Hi Jorke, As I mentioned to you earlier, I think this is a great idea and initiative.
However, and it will be interesting to hear what other people on this list have to say on this, I'm really surprised at the licencing of Expression Studio. You get 3 Visual Studio licences, 8 server licences and a heap of other goodies but only 1 Expression Studio license (not counting Expression Web), also that single license is locked down to the "Primary contact" of the company (http://www.microsoft.com/web/websitespark/Support.aspx#que8). The issue with this is that, If you want to do Silverlight development (as most of us on this list), you pretty much need both VS and Blend to be efficient. I guess you could say that there's not that many Silverlight developers around, so one license should be enough, which I guess is fair enough. But if Microsoft wants to increase adoption of Silverlight, shouldn't you make the tools easily available? Yes true you can do Silverlight development on just Visual Studio, but as soon as you want to do any animations or state transitions, you need Blend. There's also the whole, locking it down to who in the company gets it, I assume that in most cases the "Primary contact" will be the owner of the company and how often will that person be the Silvelight dev? Sorry for the rant, and please don't take this the wrong way, as I said, I think it's a great initiative! And a lot of small web dev shops (including the one I work for) will benefit greatly from it. I just think the licencing of the Expression should be different ;) Cheers, Ola On Fri, Sep 25, 2009 at 9:03 AM, Jorke Odolphi <[email protected]> wrote: > As per * > http://blogs.technet.com/jorke/archive/2009/09/24/announcing-websitespark-in-australia.aspx > *<http://blogs.technet.com/jorke/archive/2009/09/24/announcing-websitespark-in-australia.aspx> > I would love to hear your comments. > (apologies if duplicated) > ---- > I am VERY excited to announce the launch of a new *SPARK program at > Microsoft for Australia; > *WebSiteSpark*<http://www.microsoft.com/web/websitespark>you’ll see that the > *gu has already post about > this.*<http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2009/09/24/announcing-the-websitespark-program.aspx> > > <http://blogs.technet.com/blogfiles/jorke/WindowsLiveWriter/AnnouncingWebSiteSparkinAustralia_14250/WebsiteSpark_Banner_2.jpg> > *WebSiteSpark* <http://www.microsoft.com/web/websitespark> is aimed > specifically at those who are developing in the web platform and we’re > giving them a jumpstart to get started on the Microsoft Platform. > The Australian launch of > *WebSiteSpark*<http://www.microsoft.com/web/websitespark>will be on the > *8th of October* at *Web Directions > South*<http://south09.webdirections.org/>– Hope to see you there! > So very simply, here are the Gets and Gives: > *What to we give you?* > Software licenses that you can use for *three years* *AT NO COST*. Once > enrolled, you can download and immediately use the following software from > Microsoft: > •3 licenses of Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition > •1 license of Expression Studio 3 (which includes Expression Blend, > Sketchflow, and Web) > •2 licenses of Expression Web 3 > •4 processor licenses of Windows Web Server 2008 R2 > •4 processor licenses of SQL Server 2008 Web Edition > •DotNetPanel control panel (enabling easy remote/hosted management of your > servers) > The Windows Server and SQL Server licenses can be used for both development > and production deployment. You can either self-host the servers on your > own, or use the licenses with a hoster. > *WebsiteSpark*<http://www.microsoft.com/web/websitespark>makes it easy to > find hosters who are also enrolled in the program, and who > can use your licenses to provide you with either dedicated or virtual > dedicated servers to host your sites on. > In addition to software, > *WebsiteSpark*<http://www.microsoft.com/web/websitespark>provides partner > opportunities to grow and build your business through > referrals and product support training. > *Who can get WebSiteSpark?* > This is really simple: > *1.Your company builds web sites and web application on behalf of others. > **2.Your company currently has less than 10 employees. * > If you meet these requirements *you can sign up today*. As part of the > enrollment process you can pick a network referral partner such as a hoster > or enter a code that you have received at an event or from a Microsoftie. > Once you have that code you can enrol and start downloading the software – > If you’re in Australia you can send an email to me: > *[email protected]*<[email protected]>and i’ll hook you up – otherwise > *[email protected]* <[email protected]> . > *After 3 years?* > You have no obligation to continue using the software just a *$100 fee*for > the use of the program. By this time we hope you would have made a > decision on whether you’re happy to continue to work with Microsoft and be > part of the *Microsoft Partner > Network*<https://partner.microsoft.com/global/partner>. > > *What’s happening in Australia?* > The official launch of > *WebSiteSpark*<http://www.microsoft.com/web/websitespark>in Australia will be > at > *Web Directions South* <http://south09.webdirections.org/> on the 8th of > October and from the start we’ve partnered with two of Australia’s best > hosting companies to provide the network services, *Melbourne > IT*<http://www.melbourneit.com.au>(under > *WebCentral* <http://www.webcentral.com.au>) and > *Westnet*<http://www.westnet.com.au>– you’ll see more information around > these guys as they give > *WebSiteSpark* <http://www.microsoft.com/web/websitespark> participants > special offers. > > So as you can see this is an *AWESOME* initiative – and I’m very excited > to be a part of this. If you have any questions / comments – please email > me: *[email protected]* <[email protected]> – follow me on twitter: > *...@jorke* <http://twitter.com.jorke> and follow the > *...@websitespark*<http://twitter.com/websitespark>twitter account. > you’ll see some press releases going out today all about this :) > - jorke > > > *Jorke Odolphi* <http://blogs.technet.com/jorke> | Web Platform Architect > Evangelist | *http://blogs.technet.com/jorke*<http://blogs.technet.com/jorke> > *Microsoft Australia* <http://www.microsoft.com/australia> | e: * > [email protected]* <[email protected]> | im: *[email protected]*| > *twitter.com/jorke* <http://twitter.com/jorke> > +61 2 8817 9126 | +61 488717714 > > > > > _______________________________________________ > ozsilverlight mailing list > [email protected] > http://prdlxvm0001.codify.net/mailman/listinfo/ozsilverlight > >
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