LabVIEW Users Blog NI Week

"The presentation by Brian Powell (creating LV add-ons) was interesting. He actually revealed a lot about the future features of LabVIEW without actually saying anything . . ." And so blogged power LabVIEW user Michael Aivaliotis in the first-ever web log about NI Week-the annual event in August hosted by National Instruments for users of its software and instrumentation products. In a way, it was a no-brainer for Aivaliotis, who already hosts a web log (http://lavausergroup.org/) for the LabVIEW user's group LAVA (which stands for LabVIEW Advanced Virtual Architects Group). He got the idea to set up a blog exclusively for NI Week (http://lavausergroup.org/niweek2003/) after realizing that year after year he looked forward to coming to NI Week and connecting up with other power users and sharing information. So he launched the blog in early August, inviting other users to post their messages and also loading it with all kinds of information, like instructions on how to download the conference schedule to a PDA, and plenty of details on "after hours" events. He also used the blog to promote and drive traffic to a user group meeting taking place during NI Week. He was the guest speaker. The meeting drew about fifty power users interested in what he had to say about new features in LV7, like dynamic events. As for the success of his blog, he estimates that "thousands" of engineers visited it before and during NI Week. As web logs gain in popularity, presumably because they offer a different take on events, expect more to pop up around engineering-oriented events. And stay tuned for next year's "Unofficial NI Blog."