UPDATED: My choice of layout wasn’t very clear so I’m updating this for clarity…
Twin Cities Code Camp 8 is coming up and I’d like to submit a talk for consideration. REST has sort of been my thing lately but I don’t want to do an exact repeat of my Twin Cites .NET User Group talk.
Which of the following talks sounds the most interesting to you?
Talk #1: State of REST in .NET
Topics covered:
- 5-minute ‘What is REST’: what, why and how.
- Examples creating RESTful services in MVC, Siesta and OpenRasta (in-depth on one method, quick demo of differences with others)
- Examples consuming RESTful services with framework classes, RestSharp, and ServiceStack.net (in-depth on one method, quick demo of differences with others)
- WCF REST Toolkit probably not covered (there’s only so much time you know)
Talk #2: RestSharp in Depth
Topics covered:
- Assume knowledge of how REST works and how to create/consume services
- What RestSharp does and doesn’t do for you
- How it does it
- Challenges encountered while building it
- Future plans
Talk #3: Utilizing Web Service APIs in your Applications
From my MIX10 open call submission: "Can your web application send and receive phone calls? When your employees call your help desk and leave a message are their messages transcribed and a ticket automatically created? This talk will show you how and explore other practical ways to integrate third-party web service (REST) APIs into your applications. Technologies put to use include ASP.NET MVC, Windows Azure, RestSharp (OSS .NET REST client) and more."
The last one is essentially version 2.0 of my TCDNUG talk.
If I get the chance to present I will definitely record it and post it so even if you’re not attending, your feedback is valuable. Which talk sounds the most interesting to you?
I’ve been doing a lot of link sharing lately through Managed Assembly, @dotnetlinks, @dotnetpodcasts, @dotnetvideos and the recently redesigned DotNetKicks. There’s numerous other .NET link sharing sites, linkblogs and other methods so if you want to take advantage of these resources to get your stuff out there, here’s a list of things to make it easier for those doing the promoting on your behalf.
0. Make good content
Enough said.
1. Use accurate but short titles
When possible, keep your titles under 140 characters (less than 100-120 if you want retweets or your username included) so they can be easily tweeted. Make sure your title is a good summary of the content so the promoter doesn’t have to rewrite it. If you use a title that doesn’t reflect the contents or is intentionally inflammatory (say, if you’re writing about exception handling and your post makes good points but uses a linkbait title, I won’t promote it. Not that you care Karl).
2. Use proper HTML titles
A lot of sites automatically grab the title from the <title> tag on your posts. Bookmarklets (in use on MA and DNK) also grab this. If it’s just the name of your site without the post title, it takes extra work for the promoter to copy and paste it. Don’t clutter up your title either. Site name and post name is all you need. All that extra stuff isn’t giving you the SEO benefit you think it is for starters, but it also requires a lot of clean up when posting.
3. Make your Twitter name easily discoverable
I always try to include the Twitter name of an article’s author (and I’m not the only one) when posting links to Twitter. If I don’t have time to go search for you on Twitter it won’t be included so make sure it’s visible on every page of your web site. Unless you don’t care, which is fine too.
4. Include video/podcast length
If you post videos, screencasts or podcasts be sure to include the length of the video or podcast in the post. The length of a video can be as equally important as the title when determining whether or not to watch it.
5. Space out your posts
Maximize your exposure by spacing out your posts. If you write a whole bunch at once, schedule them out to be posted over a few days. Don’t clog up link sharing sites with a bunch of your posts at once as it will dilute the votes you receive.
6. Post stories yourself, but don’t use Twitterfeed
On most link sharing sites, including MA and DNK, self-submitting is allowed. Just don’t ask your friends to vote it up every thing you post. Also, if you have a link you want shared on @dotnetlinks, just do an @reply to either @johnsheehan or @dotnetlinks and I’ll review it.
The Twitterfeed thing is a personal pet peeve. I’m probably already subscribed to your blog if I’m following you on Twitter. I don’t need to know about it twice. If you really, really want to have your feed reposted on Twitter for the people that don’t like RSS, set up a dedicated account for it. Which reminds me, time to go set up @JohnSheehanBlog.
I’m excited to announce that Managed Assembly is now sponsored by TekPub. To celebrate, TekPub has given me two 1-year subscriptions (each a $200 value) to give away. You can learn more about the contest and how to enter on the contest page.
I’m a big fan of what TekPub is doing and the video quality is top notch. While watching the Git series the other day I was thinking, "I wish I could buy this for everyone." While I can’t afford to do that, giving away some subscriptions is the next best thing.
If you recall back to almost a year ago when I launched the site I stated that one of my goals was no ads on the site. I’m compromising on this stance for a couple reasons:
- The sponsorship rewards users of the site and not my pocketbook.
- The contest will (hopefully) help bring in new users and content to the site, increasing its value to everyone.
- The sponsorship doesn’t interfere with the site in any way. I’ve only added a small graphic/link to the footer.
I think this is really an ideal arrangement for the site. Don’t worry, I won’t be adding any big ads to the front page.
Go check out the contest page and win yourself a subscription!
jQuery 1.4 was released today and jQuery founder John Resig said in a webcast that 1.4.x would be shipping with Visual Studio 2010. The jQuery Snippets for VS 2010 project I released in December currently has support for jQuery 1.3.2. How do you think the new version should be handled?
- Do side-by-side releases targeting 1.3.x and 1.4
- Remove support for 1.3.x and only support 1.4.x since it’s the version shipping with VS
- Update existing snippets to 1.4, add new 1.4 features and add additional snippets specifically for 1.3 only in areas where it differs
I’m leaning toward #3. There won’t need to be many 1.3 specific snippets (mostly in the CDN snippets). It may be confusing for those using 1.3 if they encounter 1.4 specific snippets and they produce code that doesn’t work with their version of jQuery.
What do you think? Comment below with your choice.
I submitted a talk for the MIX10 open call for sessions and I need your help! If you could be so kind as to vote for my talk I would be greatly appreciative!
