Today marks the beginning of .Net Conf 2019 and global release of .Net Core 3.0. .NET Core 3.0 is available for Windows, macOS and Linux. It now includes support for WPF and Windows Forms, Full stack web development with C# and Razor and more. Find full release notes and downloads here.
In addition to the virtual event that you can follow live here. You can now learn a host of open source developer tools and platforms from over 80 free videos from Microsoft. The beginner videos series are available on the .Net learning site and hosted on YouTube.
These include;
Learn C#, .Net Core, ASP.Net Core, Xamarin, Containers and Docker, Entity Frame Work, Intro to Visual Studio and Machine Learning with ML.Net.
Microsoft has also recently released an introduction to python video series on YouTube.
Share your thoughts with us on the free videos from Microsoft.
Microsoft User Group Ghana (MUGGH) invites you to join the Global Microsoft 365 Developer Bootcamp 2019 event in Accra, Ghana. Come and learn about new technologies and products included in Microsoft 365 at the free, one-day, hands-on training event. Scheduled to take place October 26th 2019 at the Microsoft office in Accra.
The event will be led by Microsoft MVPs and community leaders. You’ll learn the latest technologies on Microsoft 365 platform that you can apply to your future projects. These including Microsoft Graph, SharePoint Framework, Microsoft Teams, Office Add-ins and Actionable Messages, etc. Get to meet and network with other IT Professionals.
Visit event page and register (free event but you need to register) to participate in the bootcamp. Don’t forget to share with your community of IT Pros, developers, admins etc.
Update: There are two event days now. So kindly click the event for the day that suits you or that isn’t filled up yet. Thank you.
Microsoft Ignite The Tour will take place in Johannesburg, Tel Aviv and Dubai in 2020.
Microsoft’s annual technical training for developers and IT professionals conference, Ignite, will be hitting the roads again. Microsoft Ignite is going global and will be in a city near you next year. This will be after the main Ignite conference takes place November 4th to 8th 2019 in Orlando, Florida.
Like last year Microsoft promises to bring the same vibe to you during a two day event on this tour. Get to learn ways to build solutions as well as migrate and manage your infrastructure. Meet people in software development, security, architecture and IT. Get hands-on and deep dive experiences in areas such as security, cloud and hybrid infrastructure and development.
In the Microsoft Middle East and Africa region the events will take place in Johannesburg, Dubai and Tel Aviv. The Johannesburg, South Africa event is scheduled to take place January 30-31, 2020. Dubai, United Arab Emirates, February 10-11, 2020 and April 22-23, 2020 in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Promising over 100 sessions the event will help you grow your skills, explore new technology and connect with Microsoft engineers. If you are planning to attend there will be so many topics and sessions you’ll need to tailor the experience to what you want to leave with.
Again I echo, dear Microsoft can we have some of these events across West, North and East Africa? Thank You. I think I have spoken the mind of a lot of developers and IT Pros in the region. Also with the launch of the Africa Development Center this should be a thing.
Head over to the Microsoft Ignite The Tour event pages of each city.
Registration links aren’t live yet for Dubai and Tel Aviv. We will update this post once this happens. Update: Links for Johannesburg and Dubai are live, click to register.
Have you had an experience at any Microsoft developer or IT Pro event? Share your experience with us. Looking forward to attending? Share your thoughts with us.
All-Female Microsoft LEAP Hackathon event in Nairobi.
I thought it was going to be just an ordinary hackathon, when I first heard about the Microsoft LEAP hackathon. Where you just go and compete for prizes and that is it. Says Rosianah Musyoka, selected participant at Microsoft LEAP hackathon in Nairobi, Kenya.
“I was very excited when I got the acceptance email to participate in the program. My expectations were surpassed, interacting with some of the Microsoft engineers and learnt quite a lot from them. I gained a lot of knowledge around Microsoft Azure and made new friends.” she shares.
Microsoft selected twenty-six female developers to participate in its maiden LEAP hackathon event in Nairobi, Kenya. With a similar event underway for female developers in Lagos, Nigeria. An initiative of the recently launched Microsoft Africa Development Center in both cities. The all-female hackathon event “is to strengthen the place of women in the tech ecosystem” Microsoft says.
Learning
Participants were taken through four days of learning: Microsoft Azure, Azure DevOps, Azure AI, Machine Learning, etc. technologies. As well as hacking ideas using learnt technologies.
For Rosianah Musyoka the Microsoft LEAP
program was amazing. She hopes there we will be more of such in Kenya. Sharing that some of the things she learnt
during the event aren’t taught in school. Rosianah is a computer science final
year student at the University of Nairobi.
“Through the program, we have gained lots of skills which have equipped us to become better developers. The trainers who were all Microsoft employees were great, friendly and always ready to help.
Most of the things learned within the one week of the LEAP hackathon are not taught in school. It started with learning how to write maintainable and testable code, learning about dockers and containers, Azure Dev Ops, Azure custom vision, Azure machine learning studio among others.
In addition, we were exposed to other key nontechnical skills which are important when creating systems. These include creating a system that is inclusive of everyone, trustworthy, transparent, etc.”
The female developers were put in teams and tasked with solving societal problems in Agriculture and financial services industry (FSI). Requiring them to develop creative solutions using the technologies they’ve learnt. Rosianah and her teammates emerged winners of the hackathon event. Designing a web application powered by Microsoft Artificial Intelligence. The app helps Maize farmers predict and manage pests and diseases, predict harvest time and the yield amount as well as connect buyers to the farmers.
Hacking Ideas
“During the hackathon my team came up with a project which focuses on two main users, maize farmers and maize vendors. The problems we are solving for the farmer include: Lack of information about pests and disease and how to manage them. Lack of ready market access. Unpredictability of yield and harvest time. Due to this, the farmer is unable to plan for his business well.
The problems we are solving for the vendor include: Unpredictability of supply, hence the vendor is unable to plan for business. Lack of a reliable supply.
We solved the above problems using a web application powered by Azure AI services to: Help farmers predict and manage pests and diseases. Predict harvest time and the yield amount. Connecting Buyers and Farmers.
It was great to work on solutions that positively impact our society. Our solution was motivated by the problem, not any technology.
We had to think about the business model for our project, any similar projects that have launched and even competition market. We also brought in some knowledge acquired in school such as design thinking (developing for the user), business management and entrepreneurship among others to ensure that we do our project well and to completion.”
#MSLEAPHACKATHON#Microsoft I am really excited. My team and I won the competition. We hot ourselves some interesting prizes including ???
The winning team will continue to receive mentorship and assistance from Microsoft in building their project into a realization. Rosianah hopes their idea when actualized, will be used by farmers and maize vendors soon.
Nat Friedman is visiting top GitHub contribution country Nigeria to interact with developers.
Nat friedman, GitHub CEO and Microsoft Corporate Vice President in March announced he was heading to Nigeria and Ghana in a tweet. He shared “I’m going to Nigeria and Ghana for the first time later this year, and I’m interested in meeting local developers and entrepreneurs and learning about how GitHub can be of service.”
This week Nat has been spending time with the open source developer community in Nigeria. Meeting with developers of different ecosystems. Listening to the work they do and how they use developer tools and the GitHub platform. He met GitHub campus experts and developers at an open source Mixer at the Microsoft Nigeria office. He’s also visited and spent time with developers of tech companies and co-creation hubs such as Andela, Paystack, CC hub, etc.
Nat had shared that Microsoft is broadening its horizons as a developer-centric company. That’s by rallying behind technologies like Linux, Git, node and Kubernetes. Microsoft, he says is remodeling its engineering culture after the example of open source projects. For the GitHub CEO and his visiting team, listening and learning from developers in the African tech space will allow them serve better.
GitHub will be looking to hire remote developers from Africa soon says the CEO.
GitHub CEO, Interacts with Nigerian developer community
— Git’sbane, the Sage of the North (@Sage_Godspeed) June 4, 2019
I just met @natfriedman (GitHub CEO) ??. We talked about the open source developer community in Lagos and made him play my open source Android game! pic.twitter.com/YSB9eB8qz4
— Nenne ‘Adora’ Nwodo (@theadoranwodo) June 3, 2019
We loved meeting with @github CEO @natfriedman and the rest of the GitHub team at a fireside chat at the Paystack office yesterday! Stoked for the future of developer relations in Africa! pic.twitter.com/GAzRoBmXTz
@natfriedman graced us with his presence yesterday. We had a great time discussing about how GitHub could work better for us, how to drive engagement in the community and all. It was pretty awesome! He’s a great listener. Thanks a lot, Nat ??? pic.twitter.com/PpfqmpH4Bz
Earlier in the week, we welcomed @github‘s CEO @natfriedman and his team to the office. We gave him a tour of the building, and he also got the chance to interact with some of our team members to learn more about our work at #CcHUB. pic.twitter.com/jK9QUSyaoS
Had a close door meeting with the CEO of Github, @natfriedman yesterday. He is amazing and really interested in Nigeria’s tech ecosystem. He explained how we can leverage the amazing power of the tools GitHub has. It was awesome?.
