Maria's blog

The New Efficiency is here!

A few hours ago we kicked of the Virtual Launch event for “The New Efficiency” with a keynote session from Steve Ballmer. I was sleeping so didn’t catch it live but of course it was recorded for you to watch whenever it suites you. Except for the keynote, there are tons of other sessions divided in themes such as Discover The Optimized Desktop, Learn More About The Optimized Server, Considers Unified Communications and Explore Business Ready Security. Each theme has several sessions with a recorded presentation, possibility to download slides or transcript and also links to more content.

There is also a partner section where you can watch presentations, find information and connect with them.

I really like this format of learning and with all the available content you can keep busy for several days!

Free software, training and support for Web professionals

Last week, we announced a program for Web Professionals called WebsiteSpark. This is targeted to Web development and design companies with up to 10 employees and will give you a lot of good stuff:

· Microsoft Web design and development tools , including three licenses of Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition, two licenses of  Microsoft Expression Web 3, and one license of Microsoft Expression Studio 3.

· Four processor licenses for production usage of Microsoft Windows Web Server 2008 or R2 (when available) and  four processor licenses for production usage of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Web Edition.

· A third-party premium Website control panel (DotNetPanel).

Participating companies will also receive the following professional support and training:

· Two technical support incidents per company.

· Access to community support through connections with Network Partners, Hosting Partners and peers with complementary services and technologies.

· Unlimited access to technical managed newsgroups on MSDN.

· Unlimited program support for non-technical issues.

Find more information at the WebsiteSpark web or follow the conversation on Twitter