{"id":1746,"date":"2010-04-14T23:59:51","date_gmt":"2010-04-14T23:59:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1746"},"modified":"2012-09-05T19:41:36","modified_gmt":"2012-09-05T18:41:36","slug":"after-hours-at-uk-techdays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2010\/04\/after-hours-at-uk-techdays.htm","title":{"rendered":"After hours at UK TechDays"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Over the last few years, I&#8217;ve attended (and blogged in detail about) a couple of &#8220;after hours&#8221; events at Microsoft &#8211; looking at some of the consumer-related items that we might do with out computers outside of work (first in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2007\/05\/get-a-mac-maybe-but-windows-vista-offers-a-more-complete-package-than-you-might-think.htm\">May 2007<\/a> and then in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2008\/11\/microsoft-after-hours-the-sequel.htm\">November 2008<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Tonight I was at another one &#8211; an evening event to complement the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2010\/02\/did-you-miss-teched-here-come-the-uk-techdays.htm\">UK TechDays events taking place this week<\/a> in West London cinemas &#8211; and, unlike previous after hours sessions, this one did not even try and push Microsoft products at us (previous events felt a bit like Windows, Xbox and Live promotions at time) &#8211; it just demonstrated a whole load of cool stuff that people might want to take a look at.<\/p>\n<p>I have to admit I nearly didn&#8217;t attend &#8211; the daytime UK TechDays events have been a little patchy in terms of content quality and I&#8217;m feeling slightly burned out after what has been a busy week with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2010\/03\/why-windows-server-user-group-meetings-are-a-bit-like-london-buses.htm\">two Windows Server User Group evening events<\/a> on top of UK TechDays and the normal work e-mail triage activities.\u00a0 I&#8217;m glad I made it though and the following list is just a few of the things we saw <a href=\"http:\/\/www.marcmywords.org\/\">Marc Holmes<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/wotudo.net\/\">Paul Foster<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/jamieeburgess.com\/\">Jamie Burgess<\/a> present\u00a0tonight:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A discussion of some of the home network functionality that the guys are using for media, home automation etc. &#8211; predictably a huge amount of Microsoft media items (Media Center PCs, Windows Home Server, Xbox 360, etc.) but also the use of\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/X10_(industry_standard)\">X10<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Z-Wave\">Z-Wave<\/a>\u00a0or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rfxcom.com\/\">RFXcom<\/a>\u00a0for pushing USB or RF signals around for home automation purposes, as well as Ethernet over power line for streaming from Media Center PCs.\u00a0 Other technologies discussed included: Logitech&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.logitech.com\/en-us\/keyboards\/keyboard\/devices\/192\">DiNovo Edge keyboard<\/a>\u00a0and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.logitech.com\/en-gb\/remotes\/universal_remotes\/devices\/3898\">Harmony One universal remote control<\/a>; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.silicondust.com\/products\/hdhomerun_dvbt\">SiliconDust HD HomeRun<\/a> for sharing DVB-T TV signals across Ethernet to PCs; using <a href=\"http:\/\/xplproject.org.uk\/\">xPL<\/a> to control home automation equipment.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/mindstorms.lego.com\/en-GB\/default.aspx\">Lego Mindstorms NXT<\/a> for building block robotics, including the <a href=\"http:\/\/firsthandtechnology.org.uk\">First Lego League<\/a> &#8211;\u00a0 to inspire young people to get involved with science and technology in a positive way.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/fuse.microsoft.com\/kodu.html\">Kodu Game Lab<\/a> &#8211; a visual programming language made specifically for creating games that is designed to be accessible for children and enjoyable for anyone.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/aa937791.aspx\">Developing XNA games<\/a>\u00a0with <a href=\"http:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/bb200104.aspx\">XNA Game Studio<\/a>\u00a0and Visual Studio, then deploying them to Xbox or even running them\u00a0in the Windows Phone emulator!\u00a0 Other related topics included the use of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.freescale.com\/webapp\/sps\/site\/prod_summary.jsp?code=JMBADGE\">Freescale Flexis JM Badge board<\/a>\u00a0to integrate an accelerometer with an XNA\u00a0game and <a href=\"http:\/\/goblinxna.codeplex.com\/\">GoblinXNA<\/a> for augmented reality\/3D games development.\u00a0 There&#8217;s also a <a href=\"http:\/\/xna-uk.net\/\">UK XNA user group<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>A look at how research projects (from Microsoft Research) move into Labs and eventually become products after developers have optimised and integrated them.\u00a0 Microsoft spent $9.5bn on research and development in 2009 and some of the research activities that have now made it to life include <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2008\/08\/photosynth.htm\">Photosynth<\/a> (which became a Windows client application and is now included within Silverlight), the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.seadragon.com\/\">Seadragon<\/a> technologies which also became a part of Silverlight\u00a0(Deep Zoom) and are featured in the <a href=\"http:\/\/memorabilia.hardrock.com\/\">Hard Rock Cafe Memorabilia<\/a>\u00a0site.\u00a0 A stunning\u00a0example is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ted.com\/talks\/lang\/eng\/blaise_aguera.html\">Blaise Aguera y Arcas&#8217; TED 2010 talk<\/a> on the work that Microsoft is doing to integrate augmented reality maps in Bing &#8211; drawing on the Seadragon technologies to provide fluidity whilst navigating maps in 3D but that environment can be used as a canvas for other things &#8211; like streetside photos (far more detailed than Google Streetview).\u00a0 In his talk (which is worth watching and embedded below), Blaise navigates off the street and actually inside Seattle&#8217;s Pike Place market before showing how the Microsoft imagery can be integrated with Flickr images (possibly historical images for &#8220;time travel&#8221;) and even broadcasting live video.\u00a0 In addition to the telepresence (looking from the outside in), poins of interest can be used to look out when on the ground and get details of what&#8217;s around and even looking up to the sky and seeing integration with the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.worldwidetelescope.org\/\">Microsoft Research WorldWide Telescope<\/a>.<br \/>\n<object width=\"446\" height=\"326\" classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\" bgcolor=\"#ffffff\"><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\" \/><param name=\"bgColor\" value=\"#ffffff\" \/><param name=\"flashvars\" value=\"vu=http:\/\/video.ted.com\/talks\/dynamic\/BlaiseAguerayArcas_2010-medium.mp4&amp;su=http:\/\/images.ted.com\/images\/ted\/tedindex\/embed-posters\/BlaiseAgueraYArcas-2010.embed_thumbnail.jpg&amp;vw=432&amp;vh=240&amp;ap=0&amp;ti=766&amp;introDuration=16500&amp;adDuration=4000&amp;postAdDuration=2000&amp;adKeys=talk=blaise_aguera;year=2010;theme=a_taste_of_ted2010;theme=the_creative_spark;theme=new_on_ted_com;event=TED2010;&amp;preAdTag=tconf.ted\/embed;tile=1;sz=512x288;\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/video.ted.com\/assets\/player\/swf\/EmbedPlayer.swf\" \/><param name=\"pluginspace\" value=\"http:\/\/www.macromedia.com\/go\/getflashplayer\" \/><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><\/object><\/li>\n<li>Finally, Paul spoke about his creation of a multitouch (Surface) table for less than \u00a3100 (using CCTV infrared cameras, a webcam with the IR filter removed and NUI software &#8211; it&#8217;s now possible to do the same with Windows 7) and a borrowed projector before discussing his own attempts at virtual reality in his paddock at home.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Whilst I&#8217;m unlikely to get stuck into all of these projects, there is plenty of geek scope here &#8211;\u00a0I may have a play with home automation and it&#8217;s good to know some of the possibilities for getting my kids involved with creating their own games, robots, etc. As for Blaise Aguera y Arcas&#8217; TED 2010\u00a0talk it was fantastic to see how Microsoft still innovates and (I only wish that all of the Bing features were available globally&#8230; here in the UK we don&#8217;t have all of the functionality that&#8217;s available stateside).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the last few years, I&#8217;ve attended (and blogged in detail about) a couple of &#8220;after hours&#8221; events at Microsoft &#8211; looking at some of the consumer-related items that we might do with out computers outside of work (first in May 2007 and then in\u00a0November 2008). Tonight I was at another one &#8211; an evening &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2010\/04\/after-hours-at-uk-techdays.htm\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">After hours at UK TechDays<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[218],"tags":[309,426,470,1,209,471,32,460],"class_list":["post-1746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-augmented-reality","tag-games","tag-lego","tag-microsoft","tag-bing","tag-photosynth","tag-pc-hardware","tag-surface"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>After hours at UK TechDays - markwilson.it<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2010\/04\/after-hours-at-uk-techdays.htm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"After hours at UK TechDays - markwilson.it\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Over the last few years, I&#8217;ve attended (and blogged in detail about) a couple of &#8220;after hours&#8221; events at Microsoft &#8211; looking at some of the consumer-related items that we might do with out computers outside of work (first in May 2007 and then in\u00a0November 2008). Tonight I was at another one &#8211; an evening &hellip; Continue reading After hours at UK TechDays\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2010\/04\/after-hours-at-uk-techdays.htm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"markwilson.it\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-04-14T23:59:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-09-05T18:41:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Wilson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@markwilsonit\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@markwilsonit\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark Wilson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2010\\\/04\\\/after-hours-at-uk-techdays.htm#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2010\\\/04\\\/after-hours-at-uk-techdays.htm\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Mark Wilson\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468\"},\"headline\":\"After hours at UK TechDays\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-04-14T23:59:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-09-05T18:41:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2010\\\/04\\\/after-hours-at-uk-techdays.htm\"},\"wordCount\":815,\"commentCount\":3,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468\"},\"keywords\":[\"Augmented Reality\",\"Games\",\"Lego\",\"Microsoft\",\"Microsoft Bing\",\"Microsoft Photosynth\",\"PC Hardware\",\"Surface\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Technology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2010\\\/04\\\/after-hours-at-uk-techdays.htm#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2010\\\/04\\\/after-hours-at-uk-techdays.htm\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2010\\\/04\\\/after-hours-at-uk-techdays.htm\",\"name\":\"After hours at UK TechDays - markwilson.it\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-04-14T23:59:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-09-05T18:41:36+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2010\\\/04\\\/after-hours-at-uk-techdays.htm#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2010\\\/04\\\/after-hours-at-uk-techdays.htm\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2010\\\/04\\\/after-hours-at-uk-techdays.htm#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"After hours at UK TechDays\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"markwilson.it\",\"description\":\"get-info -class technology | write-output &gt; \\\/dev\\\/web\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468\",\"name\":\"Mark Wilson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/uploads\\\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/uploads\\\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/uploads\\\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1\",\"width\":800,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"Mark Wilson\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/uploads\\\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1\"},\"description\":\"A Chartered IT Professional, with recent experience in technology leadership, IT strategy and practice management roles, Mark Wilson is an Enterprise Architect in the Advisory and Management Group at risual. During a career spanning more than two decades, Mark has gained widespread recognition as an expert in his field including both industry and national press exposure. In addition to certifications from Microsoft, VMware, Red Hat, The Open Group and Axelos, Mark held a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award for three years and is now part of the MVP Reconnect programme. Mark is also well-known on social media and maintains an award-winning blog.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/markwilsonuk\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/in\\\/markawilson\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/markwilsonit\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/channel\\\/UCWHlZCoHRTocdvtrOJ2IL4A\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/mark-wilson\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"After hours at UK TechDays - markwilson.it","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2010\/04\/after-hours-at-uk-techdays.htm","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"After hours at UK TechDays - markwilson.it","og_description":"Over the last few years, I&#8217;ve attended (and blogged in detail about) a couple of &#8220;after hours&#8221; events at Microsoft &#8211; looking at some of the consumer-related items that we might do with out computers outside of work (first in May 2007 and then in\u00a0November 2008). Tonight I was at another one &#8211; an evening &hellip; Continue reading After hours at UK TechDays","og_url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2010\/04\/after-hours-at-uk-techdays.htm","og_site_name":"markwilson.it","article_published_time":"2010-04-14T23:59:51+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-09-05T18:41:36+00:00","author":"Mark Wilson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@markwilsonit","twitter_site":"@markwilsonit","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mark Wilson","Estimated reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2010\/04\/after-hours-at-uk-techdays.htm#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2010\/04\/after-hours-at-uk-techdays.htm"},"author":{"name":"Mark Wilson","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468"},"headline":"After hours at UK TechDays","datePublished":"2010-04-14T23:59:51+00:00","dateModified":"2012-09-05T18:41:36+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2010\/04\/after-hours-at-uk-techdays.htm"},"wordCount":815,"commentCount":3,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468"},"keywords":["Augmented Reality","Games","Lego","Microsoft","Microsoft Bing","Microsoft Photosynth","PC Hardware","Surface"],"articleSection":["Technology"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2010\/04\/after-hours-at-uk-techdays.htm#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2010\/04\/after-hours-at-uk-techdays.htm","url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2010\/04\/after-hours-at-uk-techdays.htm","name":"After hours at UK TechDays - markwilson.it","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-04-14T23:59:51+00:00","dateModified":"2012-09-05T18:41:36+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2010\/04\/after-hours-at-uk-techdays.htm#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2010\/04\/after-hours-at-uk-techdays.htm"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2010\/04\/after-hours-at-uk-techdays.htm#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"After hours at UK TechDays"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/","name":"markwilson.it","description":"get-info -class technology | write-output &gt; \/dev\/web","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468","name":"Mark Wilson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1","width":800,"height":800,"caption":"Mark Wilson"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1"},"description":"A Chartered IT Professional, with recent experience in technology leadership, IT strategy and practice management roles, Mark Wilson is an Enterprise Architect in the Advisory and Management Group at risual. During a career spanning more than two decades, Mark has gained widespread recognition as an expert in his field including both industry and national press exposure. In addition to certifications from Microsoft, VMware, Red Hat, The Open Group and Axelos, Mark held a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award for three years and is now part of the MVP Reconnect programme. Mark is also well-known on social media and maintains an award-winning blog.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/markwilsonuk\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/markawilson\/","https:\/\/x.com\/markwilsonit","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCWHlZCoHRTocdvtrOJ2IL4A"],"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/author\/mark-wilson"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5487,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2015\/02\/techdays-online-2015.htm","url_meta":{"origin":1746,"position":0},"title":"Microsoft #TechDays Online 2015","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Friday 13 February 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week, was Microsoft UK's TechDays Online conference, held over three days with thousands of virtual attendees watching\/listening\u00a0to sessions on a variety of topics, starting off in the IT Pro arena\u00a0with a keynote on Windows 10 from Journalist and Author\u00a0Mary Jo Foley\u00a0(@MaryJoFoley), Windows Server, on to Intune, Office 365, progressing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/topic\/technology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1644,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2010\/02\/did-you-miss-teched-here-come-the-uk-techdays.htm","url_meta":{"origin":1746,"position":1},"title":"Did you miss TechEd? Here come the UK TechDays","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Wednesday 17 February 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"UK Tech Days is a week-long series of free events run by Microsoft and technical communities to celebrate and inspire developers, IT professionals and IT Managers to get more from Microsoft technology.\u00c2\u00a0 Over 5 days (12th to 16th April 2010), Microsoft is running 10 all-day events covering the latest technology\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Microsoft\"","block_context":{"text":"Microsoft","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/tag\/microsoft"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1653,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2010\/03\/user-group-meeting-windows-server-user-group.htm","url_meta":{"origin":1746,"position":2},"title":"User group meeting (Windows Server User Group)","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Wednesday 3 March 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"A few weeks ago, I blogged about Microsoft's UK TechDays and mentioned that the Windows Server User Group was planning to run an evening event that week. Now we're ready to announce the details: whilst he was at the MVP Summit last month, Mark Parris managed to persuade Joey\u00c2\u00a0Snow to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2\"","block_context":{"text":"Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/tag\/windows-server-2008-r2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2480,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2010\/09\/upcoming-events-including-special-uktechdays-event.htm","url_meta":{"origin":1746,"position":3},"title":"Upcoming events (including special #uktechdays) event","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Friday 3 September 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"We're having difficulties scheduling WSUG events right now. Without going into all the gory details, Microsoft's funding for rooms, etc. is not available in the way that it has been in the past, so we need to find another way to do things... Now that the summer holidays are over,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Cloud computing\"","block_context":{"text":"Cloud computing","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/tag\/cloud-computing"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2091,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2010\/10\/how-steve-ballmer-told-me-what-to-do-with-my-ipad.htm","url_meta":{"origin":1746,"position":4},"title":"How Steve Ballmer told me what to do with my iPad!","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Wednesday 6 October 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday, I had the opportunity to see Steve Ballmer speak to two audiences, first at Microsoft's Partner Briefing on transitioning to the cloud (#pbbcloud) and then at the UK TechDays Special Event on the future of cloud development (#uktechdays). I'm sorry I didn't catch the name of the guy who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/topic\/technology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3939,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/05\/a-microsoft-view-on-the-consumerisation-of-it-ukitcamp.htm","url_meta":{"origin":1746,"position":5},"title":"A Microsoft view on the consumerisation of IT (#ukitcamp)","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Friday 11 May 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I never realised that my blog posts were feared. At least not until Microsoft's Andrew Fryer\u00a0(@deepfat) said he was less concerned about my event feedback on yesterday's IT Pro Camp event than on my blog post! Well, all I can promise is to try and be objective, fair and balanced\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/topic\/technology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1746"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4330,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1746\/revisions\/4330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}