Group activities kicked off by the mega launch event at Technopark Trivandrum. we got 125 members for the launch event.  Techies from different IT companies in and outside Technopark, students and tech entrepreneurs were among the participants.  The event started by Sreejumon by introducing and explaining the objectives and the proposed activities of Kerala GTUG. There were four technical sessions on Google technologies by Anash Oommen, a Developer Programs Engineer from Google, Hyderabad; Praseed Pai, a .net Consultant and Solutions Architect from Kochi; Rajesh Varghese, a Software Engineer at Software Incubator, Trivandrum and Sreejumon who is an Architect with Nokia Bangalore. More details at GTUG site.

We are conducting a contest to promote the Windows 7 features to public. Write about 7 cool features of Windows in Malayalam (either in malayalam fonts, or scan your article), and send to us before Jan 25th. Please ensure, it should be targetting the public, and not the software engineers.  Featured articles shall be published in leading Malayalam news papers. Winners shall get Windows DVDs and Cool gifts.  Enjoy !!!

Dear Sreejumon KP,

Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2010 Microsoft® MVP Award! This award is given to exceptional technical community leaders who actively share their high quality, real world expertise with others. We appreciate your outstanding contributions in ASP/ASP.NET technical communities during the past year.

The Microsoft MVP Award provides us the unique opportunity to celebrate and honor your significant contributions and say “Thank you for your technical leadership.”
Toby Richards
General Manager ,Community & Online Support, Microsoft

We are planning to conduct the next K-MUG User group session on 19th Saturday.  More details can be located under event page of Kerala Microsoft Users Group (K-MUG) web site. Expecting your support!

We have formed a new user group in Kerala named Kerala Google Technology User Group

Our idea is to learn and share technologies from Google, and build a strong Google user community in Kerala. Some of the key areas we are thinking currently (Google will definitely come up with something soon ) are given below.

• Google Ajax APIs – maps, search, visualization, gadgets
• Google Friend Connect and Open Social
• Android – mobile development
• Google App Engine – scalable cloud computing
• Google Web Toolkit – web development platform
• Project Hosting
• Analytics and AdSense – advertising and web analytics
• Google Wave – real-time collaboration and communication
• Google Chrome OS
• ….

More details can be located here in http://www.kerala-gtug.org/

Kerala Microsoft Users Group is turning 1 year now, and we have celebrated our 1st anniversary with Windows 7 Community launch at Kozhikode Focus mall on 31st Oct 2008.  We had our official launch in Kozhikode on Oct 25th 2008 , and we have been doing many activities for last one year.

Naren - emerging film actor from Kerala- was our chief guest. Vic Parmar (MVP from Bangalore) and Jijin (Bangalore IT pro manager) gave an overview about Windows 7 and answered the questions from audience.

Event was conducted in the heart of the city, and we got better public participation.

More snaps can be located here

Very big thanks  to all who make this event a grant success. Hopefully we will have the detailed report in K-MUG site soon.