If you were paying attention a few months ago, you know that for php|tek 2009, MTA put together a free webcast series. We had great turnout, feedback, and success with them, so we're doing it again:

We have the FREE CodeWorks 2009 Webcast Series!

It works basically the same as last time around.  About every other Friday over the next three months, we'll have a ~30 presentation starting at 1pm Eastern Time.  We tend to start on time, so don't be late.  But if you have to miss it or are running late, the video and slides will be posted afterwards.  Where?  We're not sure yet, stay tuned.

We're kick off the first session this Friday - 26 June 2009 - with my friend and Blue Parabola colleague Matthew Turland with a session called "New SPL Features in PHP 5.3".  I suspect it has something to do with PHP 5.3... which is scheduled to be released this week.

In the weeks and months coming up, we have sessions on "Connecting PHP to Microsoft Technologies" with Sumit Chawla, "Play Doh: Towards Better Object Modeling" with Matthew Weier O'Phinney, "Migrating to PHP 5.3" with Stefan Priebsch, "Zend Framework Piece by Piece" with Cal Evans, "The Future of PDO" with Scott MacVicar, "Running PHP on Windows" with Hank Jannsen and Zach Owens, "PHP Date and Time Programming" with Derick Rethans, "What's New in PHP 6.0" with Andrei Zmievski, and finally "Running PHP on Azure" with Sumit Chawla.

Yes... a busy summer.

Just visit the php|architect site to register for any of the webcasts.

And of course, I should thank our sponsor Microsoft.  I know, I know, it's Microsoft and we can all bash them and pick on them for some silly decisions and strategies.  Realistically, they have a number of groups all acting independently so as much as I love to bash IE - especially IE6 - their efforts on the server side deserve a look.  Towards that goal, they have a presentation on Windows Azure.

In terms of technical requirements, all you need to participate is an internet connection and with OS X or Windows.  If you're running Linux - like myself - you'll need a VM running something else.  Unfortunately, GoToMeeting doesn't support Linux...

Disclosure: Not only am I doing the introductions for many of the webcasts each week, but I'm also the "Community Guy" for the CodeWorks 2009 Conference.  If you're with a PHP Users' Group in any of the seven cities - San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Atlanta, Miami, DC, or New York City - let me know.  You can read more about the User Groups' involvement in CodeWorks 2009 here.