Welcome to blogs.conchango.com

We now have all the details confirmed for the next SLUG.

Date: Wednesday 22nd July 2009

Time: 6:30pm onwards

Venue: Microsoft's Cardinal Place

The agenda is:

EMC Consulting and EMC Conchango are currently recruiting into Application Consulting, Business Consulting, Infrastructure Consulting and Interactive Media.

The roles in each team are:

EMC Conchango (Interactive Media) 

• Senior User Experience Architect
• User Experience Architect 
• Information Architect
• Senior Web Designer
• Head of Search Engine Optimisation

Application Consulting

• ATG Architect
• ATG Developer
• Microsoft BI Architect

Business Consulting

• Oil & Gas Senior Business Consultant
• Utilities Senior Business Consultant
• Telco Senior Business Consultant
• Telco Business Consultant
• Investment Banking Business Analyst

Infrastructure Consulting

• Practice Team Lead
• Senior Practice Consultant
• Practice Consultant
• Technical Design Authority
• Migration Expert

If you would like to see full job specs go to http://www.conchango.com/join-us/.  For more information on the team or the career you could have with us please email me EMCCUKRecruitment@emc.com

You can also follow my twitter for more regular updates on vacancies we have to fill.

A big thanks to everyone who attended the Open Space Coding Day on Saturday and a special thanks to Alan Dean who organised the event, EMC Consulting who hosted it and Liam Westley who provided the breakfast.

The event was attended by 28 developers who are dedicated enough to self learning to come together on a beautiful sunny day to code in a collaborative environment - they were rewarded for their dedication with lunch in the sun by The Thames and a nice cold pint afterwards.

Some of the topics that they decided to cover on the day included: Boo, Git and Mass Transit.

If you would like to find out more about the event check out #openspacecode as there was plenty of tweeting going on during the event, and it seems in the pub after.

The next Open Space Coding Day is part of the Alt.Net UK Conference on 1st August 2009.

EMC Consulting / EMC Conchango are pleased to be co-hosting the AltNetConf UK the 1st weekend of August 2009.

The event will be run over the entire weekend as follows:

Altnet Beers - Fri 31st July @ Tequila

Open Space Coding Day - Sat 1st August @ EMC Conchango

Alt.Net UK Conference - Sun 2nd August @ EMC Conchango

Due to demand the conference is now full but you can follow the tweets over the course of the weekend by following the attendees as listed on the sites above.

Yes we are mad enough to do it again!!! 

September the 4th will see us starting our third annual London to Paris bike ride to support Palestinian children. This year's event will be bigger than the last two years, as we are aiming for 50 riders (and there is talk of a tandem....). It should be a tremendous weekend, and we are praying for the same weather we've had the last two years (see photos from last year).

Who are we doing it for? The children of Gaza. The Israeli attacks on Gaza at the start of this year have left many of Gaza's children injured, maimed and traumatised. This followed on from nearly two years of blockade where very few essential supplies were allowed to reach them, which in turn has followed many decades of occupation and dispossession into a life in refugee camps. Their need for support and hope has been growing year on year, and the start of this year, which left more than 400 dead and thousands orphaned, homeless, maimed or traumatised has made this all the more urgent.

We will be raising money for a variety of play and educational projects in Gaza this year. Which ones we support will vary as time goes on depending on what the Israeli Defence Force allows through into the territory. We will post details of these as we get them approved.

If you'd like to participate, there are still a couple of places available, so please  michelle.flynn@emc.com. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

If you'd like to sponsor us, then you can do it through our site on Bmycharity.

A big sorry to all those who were due to attend the Silverlight User Group that we had to cancel last night.  You will be pleased to hear that Mark Mann is fine after falling down the stairs, but is still not able to walk properly (just in time for the weekend).

Ian Blackburn was due to present at the event so has been kind enough to post his presentation so everyone does not miss out, click here.

We are currently planning for the next SL UG to be a big one held at Microsoft Cardinal Place towards the end of May so if you are not registered on the mailing list then email silverlight.usergroup@conchango.com now.

The following article has been published in Retail Week:

Asos has developed an application to allow customers to track particular products on its site through their web browser, whatever website they are looking at.

The online retailer has used functionality within the latest version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) web browser, which Microsoft released on March 19.

Asos has worked with EMC Consulting to create the tool, which was launched to coincide with the release of the new browser.

Asos enterprise architect Simon Hamblin explained that customers who upgrade to IE8 will be able to subscribe to a "web slice" on its product pages. This function adds that product page to the customer's favourites bar in IE8 so they can keep track of it.

When new information becomes available on the page, for instance if the price of a product changes, the web slice becomes highlighted on the favourites bar. When consumers click on the web slice, it will then preview relevant information. Clicking on the preview takes the customer directly to the site.

Hamblin explained that the tool will allow customers to interact with Asos even when they are on other websites. He said that this was just one development the e-tailer is working on to allow its customers to shop in many different ways.

"The way that customers browse is not about them coming to the site and us pushing information on them," he said. "They want to know what's relevant to them without having to be on the site."

Hamblin said that Asos developed the application with EMC Consulting in about three weeks. Although IE8 has only just launched, it has been available as a beta version for around a year.

* Asos has revealed the name of its new online community, Asos Life. The interactive channel, which will be part of its main transactional site, is expected to go live in April.

The channel will allow customers to interact with members of the Asos team with blogs and give an insight into the behind the scenes running of the e-tail business.