With all my attention being focused on the ektron book, I haven't had any time to post screencasts. Writing this book has been an all consuming process and proven to be a lot of work, but the good news is, we're into the second half of the writing process as the manuscript is more than 50% complete-- we're starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. As mentioned in the press release, the book covers--

"... how to set up, configure, develop, test and deploy a full-featured website using established best practices, and gain an understanding of the web project methodology recommended by Ektron and followed by its own professional service teams. Each technical section focuses on implementing a specific facet of the site using Ektron’s best practices approach, including an in-depth explanation of the technology."

Regarding the books availability, we've been hitting our manuscript milestones and are on track for publication before the end of this year. If you would like to be notified when it becomes available, you can do that and pre-order a copy on Amazon.

 To answer this, let me start by mentioning a recent report we ran showing us that over the past 6 months, the vast majority of the questions posted through Twitter or the Dev Center (over 90%) get responses. This wasn't a surprise to us, but it's always good to have data backing up what you already believe to be true. But what about those cases where aren't answers? What should you do in cases where something doesn't get a response? How long should you wait before starting to look for answers in other places?

 As I outlined last week's blog post, there are officially 4 Ways to Get Support From Ektron. Read through that blog post and you'll notice that Dev Center and Twitter are not listed there. That's not because we don't take them seriously. We know that keeping the online community happy is a win/win for everyone-- it reduces the number of support tickets opened, increases the information available online, etc. They're not listed because we rely on the Ektron Community to answer questions and we can't put an Service Level Agreement (SLA) around this type of support. A response might come quickly, it might take a day or two, sometimes it takes longer. With this type of support, it is also possible that you wont get a response. This is where the official Ektron Technical Support comes in. A good rule of thumb is-- if you don't see a response on the Dev Center within 3 days, chances are your question requires official support. This does not mean you need to pick up a phone and call the support line. Which of the 4 Ways to Get Support From Ektron you choose depends on how critical the issue is for you.

 The best bet in cases where there's no crisis, but you absolutely need resolution, is to use the Ektron Support Email. You're guaranteed to immediately get 1) an auto-generated response via email containing a support case number, and 2) a follow up with an ektron support engineer within 1 business day. If you have a more serious issue needing a quicker turn around time, there are other options. Keeping these options in mind and using the right support channel will help you to avoid unnecessary waits and get you a quick resolution.

 When you find yourself in need of more support than that available through the online community on Twitter or the DevCenter, it is good to remember that Ektron offers full technical support to all customers with an active maintenance agreement. Ektron’s US Technical Support hours are Monday through Friday from 8am EST to 8pm EST and there are four ways to access these services. Each method has its own level of support and keeping this in mind can save you time and help to avoid frustration in situations where a quick response is critical.

1. Phone Support – Phone calls made to Ektron Technical Support will be answered almost immediately as there is no phone queue. All calls are routed to a dispatcher responsible for compiling the case information (version information, symptoms, logs, etc.), verifying an active maintenance agreement, and providing a case number. Once this dispatch call is complete, the information is reviewed by the support team, a Technical Support Engineer is assigned to the case and must return the call within two hours. In cases where there is a critical issue requiring a quick response time, phone support should be used. Issues submitted after 7pm EST may not get a response before 8pm, but will be handled first thing the following business day.  The telephone numbers to initiate support cases are:

• United States: 1-866-4-EKTRON x7002
• United Kingdom +44 1628 509 040
• Australia +61 2 9248 7204

2. Web Form Support –  Technical Support cases may also be initiated using Ektron's Support Web Form. The Support Service Level Agreement (SLA) states that the Technical Support Engineer assigned to a case initiated through the Support Web Form must respond to the customer within 4-6 hours. Once the form is submitted, a case number is assigned and immediately returned.

3. Email Support – Sending an email to support@ektron.com is useful in cases where you have a technical support issue that requires resolution but lacks the need for a quick response. The Technical Support Engineer assigned to the case must respond to the customer within 24 hours.

4. Chat Support – Live chat is available through the Ektron web site for basic questions from 8:30am to 5:30pm EST.  In the event that a case cannot be resolved immediately in the chat session, a case will be created by the Technical Support Engineer, and it then follows the same process as if it were submitted through the Web Form.

 This table summarizes level of service you can expect from Ektron's Technical Support department. Hope this helps clarify things. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments below.

Last week was MIX10 (Microsoft's "next web now" conference) and Ektron was there. Overall it was a great conference and was much bigger (from the standpoint of the number of sessions and attendees) than in previous years. I think the increased number of sessions was largely due to the fact that there was so much new information to cover with Windows Phone 7, let alone Silverlight, IE9, and HTML5. After attending days of sessions, listening to keynotes, and chatting with our friends at Microsoft, we came away with the following impressions:

1. Windows 7 Phone Is THE iPhone Killer
W7P is not a response to the iPhone, it is the iPhone killer. It is a consumer focused 4 point multi-touch device with open Silverlight SDK for building marketplace apps set to release Holiday 2010 and if it launches as well as it has been received so far, it will change Microsoft's mobile story completely. With a clear focus on end-user usability (the phone doesn't use the Windows metaphor and instead uses a new navigation convention designed exclusively for this phone), a whole legion of developers already familiar with its development stack (Silverlight/C#), and a history of producing software and services in way that has made them the largest software company in the world, it's hard to imagine this phone not putting the mobile phone market on its head.

2. Silverlight is Microsoft's Unifying Technology
Silverlight is becoming Microsoft's unifying technology for developing applications for write once/deploy to many to Web, Phone, PC, and XBox. While the Xbox cannot currently run Silverlight apps, Microsoft made it clear that is their intention. Silverlight coverage was at 45% in November 2009 and today it is 60%, and through events like the 2010 Olympics that stream live events using Silverlight, Microsoft's plan is to grow its coverage.

3. IE9 is about speed, HTML5, and standards compliance
During the keynote, the released version of the IE9 Developer Preview was demonstrated and it gave everyone an idea of what a browser with a rendering engine that runs with hardware acceleration on the GPU can look like. If you watch the demo you'll see IE9 playing 2 different HTML5 Videos at only 10% CPU utilization, while Firefox and Safari struggled to play 1 video each with 100% CPU utilization. I think that HTML5 seems to complicate the Silverlight RIA story a bit, but its clear that Microsoft is committed to open web RIA development through their commitment to HTML5 support in IE9.

 Earlier this year I mentioned in a blog post that ektron would be focused on improving the DevCenter and to expect big things from us. Well, we’re happy to announce the first fruits of this effort with the release of a major project we’ve been working on. The Ektron Exchange, the largest repository of freely available source code for the Ektron platform, is now live! The Exchange is a site where you can find code created by Ektron and the Developer Community as well as share and promote your work with the entire Developer Community. The code on the Exchange is available for you to take and use in your web projects now!

We’re also very excited to announce our first ever developer contest-- the Wicket Widget Contest. Any Widget uploaded by May 1st and tagged “wicked” will be automatically entered into the contest. More details on the contest and the prizes will be available soon on this blog!

Here’s a video that gives a quick overview of how to find and share code using the Exchange:

• Introducing the Ektron Exchange! [video]
• Ektron Exchange Homepage
  

Try out the Exchange, download some code, share your work with your colleagues, and give us your feedback!

Take a look at the latest screen cast to learn about the new Activity Stream framework available in v8. Why might you want to use activity streams on your site? Beyond just being cool, activity streams are a great way to keep a social network of colleagues or friends up to date on what's happening. This screencast covers what are activity streams, why you'd want to use them, and how to fully leverage the activity stream framework in v8 on your site or intranet.

• Activity Stream Screencast [video]
• Activity Streams - CustomActivityTypes [doc]
• Activity Streams - Notification Architecture [jpg]
• Activity Streams - Notifications Troubleshooting [doc]

• Ektron Technical Webinar: Search

• Context - You have direct access to the web application from within the extension, including, HTTP Context, Session, Cache, and all of Ektron's CMS APIs.
• Easier to Debug - Attach Visual Studio directly to IIS and set breakpoints just as you would when debugging any web application.
• Performance - Previously, you had to use web services to access the web application context. Since you have direct access with CMS Extensions, you no longer have to issue web service calls.
• No Windows Service - Since CMS Extensions run within the context of the web application, no windows service is needed.  

• CMS Extensions Screencast [video]
• CMS Extensions Documentation [pdf]
• CMS Extensions Code Sample [zip]

If you follow or participate in the #ektron conversation on Twitter, you may have noticed tweets like this one: “New #ektron API is life changing for ektron developers.” See for yourself in this week’s Developer Screencast: Framework API – Lists.

• screencast-code-framework-api-list.zip

P.S. Note to those using APIs outside of the Framework namespace: we’ll continue to support them for sometime, however, the Framework namespace is the home for APIs now and going forward. Over time we’ll expand what’s available through it!

These Community Leaders are incredibly important to ektron, and as such, this program is designed to recognize and support these individuals.

ektron’s first MVP, James Stout (aka “eGandalf”), is the archetype MVP. He has contributed to almost 2000 posts on the DevCenter’s Discussion Boards and is always helping members of the community. We’re extremely happy to recognize him for his positive contributions to our Developer Community, thanks James!

There was a lot of positive feedback on the One-on-One Sessions, a new addition to the agenda this year. Attendees signed up for 30-minute consultations with members of the Ektron team to discuss anything from best practices, support, project management methodology, roadmap-- you name it.

These conversations were by far my favorite aspect of the conference. One such conversation, for example, was with Jennifer from a major health insurance company. She was looking to reduce call center volume and wanted to brainstorm ways to leverage ektron to help. After a good discussion, we converged on three possible strategies to explore further:

• Since many visit the site before calling customer service, we discussed using analytics to see what information people are visiting before they jump to the “contact us” page. This could give insight into what people are failing to find, or are finding confusing.
• A social media strategy that included the number of questions answered by the community as a success metric. Strategy + technology = a community to help answer questions.
• Alternative ways to engage with customers beyond the phone by using twitter style micro-messaging (1-to-many) to answer general questions, private messaging (1-to-1) when a conversation needs to go off-line.

 It was energizing to have so many productive conversations like this in such a short period of time. Most of the year we rely on email, cell phones, social networks, etc… but they often lack the energy that happens when you're around people who share the similar interests and passions. So it’s not too early to start making the case for attending Synergy 2010-- there’s no substitute for face-to-face conversations!

As Chief Evangelist one of my goals is to lead initiatives that build a positive relationship between Ektron and the members of our dev community. But rather than write about all the new things I’ll be doing and what this new role means to me, let’s instead focus on how this goal relates to developers. Having this role at Ektron means that you’ll have someone focused on:

• Education Making sure you have the information available online you need to do your job effectively. For starters, we’re launching a developer screencast series focused on short videos released frequently to help you dive deep into different areas of the CMS. These screencasts come replete with code samples and documentation. Anything is on the table, new technology, APIs, etc. We’re taking requests, so let us know what you want to see!
  
• Community Building the online and offline community experience. We’re making a large investment in the DevCenter year and expect big things from it (some hints coming soon in future posts). We're going to be recognizing stellar individuals from our developer community for their active involvement and supporting them in their outstanding efforts.
  
• Feedback Collecting your feedback and creating a feedback channel where you can see the effects of your input in the technology you’re using.
  

I’m jazzed about this new role and am eager to get things moving! If you want to get in touch, send me mail or connect on twitter @billcava.