The Code Trip is a road trip -- a bunch of developers hitting the road in a tour bus and geeking out as we journey across the land. We're doing events, writing code, throwing parties, writing more code, and documenting our adventures along the way in blog posts and video on our Travel Log.
Where are you going?
Our maiden voyage takes us throughout the western United States. Check out the Events page to see when we're stopping by a city near you.
Assuming we survive the first trip, we're hoping to make this an annual thing and hit the entire US next year. Stay tuned!
When is this taking place?
Right now! We kicked off at MIX08 in Las Vegas on March 6th, and we wrap it up at the MVP Summit in Seattle on April 15th.
Who is on The Code Trip?
The Code Trip crew is made up of Microsofties mostly from the West Region Developer Evangelism team, and members of the developer community who are as crazy as we are.
Visit the Roadies page to see everyone on the trip, and who is on the bus right now.
What's the point?
This isn't the first road trip or tour Microsoft has done... maybe you've been to a Microsoft Across America event in the past, for example. This trip is different, and here's why:
The story (and the code) is being developed along the way. Visit the site today and you'll see a live map displaying to-the-minute position information about our tour bus and our events on the trip, plus a Silverlight header control with the latest news and bus info. All of this was built and deployed during the course of The Code Trip.
We're cranking out code and releasing the results on CodePlex, Microsoft's open and shared source repository free for anyone to use. Upcoming projects include onboard webcam software so you can see what's happening on the bus from our web site, a Vista gadget to track our whereabouts, and some more Silverlight goodness. Check back regularly to see what we've released next!
We're doing different things depending on where we go. This is not your typical cookie-cutter style tour with one presentation repeated ad nauseum everywhere we go. We've been checking with local developers to see what they'd want us to do when we roll through town -- every stop is a new one.
In some cities we're presenting at user group meetings about the latest from MIX08. In Boise we sponsored an after-party for their Code Camp featuring Rock Band and other Xbox 360 action. In Fullerton we're having a day around game development with XNA. In Portland there's Webfoot, the web event for all creatures.
You're part of the story. This isn't just about what we've built... we want to show off the cool things you've developed too! We're stopping by customers, ISVs, universities, anyone along the way with some interesting code to show that they've developed.
We've toured a fully-automated mineral processing plant driven by Visual Basic. We've seen a .NET application that modifies the weather, controlling remote cloud seeding machines via satellite. We've even been bitten by wild dogs in the quest for geekdom! (Okay, it was a chihuahua, but you should have seen the teeth on that thing.) If you'd like us to stop by and film about something you'd like to show off, let us know!
You can also be part of The Code Trip by becoming a Roadie -- hop on the bus with us! Be warned -- we'll probably put you to work building something cool to show at our next event. (Plus we eat a lot of jerky.)
How do I join in the fun?
First thing you can do is subscribe to keep on top of the latest from The Code Trip.
Next, check the Events page and see where we're headed next.
Want to ride on the bus? Have any suggestions for The Code Trip? Get a hold of us at crew@thecodetrip.com.
See you on the road!