The fifth AIC is now lined up and ready to go. This year will be a two-day, three-track affair across Enterprise, Solution and Infrastructure architecture with a day 1 focus on Architecting Today: From Cost to Innovation and day 2 focus on Architecting Tomorrow: Implications of Cloud.

Great speaker line-up including:

• Iain Mortimer, Chief Architect, Merrill Lynch Bank of America
• Andy Hopkirk, Head of Projects and Programmes and Director e-GIF Programme, NCC
• David Sprott, CEO, Everware-CBDI International and Founder, CBDI Forum
• Ivar Jacobson, Ivar Jacobson International
• Kim Cameron, Chief Architect of Identity and Distinguished Engineer, Microsoft Corp
• Steve Cook, Software Architect, Visual Studio Team System, Microsoft Corp
• Ulrich Homann, Chief Architect, Worldwide Services, Microsoft Corp
• Terry Smith, Senior Director, Partner Technology Unit, Microsoft Ltd
• Mark Taylor, Senior Director, Developer & Platform Evangelism, Microsoft Ltd

You can take a look at the agenda, and sign up, here.

As Matt points out on his blog, you can now get your mitts on the decks from the very successful Architect Insight 2009 event. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/architecture/dd135210.aspx

AIC covered a lot of ground from identity to governance to dynamic languages to user centered architecture to SOA to Oslo so there’s something for everyone over there.

And I can confirm that @blooders has stuck with the familiar “translucent black headers” pptx style…

You may have already discovered Arc magazine (it’s a series of 4) which aims to describe Software + Services for Architects, but if not, you should know that apart from the physical copies, you can get the digital versions from our Architect Portal

The technology world is always better when Savas isn’t on holiday. As an AI fan (I’d say pro, but my education on the subject – though formal – is definitely a little murky) then I always get excited about any kind of inference engine stuff.

Savas explains more.

From J.D. Meier’s blog, the Patterns & Practices team have released a bunch of pocket guides – smaller and more focussed – based on the Application Architecture Guide 2.0

Here’s the initial list:

• Agile Architecture Method Pocket Guide
• Web Application Architecture Pocket Guide
• Mobile Application Architecture Pocket Guide
• RIA Architecture Pocket Guide
• Rich Client Application Architecture Pocket Guide
• Service Architecture Pocket Guide

You can browse them all here at CodePlex.

Today, myself and Blooders presented on Software + Services on the Architecture track at OreDev (as previously mentioned). Our intention was to provoke some thought on the pressures on architects, and the drivers for Software + Services, and help architects think about modelling and translating these pressures and needs for the business. Oh, and of course we mentioned some cloud stuff…

We’d love to hear feedback.

This is the slide deck we presented:

And here are some useful links:

• Software + Services
• Patterns and Practices
• Windows Azure
• Microsoft PDC

Spotted on Jon Fanders’ blog, a look at the very first model driven architectures through to the present day. More at Models Remixed.osl

Well, I expect it is to many people. I’m one of those people who, so long as the ADSL is running, treats all of the cables, routers and stuff as one would an ancient monument: “Look, don’t touch. It’s very special”

But, I’ve become more concerned recently with the state of digital media that I’d like to actually preserve. Things like pictures of Evan, rather than my attempts at coding.

Then I saw Scott Hanselman’s post on the success he has had with Windows Home Server for handling backup and storage and the like, and of course how it made him a hero.

I was also thinking about my TV viewing habits. I originally signed up for the full Sky+ HD service which is cool, but expensive for the amount of TV I watch. The HD service is really best for those watching a lot of sport, and I don’t other than the odd match (strangely, Sunderland aren’t often the headline act…). I also prefer the LoveFilm service for movies.

So, I downgraded the service (minus Sports and Movies), which pretty much halves the price. But then I started asking myself whether there was any real value in the Sky service.

For instance, there are only a few shows that I watch on Sky One: Lost and Battlestar Galactica (and one or two others) – the usual blockbuster stuff, but they’re not on much (or conversely, they’re on all of the bloody time in perpetual repeat mode). So actually, it’s probably a lot more efficient to buy the DVD boxed set (or rent it via LoveFilm) so long as I can stand the wait (which I typically can). The rest of the offering is usually ‘desperation TV’ that I tune into because there’s nothing else on, though I am loving the repeats of Airwolf. Stringfellow Hawke had a strange name, and certainly a strange wardrobe.

So I thought, why not just swap back to Freeview (or Freesat) and be done with it? If there’s nothing on I can switch off my TV set and go an do something less boring instead?

A two part plan was formed:

1. Purchase a Windows Home Server, and get the storage and backups working and feel nice and safe.
2. Purchase a pimped out Media Center device, and sort out the TV/Idiot Lamp issue.

So how did I get on? Stay tuned, tech fans.

As you may have seen in David Treadwell’s piece on stage today at PDC, Anthony Rose, Head of Digital at BBC Future Media and Technology, presented a project we’ve been working on with the BBC over the past couple of months and that has kept me heads down for quite a bit of time.

Hopefully the demo represented some useful ideas for what you might want to construct using the Live Mesh , but I’ll recap on some of the thinking behind this project.

The key benefits from Mesh in the case of iPlayer (which will no doubt be applicable in many cases) could probably be described as:

• Offline capabilities (with Silverlight for instance)
• Automation of transport of media, and personal data across devices (“me sync”)
• Application sharing amongst groups of friends (“we sync”)

The first two points above solve some of the engineering challenges associated with the requirements of a platform such as the iPlayer: they’re important and could be expensive to construct and maintain so getting these things “out of the box” is clearly useful.

The third point – sharing amongst groups of friends – is really about the move to social media rather than lists, or general recommendation engines. Enabling groups to recommend within the group, and see other group members’ activities opens up a number of possibilities around identifying key influencers (and perhaps rewarding them) and also enabling behaviours related to (for instance) peer pressure: “Did you know all of your friends have watched programme X?” For the BBC, this can drive increased reach for their content through the social and viral nature of these calls to action, and for the user it provides a much more personalised and relevant set of information.

So, how did we construct the application?

We used the Microsoft Technology Center here in Reading and worked with the BBC and my own crack team of Microsoft Consulting Services consultants (Paul (who you may have seen on stage), Carl and Shen) to develop the application as a prototype in around a 2-month time frame.

As with most prototyping exercises, there’s a lot of ground that wasn’t covered as the key driver is to ensure the unknowns become knowns. In this case, that meant ensuring the Mesh was capable of supporting the following kinds of scenarios:

• Silverlight applications working with no issues.
• Connecting to 3rd party web services (BBC Syndication feeds, Live Messenger Contacts API, etc.)
• Syncing personal data around chosen devices
• Consistent experience across chosen devices
• Online/Offline experience (which means constructing caching services for images (for example))
• Media transport (moving media into the Mesh, and then to devices for offline viewing)
• Syncing group data across application instances (and capturing that in relevant ways for overall Mesh experience and iPlayer aggregate information)
• Some kind of social feedback and recommendation capability (in this case we constructed a social timeline for moods and a mood barometer).

So this was quite a lot to execute on in the constrained time frame, particularly when you consider that we also needed to build a user experience that reflected the existing iPlayer experience.

On top of this the Live Mesh APIs were being actively developed at the same time?

Carl carried out most of the Mesh-based heavy lifting and is looking to follow up some of the work he did with the Mesh APIs specifically as an article for MSDN, so I’ll point to that once it’s complete.

So, checking off the items on this list proved the application viability. Live Mesh really has the potential to change the way we think about experiences across devices, but also how we think about interacting with each other through application experiences.

As Anthony said, “Tomorrow, your friends will tell you what to watch”.

Mark B has also just finished some prototyping work recently but is also able to give some details on what he’s been up to here.

I saw the applicaton just after it was finished and it was a smart, practical use of both Virtual Earth and Silverlight. The mobile application is super-useful too and is one of the few that I choose to have on my phone (Ah, Paddington, one day I shall beat you…)

When we’re preparing for prototyping work, we often describe the benefits as 3 things (I’ve written about this before from a Microsoft Technology Centre perspective):

• Acceleration. The 3-week lab sessions can really help to move a project along as we’re able to execute quickly and without “business-as-usual” interruption. Potentially, we’re able to engage stakeholders more effectively as they see progress at a rapid pace.
• De-risking. We’re able to tackle the thorny problems of a project (from a technology perspective at least) so can take the sting out of a risky project up-front.
• Evaluation. The lab is not the best place for true training, as work needs to be done, but it is good fun to mess with new technology and focus on the code. So a real benefit is that external developers (that’s you!) can get a feeling for the technology and whether it’ll work in the wider context of “back at base”.

It’s on the final point that Mark’s interview with Ra is interesting – it’s great to see some real reflection on the technology based on their experience.