MIX 2011: My Schedule for Day 3

Following is my planned schedule for the third day of MIX 2011.
Note: I have a Plan B for almost every lecture, just in case.

Day 3, 09:00-10:00
Session: Designer and Developer: A Case for the Hybrid
Presenter: Jeff Croft
Description: Should designers code? Or is is okay for one to specialize in visual design and expect others to build their vision? As we get farther and farther away from the days of the "webmaster," and become an industry of specialists, are we losing some of the beauty, efficiency, and innovation that can be found at the point where design and development intersect? Jeff Croft, hybrid designer and developer, makes the case that the best web products will always be created by designers who understand the building blocks of the web: the code.

Day 3, 09:00-10:00, Plan B
Session: The Future of HTML5
Presenter: Giorgio Sardo
Description: We love HTML5 so much that we want it to actually work – in an interoperable, predictable manner across all browsers. In this session you will learn the current status of HTML5 and the Open Web Platform and what will take to bring it to a Recommendation. You will also preview the next emerging standards and understand Microsoft implementation approach through prototypes. Finally ride the DeLorean at 88mph and discover some of the work being done by Microsoft with the W3C on what will lead into HTML6.

Day 3, 10:30-11:30
Session: Mono: State of the Union
Presenter: Miguel de Icaza
Description: Come learn how Mono can help every one of your current projects: from our C# compiler as a service to running your .NET code on iPhone, Android and Mac. All demos will feature our amazing MonoDevelop cross platform IDE. Come to be energized and fall in love with .NET all over again. This is your second honeymoon. Do not miss it.

Day 3, 10:30-11:30, Plan B
Session: Analyzing and Improving Windows Phone Application Performance
Presenter: Jeff Wilcox
Description: Been wondering how to tweak that extra bit of performance out of your WP7 app? Come learn how to analyze the performance of your Windows Phone application and make it faster using top techniques and the new profiling tools.

Day 3, 12:00-13:00
Session: Mind Bending UX - UX Lightning Series
Presenters: Arturo Toledo, Sean Gerety, Rick Barraza and Robby Ingebretsen
Description: Bend your mind and relax your senses in this "Mind Bending" UX lightning session, packed with four topics on how to think outside of the proverbial design box. UX Lightning sessions are a full hour session with 4 exceptional speakers each presenting 10 minute topics. Hear from Sean Gerety speaking on "What Software can Learn from the World of Magic", Arturo Toledo with "Extending the Human DNA with Design", Rick Barraza with "What Brains, Football and Hobbits teach us about Designer & Developer", and Robby Ingebretsen with "Farming for Ideas: How to Be The Most Creative You". Attendees will learn from these experts how to rethink design and UX.

Day 3, 12:00-13:00, Plan B
Session: Interactive Panel: Kinect and Natural User Interfaces (NUI)
Presenters: Alex Kipman, Darren Bennett, Curtis Wong and Kristin Tolle
Description: With Microsoft Kinect for Xbox 360, you are the controller. The system senses the 3rd dimension (depth) of the players and the environment, and revolutionizes the experience of how a player interacts with games and entertainment. With its broad availability and low cost, many researchers and practitioners in computer science, electronic engineering and robotics are leveraging the sensing technology to develop new ways of interacting with machines. The NUI era is upon us. In this panel, Kinect device and game creators will converse with NUI researchers and scientists, focusing on some of the principles behind the Kinect sensing technology and reflecting on the potential for computers that can "see" in 3-D. What does this mean for how humans and computers will communicate going forward? With vision, computers are better able to understand user intention, learn from what they see and reason about what the user really wants to do, all without responding to events streamed from mice and keyboards. The audio/voice recognition technology advancements in Kinect plus accurate 3-D sensing help make natural user interaction with computers real. Technology is starting to become invisible. What does this all mean? What do you want to know? This is an interactive panel which means attendees will be encouraged to ask questions when they have them in mind to help drive the conversation. So, come prepared with questions and ask whatever you want.

Day 3, 13:30-14:30
Session: Good JavaScript Habits for C# Developers
Presenter: Elijah Manor
Description: It seems that far too many people come to jQuery thinking that their previous knowledge with object-oriented languages like C# or Java will help them be successful at client-side scripting. In many cases, you can be successful with this approach, however, the more JavaScript you write you will inevitably find yourself uncovering strange bugs because you didn't take time to learn JavaScript properly. This session is targeted for developers that use jQuery, but haven’t invested adequate time to learn some of the foundational JavaScript concepts that differ from C#. If you would like to avoid some of these common mistakes when bringing your existing expertise to JavaScript, then please join me as I try to explain some of the differences.

Day 3, 13:30-14:30, Plan B
Session: Windows Phone Session (TBA)
Presenter: Thomas Fennel
Description: TBA.

Day 3, 15:00-16:00
Session: Advanced Features in Silverlight 5
Presenter: Nick Kramer
Description: Looking to unlock more advanced capabilities in Silverlight? Silverlight 5 adds significant features including Multiple Windows, Unrestricted File Access, P/Invoke, Group Policy, 64-bit, and HTML support. This session will dive into the features, their APIs, and the scenarios these features can enable.

Day 3, 15:00-16:00, Plan B
Session: Windows Phone Session (TBA)
Presenter: Sean McKenna
Description: TBA.

That’s it for now,
Arik Poznanski.