Category: Microsoft
Category Archives: Microsoft
Unable to Reset Password
I’ve created an Outlook account recently but forgotten the credentials to log back in. Since after creating the account, my inbox has been empty but with only a welcome email. I’ve tried resetting the password via the automated form, which asks for basic details (First Name, Last Name, Microsoft Services used, Recent sent emails with exact Subject lines) but I keep receiving these crappy automated emails from the BOT saying “Unfortunately, our automated system has determined that the information you provided was not sufficient for us to validate your account ownership.“
I couldn’t find a customer service contact number (USA) or a support email to contact a HUMAN. Had anyone faced this issue before, if so how were you able resolve this?
Thanks in advance.
I’ve created an Outlook account recently but forgotten the credentials to log back in. Since after creating the account, my inbox has been empty but with only a welcome email. I’ve tried resetting the password via the automated form, which asks for basic details (First Name, Last Name, Microsoft Services used, Recent sent emails with exact Subject lines) but I keep receiving these crappy automated emails from the BOT saying “Unfortunately, our automated system has determined that the information you provided was not sufficient for us to validate your account ownership.” I couldn’t find a customer service contact number (USA) or a support email to contact a HUMAN. Had anyone faced this issue before, if so how were you able resolve this? Thanks in advance. Read More
Map Home-Directory attribute UNC path for locally connected azure-ad joined shared devices.
We have an on-premises Active Directory (AD) environment connected to Azure AD via AD Connect. We’ve successfully joined our devices to Azure AD using Azure AD Join (MEJ) through Autopilot. We also, using Passthrough Authentication (PTA) for Authentication and we have 3 PTA agents (Including AAD Connect) on-premises.
Now, we want to grant users access to an on-premises file share (File server) while they are physically connected to the local network at the office. Each user has an individual Home Drive (H:) defined in their On-premises “Home-Directory attribute” (HomeDirectory), and we want to make this H drive accessible for any users who sign-in to a locally connected shared AADJ devices at the office (We don’t want these H drives to be available for remote users). Our shared AADJ devices currently have access to on-premises share files when they’re locally connected at the office, but they don’t have access to user’s home drive now.
In summary, we want to map Home-Directory attribute UNC path for locally connected azure-ad joined shared devices for any individual users who sign in to these devices.
We have an on-premises Active Directory (AD) environment connected to Azure AD via AD Connect. We’ve successfully joined our devices to Azure AD using Azure AD Join (MEJ) through Autopilot. We also, using Passthrough Authentication (PTA) for Authentication and we have 3 PTA agents (Including AAD Connect) on-premises. Now, we want to grant users access to an on-premises file share (File server) while they are physically connected to the local network at the office. Each user has an individual Home Drive (H:) defined in their On-premises “Home-Directory attribute” (HomeDirectory), and we want to make this H drive accessible for any users who sign-in to a locally connected shared AADJ devices at the office (We don’t want these H drives to be available for remote users). Our shared AADJ devices currently have access to on-premises share files when they’re locally connected at the office, but they don’t have access to user’s home drive now. In summary, we want to map Home-Directory attribute UNC path for locally connected azure-ad joined shared devices for any individual users who sign in to these devices. Read More
Microsoft Intune Remote Help adds full control for Mac
We’re excited to announce a major enhancement to Microsoft Intune Remote Help’s capabilities: full control support for macOS devices. With organizations that use macOS devices in their environments, providing efficient and secure remote assistance is paramount. This is part of a broader effort across Intune to provide cross-platform support and allow IT admins to manage any device with Intune. With this new functionality, IT help desks can now not only view Mac devices, but also take full control of them, streamlining troubleshooting and reducing time to mitigation. Whether it’s configuring settings, troubleshooting software glitches, or assisting information workers, help desks can tackle problems quickly and efficiently.
Remote Help empowers IT to provide secure helpdesk-to-user connections. Remote Help helps to mitigate security risks, improve efficiency, and support workers anywhere. With the rise of help desk spoofing, the strong authentication built into Remote Help and security controls are more important than ever. Every help desk connection can be trusted, protected with compliant, conditional access policies, including the ability to support multi-factor authentication—ensuring the identity of both the helper and end user. Before initiating a remote session, helpers receive non-compliance warnings if the user’s device does not adhere to organizational policies. Helpers and sharers can also maintain a continuous thread of communication throughout the session, leveraging the chat feature which supports special characters and multiple languages.
How Remote Help works with macOS devices
After an employee reports an IT issue, the help desk starts a Remote Help session through the Intune Admin Center so that they can assist.
When beginning a session, the helper now has the option of full control, which is a new capability for macOS devices.
Remote Help shows the employee the help desk technician’s photo, name, job title, and domain verification through Entra ID creates confidence that the correct person is accessing their device.
Before beginning the session, Remote Help will check if the sharer’s device is compliant. When devices are not compliant, the helper will receive a warning, but can still proceed with the session.
Getting started with Remote Help
Microsoft Intune Remote Help is a key solution in the Microsoft Intune Suite. It is available as an add-on to any Microsoft 365 plan that includes Intune. To get started with Remote Help and the new support for macOS, start a trial of Microsoft Intune Suite today. For more information on Microsoft Intune Remote Help, visit our Microsoft Intune technical product documentation as well as the Microsoft Intune Remote Help product page.
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Drop down list “moving” selection when selected in another cell
I am rather new to excel but have been able to figure out most things with a quick google search. However, this one thing is giving me trouble.
Here’s what I’m trying to achieve:
I have a spreadsheet with different zones I can assign my employees to.
Each zone has cells that are linked to a table with my employee’s names and I can select them via drop down menu.
When I want to move an employee to a different zone, I would like to be able to select their name in a different cell under the new zone and have it automatically reset the old cell containing their name to a blank cell.
Everything I see is just to make it so they can only be selected once, but this would eliminate them from the drop down menu as I assign them.
That means when I want to “move” them I’d have to reset their current cell to blank manually before being able to select them elsewhere.
I want the drop down list to include all of the names all the time but for it to reset the old cell to blank when I select them elsewhere.
Is this possible?
Please help!
I am rather new to excel but have been able to figure out most things with a quick google search. However, this one thing is giving me trouble. Here’s what I’m trying to achieve:I have a spreadsheet with different zones I can assign my employees to.Each zone has cells that are linked to a table with my employee’s names and I can select them via drop down menu.When I want to move an employee to a different zone, I would like to be able to select their name in a different cell under the new zone and have it automatically reset the old cell containing their name to a blank cell. Everything I see is just to make it so they can only be selected once, but this would eliminate them from the drop down menu as I assign them.That means when I want to “move” them I’d have to reset their current cell to blank manually before being able to select them elsewhere.I want the drop down list to include all of the names all the time but for it to reset the old cell to blank when I select them elsewhere. Is this possible? Please help! Read More
The Power of Manager Engagement: A Proven Strategy for Business Success
We know the manager’s role is important. They’re responsible for establishing strategies and goals, overseeing the work to achieve those goals, solving problems, as well as motivating, inspiring, and empowering employees to perform at their best. It’s a tall order. But what happens if a manager’s head isn’t in the game? Can employees be engaged and help the business succeed if their manager isn’t engaged in their own work? Are there business benefits from strong engagement among people managers? Simply put, does manager engagement matter separate from employee engagement?
As part of Microsoft Viva Glint, we get to work with some of the largest, most complex, and successful companies in the world, which includes leveraging the millions of employee feedback data points from our customers’ anonymized Glint survey data to try to answer these kinds of questions.
We got to work collecting and mapping the financial performance data from 862 publicly traded Glint customers over the course of a single year. We examined the survey scores only from those companies’ managers (from any level of management, from individual team managers up to the CEO level) and calculated a quartile rank for each survey item for each company. Those with item score averages above the 75th percentile were categorized as the “most engaged management” group and those below the 25th percentile categorized as the “least engaged management” group. We calculated the financial metrics for each group based on the year-end reporting of the companies’ financial results.
The answer: Yup, manager engagement definitely matters!
The results of the study were compelling. Organizations with more-engaged managers showed much better financial results, with a median pre-tax profit margin 3.25x higher than organizations with less-engaged managers. Additionally, these highly engaged manager organizations showed significantly better return on equity: 10x higher than organizations with less-engaged managers.
These findings highlight the importance of manager engagement in driving business success. By investing in the engagement of their managers, organizations can improve their business success. It is clear that managers’ attitudes influence employees’ attitude, and taking care of managers is also a way to take care of employees. A 2022 Glint research study about what matters most for driving employee engagement highlighted the importance of managers in driving employee engagement and satisfaction.
One key finding from the study was when managers felt positively about the company culture, their team members are also more likely to feel positively about it. Similarly, when managers recommend the company as a great place to work, their team members are also more likely to do so.
Take action
You want to drive business success, right? To do that, you’ll need to support the engagement and success of your managers. According to our research in partnership with Linked on how best to deliver that support, managers need more:
Access to training or learning resources (33% selected this among their responses)
Work-related coaching (32%)
Performance feedback (32%)
Emotional and mental health resources (30%)
Decision-making authority (24%)
Facilitating internal connections (24%)
The way forward
This recent research provides the evidence of what we suspected: the center of any business enterprise is its managers, and the enterprise’s success will depend on those managers’ success – both directly in the decisions they make, and indirectly in their influence on others in the organization. As organizations continue to change, adopt new and sometimes disruptive technologies, re-organize, re-size, and retrench, managers and manager engagement with their work will need to be supported and recognized. Winning organizations recognize this and make smart, targeted investments in their managers.
How do you support and engage your managers? Comment below!
__
Methodology
Financial performance data from 01/03/2022 to 12/30/2022 were collected and manually mapped to public Glint clients that had at least one survey with 10 or more manager respondents in 2022 (N=862 public companies).
Company item scores included scores only from manager respondents (any level of management from an individual team manager up to the CEO) and were aggregated by survey cycle, then by client, and were used to calculate a quartile rank for each company. Those companies with item score averages above the 75th percentile were bucketed into the “most engaged management” group and those with item score averages below the 25th percentile were bucketed into the “least engaged management” group. The financial metrics for each grouping were calculated based on the median 2022 year-end financial reporting of the companies in these two buckets.
Engagement was measured by two items: eSat – “How happy are you working at <Company Name>?” and Recommend – “I would recommend <company name> as a great place to work.”). These two items were the most “predictive” of the financial success measures: Stock Return (year end), Market Cap per Employee, Pretax Profit per Employee, Pretax Profit Margin, Return on Capital Employed, and Return on Equity. Other items were tested as well, and while they predicted some of the financial success measures well, the between them the Engagement items were effective in predicting all of them.
References
“Glint Manager Research”, June 2022
“How Combining Employee Engagement and Performance Management Fuels Organizational Success,” Harvard Business Review–Analytic Services
June 2022 LinkedIn Omnibus Survey
“LinkedIn Learning survey”, conducted for LinkedIn by Censuswide in July 2019, including >2,000 working professionals, ages 18-74, across the US.
“Manager Support Study”, June 2022 LinkedIn Omnibus Survey in partnership with LinkedIn Market Research, sample of 1963 employed English-speaking LinkedIn members.
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Sneak peek at new Azure edge infrastructure at Hannover Messe 2024
Written by Cosmos Darwin, Principal Group Manager on the Azure Edge & Platform team
This week is Hannover Messe 2024, the world’s biggest industrial trade fair. Microsoft is there, including members of the Azure Stack team, showcasing how the Microsoft Cloud enables end-to-end manufacturing solutions that help securely connect people, assets, and business processes, empowering organizations to be more resilient.
Near the center of our booth, you can watch a robotic assembly line put together battery parts. The line features standard OT assets from our partner Rockwell Automation and shows how an adaptive cloud approach together with open standards like OPC UA can accelerate industrial transformation. Azure IoT Operations enabled by Azure Arc flows data from the production line into Microsoft Fabric, enabling real-time monitoring and analysis in the cloud.
And if you look closer, you may spot an exciting new infrastructure solution hosting it all:
Caption: Glimpse the new Azure edge infrastructure at the Hannover Messe 2024 expo.
Hardware for the industrial edge
As organizations adopt new OT technologies like Azure IoT Operations, which runs on Kubernetes, a core challenge for IT is to provide an appropriate computing infrastructure at the edge to support it. They need an infrastructure solution that’s easy to deploy, easy to manage at-scale across many locations, and that provides all the capabilities needed to deliver the applications, like managed Kubernetes and enterprise-grade resiliency. Most important of all, it needs to work in an edge setting like a factory floor, where neither the environmental factors nor the budget can accommodate a rack of servers.
For these kinds of situations, our team is working to extend Azure edge infrastructure to smaller form factor devices: edge/industrial PCs. The demo at Hannover Messe runs on three Lenovo ThinkEdge SE30s, an exemplar of this new category. These devices are great: they’re rugged, affordable, and they provide just the right amount of capability for this application, with an Intel Core™ i5 vPro® processor and 16 GiB of memory each.
Caption: Lenovo ThinkEdge SE30 is a great example of the edge/industrial PC device category.
Optimized low-footprint architecture
To make the most of limited resources, this new infrastructure solution blends familiar elements of Azure Stack HCI with some exciting new approaches. Azure Linux is used as the host operating system, and then the Azure Kubernetes Service is used to turn those machines into a Kubernetes cluster. The result is Kubernetes running directly on bare metal, with no virtualization at all. The whole infrastructure solution is deployed and operated from Azure cloud.
Caption: Solution architecture uses Azure Linux and AKS on baremetal to minimize footprint.
(Equivalently, for a more familiar experience, you could also run Windows IoT Enterprise as the host operating system with AKS Edge Essentials virtualized on top. We’re all one engineering team here in Azure, so we won’t be offended – pick whichever OS you prefer!)
Managed from the cloud – demo!
Beyond the on-device architecture, the core promise of adaptive cloud is a unified control plane to manage the whole solution, from apps to infrastructure. Check out this short demo to see how the Azure resource manager (ARM) and Azure Portal can be used with this new edge infrastructure: the solution is presented by a native ARM resource; its configuration is pushed from the cloud to enable repeatability and infrastructure-as-code; integration with management services like Azure Monitor is seamless; and you can even drill down into Kubernetes resources with just a few clicks.
Get ready to try it yourself
For now, this new edge infrastructure solution is a technology demonstration, but we’ve been pleasantly surprised how well it works. We plan to start previews later this year. If you’re interested, sign up now to be among the first to get early access. And in the meantime, watch this space for more news about all things edge infrastructure, from hyperconverged servers to edge/industrial PCs.
<3
– Cosmos
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance Functional Consultant Blueprint Survey Opportunity
Greetings!
Microsoft is updating a certification for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance Functional Consultant, and we need your input through our exam blueprinting survey.
The blueprint determines how many questions each skill in the exam will be assigned. Please complete the online survey by May 7th, 2024. Please also feel free to forward the survey to any colleagues you consider subject matter experts for this certification. If you have any questions, feel free to contact Rohan Mahadevan rmahadevan@microsoft.com or John Sowles at josowles@microsoft.com.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance Functional Consultant blueprint survey link:
https://microsoftlearning.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3DiP1FrsVMj9y2W
Greetings!
Microsoft is updating a certification for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance Functional Consultant, and we need your input through our exam blueprinting survey.
The blueprint determines how many questions each skill in the exam will be assigned. Please complete the online survey by May 7th, 2024. Please also feel free to forward the survey to any colleagues you consider subject matter experts for this certification. If you have any questions, feel free to contact Rohan Mahadevan rmahadevan@microsoft.com or John Sowles at josowles@microsoft.com.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance Functional Consultant blueprint survey link:
https://microsoftlearning.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3DiP1FrsVMj9y2W
Read More
Join the Viva Customer Showcase: Wallenius Wilhelmsen
Join us for the Viva Customer Showcase: Wallenius Wilhelmsen with Mitty Leong, the End User Experience Manager at Wallenius Wilhelmsen, as she unveils how WW uses Viva to drive their Copilot adoption. WW has seen early success in onboarding Copilot users, driving consistent and targeted messages, and has visibility into their Copilot adoption process by using the Copilot Dashboard. Don’t miss this opportunity to gain insights into their early triumphs and learn how you can replicate their success.
Join us for the Viva Customer Showcase: Wallenius Wilhelmsen with Mitty Leong, the End User Experience Manager at Wallenius Wilhelmsen, as she unveils how WW uses Viva to drive their Copilot adoption. WW has seen early success in onboarding Copilot users, driving consistent and targeted messages, and has visibility into their Copilot adoption process by using the Copilot Dashboard. Don’t miss this opportunity to gain insights into their early triumphs and learn how you can replicate their success. Read More
Custom Roles – Operating System Recovery Configurations, what is this?
Hi,
I’m working on creating a custom role for local device administrators. To this end I’m going through each permission and deciding on a case-by-case basis what to grant. I’ve come across this permission category in a few built-in roles, with the permissions listed as Assign Profiles, Create Profiles etc. The information box simply says these are for use on Operating System Recovery Profiles, but I cant find any information on what those are or what granting those permissions will allow. Can someone point me to a doc or a link to an explanation of what an Operating System Recovery Configuration or Profile is?
Thanks.
Hi,I’m working on creating a custom role for local device administrators. To this end I’m going through each permission and deciding on a case-by-case basis what to grant. I’ve come across this permission category in a few built-in roles, with the permissions listed as Assign Profiles, Create Profiles etc. The information box simply says these are for use on Operating System Recovery Profiles, but I cant find any information on what those are or what granting those permissions will allow. Can someone point me to a doc or a link to an explanation of what an Operating System Recovery Configuration or Profile is? Thanks. Read More
How can I make non-recurring meetings in Bookings?
I want to utilize Bookings to set up a way for people to schedule training sessions. They occur randomly and are non-recurring..
I want to utilize Bookings to set up a way for people to schedule training sessions. They occur randomly and are non-recurring.. Read More
Hybrid joined devices – convert to entra Joined
how to convert/migrate +5.000 devices/laptops from Hybrid joined devices to Entra joined Only devices (the users are not in scope) – so this is all about the devices and to get this working within a existing infrastructure.
Or can someone confirm there’s no conversion path for hybrid joined devices to Entra join only?
how to convert/migrate +5.000 devices/laptops from Hybrid joined devices to Entra joined Only devices (the users are not in scope) – so this is all about the devices and to get this working within a existing infrastructure. Or can someone confirm there’s no conversion path for hybrid joined devices to Entra join only? Read More
Win 32 App Failure
Hi,
I deployed BitDefender Gravity Zone as win 32 app around a year ago and when setting up laptop though autopilot or other means it has always installed never had any errors. However Recently without any changes to app it has started failing and I get the following error:
I have repackaged the app using ‘Microsoft-Win32-Content-Prep-Tool’ and uploaded the app onto intune again with the same settings and it still fails.
I have also been onto BitDefender website and followed the instructions on there as the uninstall and detection rules were different to what I originally had but still no success.
Install security agents – use cases (bitdefender.com)
When I used this method I get Unknown error code as it suggests to take out all the error codes on the link above
I have had to install this on the last couple of devices manually because of this, could anyone shed some light on how I would get this sorted.
Thanks
Hi, I deployed BitDefender Gravity Zone as win 32 app around a year ago and when setting up laptop though autopilot or other means it has always installed never had any errors. However Recently without any changes to app it has started failing and I get the following error: I have repackaged the app using ‘Microsoft-Win32-Content-Prep-Tool’ and uploaded the app onto intune again with the same settings and it still fails. I have also been onto BitDefender website and followed the instructions on there as the uninstall and detection rules were different to what I originally had but still no success. Install security agents – use cases (bitdefender.com) When I used this method I get Unknown error code as it suggests to take out all the error codes on the link above I have had to install this on the last couple of devices manually because of this, could anyone shed some light on how I would get this sorted. Thanks Read More
Ibid.
I’m using Word 365 version 2403 on Win 11. I’m writing a paper/book using the Turabian 9th edition style for my footnotes. However, I want to use Ibid. instead of restating the author’s name and article title. How do I edit this style to do that?
I’m using Word 365 version 2403 on Win 11. I’m writing a paper/book using the Turabian 9th edition style for my footnotes. However, I want to use Ibid. instead of restating the author’s name and article title. How do I edit this style to do that? Read More
Tech Talks Presents: Introducing Power Fx in desktop flows | Apr. 25th
Join us on Thursday, April 25th at 8am PT as James Papadimitriou, Sr. Product Manager presents Power Fx in desktop flows.
In this session, we’ll give a Power Fx in desktop flows overview – current state and next steps.
We hope you’ll join us!
Call to Action:
Click on the link to save the calendar invite: https://aka.ms/TechTalksInvite
View past recordings (sign in required): https://aka.ms/TechTalksRecording
Get started with the adoption tools here
Join us on Thursday, April 25th at 8am PT as James Papadimitriou, Sr. Product Manager presents Power Fx in desktop flows.
In this session, we’ll give a Power Fx in desktop flows overview – current state and next steps.
We hope you’ll join us!
Call to Action:
Click on the link to save the calendar invite: https://aka.ms/TechTalksInvite
View past recordings (sign in required): https://aka.ms/TechTalksRecording
Get started with the adoption tools here Read More
Change value of a cell based on the date in another cell.
Hello,
I am trying to set up an Excel sheet for work. In column E, there is a date for each row. If that cell’s date is less than or equal to one year from today’s date, I need it to change the value of column C to “1”. If it is greater than one year away, column C needs to be “2”
Is this possible to do?
Hello, I am trying to set up an Excel sheet for work. In column E, there is a date for each row. If that cell’s date is less than or equal to one year from today’s date, I need it to change the value of column C to “1”. If it is greater than one year away, column C needs to be “2” Is this possible to do? Read More
AI: A game-changer for the employee experience
On April 18th, I had the pleasure of speaking with Alexia Cambon (Senior Director of Research, Modern Work at Microsoft) about the impact that AI will have on us as employees.
This was a thought-provoking conversation, during which I shared some predictions on the topic from our Viva People Science team. These included how AI would impact our skills, our use of time, our need for more humanity and empathy amongst others.
Alexia shared fascinating research undertaken by her team, demonstrating the impact that AI is already having on saving us time and energy in our daily work lives, something that is hugely in deficit today. She presented us with the idea of AI as a ‘third work dimension’ alongside time and space, magnifying the potential impact it will have on how we work in the future. The conversation raised many questions about how organizations and leaders should think about AI, how we as employees and organizations should decide how our time savings are best used and allocated, and how this is likely to positively impact the employee experience.
In case you missed the live event, you can watch it HERE.
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Microsoft celebrates Earth Month
What does a young workforce need to thrive in a new green economy?
The Green Skills Passport (GSP), launched by EY, Microsoft and UNICEF, is a free, on-demand learning program focused on sustainability, entrepreneurship and skills for employment. The program is part of INCO Academy’s mission to boost equality in future-driven industries.
With support from Microsoft and LinkedIn, INCO Academy is committed to equipping 40,000 professionals and jobseekers in non-green sectors and fields, especially digital and IT careers, with a complementary accelerated course that stacks green-specific competencies upon their experiences. Through this program, learners are empowered to build careers that can positively contribute to our evolving, greening economy.
INCO Academy aims to give everyone the ability to learn the skills to succeed in the digital economy. Since its founding, it’s helped thousands around the world unlock technical skills and reach their full potential through tech. It is more important than ever to upskill and reskill people for the jobs of the future, to ensure equitable opportunities can be accessed by all.
How can AI prevent wildlife crime?
Peace Parks Foundation uses AI solutions to protect, restore, and rewild south African ecosystems. Using funds secured through Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power BI, Peace Parks, in partnership with Microsoft partner Cloudlogic, developed technology to analyze camera trap activity and minimize the time rangers need to react to poachers.
New green learning pathways
Join Amy Luers, Global Director, Sustainability Science at Microsoft to learn about the promise of AI for sustainability now part of Career Essentials in Sustainable Tech by Microsoft and LinkedIn.
Environmental justice is social justice
On April 6, 2024, at J. Cole’s Dreamville Fest Nonprofit Village, The EARTHGANG Foundation, unveiled a new Microsoft-powered portal that centralizes global climate change data.
Based in Atlanta, GA, EARTHGANG raises awareness and promotes carbon reduction efforts in Black, Brown, and low-income communities where the impacts of climate change are felt most acutely.
Continue the conversation by joining us in the Nonprofit Community! Want to share best practices or join community events? Become a member by “Joining” the Nonprofit Community. To stay up to date on the latest nonprofit news, make sure to Follow or Subscribe to the Nonprofit Community Blog space!
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About Talk Selection for POSETTE: An Event for Postgres 2024
As promised in the CFP for POSETTE: An Event for Postgres 2024, all of the talk selection decisions were emailed out on April 17th. Our talk selection work has now concluded, with the possible exception of accepting proposals from the Reserve list.
So what’s next? First I want to thank all of you Postgres people who submitted such amazing talk proposals into the CFP for POSETTE, now in its 3rd year. I was so impressed by the submissions and wish we could have accepted more of them.
And I also want to thank Alicja Kucharczyk, Daniel Gustafsson, and Melanie Plageman from POSETTE’s Talk Selection Team for contributing their time and expertise to collaborate with me to select the talks for this year’s virtual POSETTE event. It’s not easy to carefully read through and review 184 talk proposals—in just 8 days—to come up with the program for an event like #PosetteConf.
That’s right, 184 talk proposals—from 120 unique speakers. (The CFP had a maximum of 4 submissions per speaker.) With just 38 talks to accept this year, that means POSETTE 2024 has a ~20% talk acceptance rate. Bottom line, we had some difficult decisions to make.
So many great talk proposals we had to lengthen the POSETTE schedule to make space
The original POSETTE plan for 2024 was to have 4 livestreams with 9 talks each. The math looked like this:
Each livestream would have:
1 invited keynote—not selected through the CFP talk selection process, but rather an invited keynote speaker
8 unique talks selected via the CFP process
Hence, 36 talks total:
32 talks selected via the CFP process + 4 unique keynotes
However, the best laid plans of mice and men and all that, we had to throw that math out the window. There were too many good talk proposals.
Luckily the talk production team led by Teresa Giacomini was able to rejigger their recording schedules to make room for 6 more talks.
So the final POSETTE 2024 schedule will have:
42 talks total: 38 talks selected via the CFP process + 4 unique keynotes
And yes, we’ve already started discussions to figure out how we could support more talks in the schedule next year, for POSETTE 2025.
Here is POSETTE’s “CFP hockey stick” as evidence that many are deadline driven
Below is a chart of the CFP submissions by Day, so those of you who are deadline driven (I’m guilty as charged too) will see you’re not alone. In fact, more than 50% of the talk proposals were submitted in the last week of the CFP.
Side-note: When a talk proposal was submitted had zero bearing on the talk selection process. We didn’t start reviewing and voting until after the CFP was closed and all proposals were in the system.
Transparency into talk selection for Postgres conferences
Transparency into the process used for talk selection can be helpful for Postgres conference speakers which is why I’m writing this post. And in particular, it helps to remind yourself that many of the Postgres conference CFPs are competitive. So if your talk proposal was one of the submissions that was declined (or placed on the reserve list) for this year’s POSETTE, please remember:
even the best speakers get rejected sometimes
even great talk proposals get rejected sometimes
don’t give up: please continue to submit your talk proposals—and if you want to be accepted in the future, do the work to get feedback, and make sure the submissions are on point for whatever each event is looking for
Speaking of which, there are probably some Postgres CFPs that are open right now! One big one that comes to mind is PGConf NYC 2024, happening in midtown Manhattan from Sep 30th to Oct 2nd 2024. The PGConf NYC 2024 CFP will be open until Jun 5th 2024.
About the 2-phase POSETTE talk selection process
Our talk selection team used a 2-phase process for doing talk selection.
During Phase 1
I sent the talk selection team guidance for talk selection, which was basically just a refresher about the CFP: what the goal of the event is, what types of talks and speakers we were looking for, reminders that new speakers are welcome, clarifying that it’s OK to accept a talk from a speaker who had spoken at a previous Citus Con… since after all, a good speaker is a good speaker.
We each (separately, individually) reviewed all 184 talk proposals, along with any other information and links the Speakers provided about the proposal in the Additional Notes sections and the Speaker Experience section.
We used the “Comparison evaluation method in Sessionize to rank 3 sessions at a time. This technique is based on the Elo rating system used in the world of chess. What’s good about it is that at any given point, you’re only looking at 3 proposals. You don’t have to remember how you voted on similar talk proposals 5 hours beforehand. Rather, at any point, you’re just ranking 3 talk proposals against each other.
After completing our Comparison Evaluation, we had a rough draft Phase 1 ranking to start applying holistic considerations to.
What’s a holistic consideration?
Holistic considerations are when we look at the “whole” of the schedule, and the desire to have a balanced and diverse set of topics, teaching styles, and speakers.
For example, we knew we wanted speakers from around the globe and didn’t want to accidentally end up with speakers from just one corner of the world.
And we knew we didn’t want 50% of the talks to be about AI in Postgres. But clearly AI is a hot topic, which is why there will be a handful of super-interesting talks about the role of AI in the Postgres ecosystem.
And we knew we wanted at least a few Postgres talks that were Django-focused or Rails-focused.
We also knew there is an expectation that Postgres experts who work at Microsoft will share their expertise at this event, particularly as it relates to the Azure managed services for PostgreSQL.
However, we also wanted to make space for Postgres users and open source community members outside of Microsoft too. After all, Postgres is a global community that spans countries, companies, and timezones! The final schedule is not yet published, but I predict that over 65% (or even 70%) of the sessions will have speakers from outside of Microsoft.
During Phase 2 of POSETTE talk selection
First I needed to know how many slots we had to fill, so I reached out to the POSETTE organizing team to find out whether we could accept more than the original plan for 32 talks! So glad they said yes and we were able to accept 38 talks.
I categorized the talk proposals in a spreadsheet so we could filter and view all of the Phase 1 rankings in a few different ways, to look at the holistic considerations. Then I made a few adjustments to balance the set of accepted talks—and delivered the Talk Selection Team a proposed draft of Phase 2 rankings, with all 184 of the talk proposals in the various states of Accept / Reserve / Decline DUP1 / Decline.
Phase 2 voting involved a ~3.5 hour meeting to decide on specific changes we each wanted to make to the final roster of accepted talks/speakers. To make a change to the Phase 2 rankings, we had to make a case for the change. As a team, we would discuss the proposed change, ask questions, advocate, and then vote. I abstained from voting during this part unless I was needed as a tie-breaker (but I did not abstain from discussion.) We did this over and over, about 12 times, until landing on the final schedule.
Thanks for all your CFP submissions!
Thank you again to everyone who submitted proposals into the CFP for POSETTE.
And big welcome to those of you whose talks are accepted to POSETTE. And to those of you whose talk proposals are on the Reserve list, we’ll reach out to you right away if a spot opens up in POSETTE for your proposal.
When will the POSETTE Schedule be announced?
As for the schedule, it gets announced on May 1st 2024. That’s when you’ll be able to see all the talks in each of the 4 livestreams for this year’s POSETTE: An Event for Postgres, happening virtually on Jun 11-13.
We hope you will be as excited about these speakers and these Postgres talks as we are.
In the meantime if you want to proactively mark your calendar for the livestreams which are most convenient for your schedule, here you go:
Add Livestream 1 to your calendar: Tue Jun 11, 2024 | 8:00am-1:30pm PDT (UTC-7)
Add Livestream 2 to your calendar: Wed Jun 12, 2024 | 8:00am-1:30pm CEST (UTC+2)
Add Livestream 3 to your calendar: Wed Jun 12, 2024 | 8:00am-1:30pm PDT (UTC-7)
Add Livestream 4 to your calendar: Thu Jun 13, 2024 | 8:00am-1:30pm CEST (UTC+2)
You can also subscribe to POSETTE news if you want email notifications as things happen, such as when the schedule is announced or when the videos are published, or when next year’s event is announced and the CFP opens for 2025.
And of course you can always follow @PosetteConf on Threads or on X/Twitter, or on Mastodon by following @posetteconf@mastodon.social. The event hashtag is #PosetteConf.
Shout-out to transparency from other Postgres program committees
Several other PostgreSQL events this year have also shared info about their CFP submissions and talk selection processes. A few recent examples:
PGConf.dev 2024: I loved this blog post by Paul Ramsey about Building the PGConf.dev Programme about how the PGConf.dev talk selection was done, to pick 33 talks out of over 180 submissions.
pgDay Paris 2024 Program committee feedback: This PDF from the pgDay Paris 2024 program committee also sheds light into the talk selection process used to pick 12 talks out of 116 CFP submissions. A daunting task I’m sure.
PGConf.EU 2023: During the “So long and thanks for all the fish” session at the very end of PGConf.EU 2023 in Prague, Dave Page and Magnus Hagander put a slide up on the big screen that showed the number of CFP submissions by day over the course of the CFP, from CFP open to CFP close—not just for the 2023 event, but for every PGConf.EU since 20092. As you might imagine, the number of talk proposals has grown over the years commensurate with the size of PGConf.EU: The 2023 conference had over 360 submissions. With just 51 talks accepted, that’s a ~14% acceptance rate for PGConf.EU 2023.
Footnotes
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Disconnects and limited functionality messages when using DNS servers with DOH enabled
Hello everyone,
For some time now, two DNS servers with DOH enabled have been added to our company’s local network.
Both servers are equipped with a valid SSL certificate issued by a trusted certificate authority.
However, if we use our Windows 11 clients with DOH enabled on DNS we encounter some anomalous behavior with Microsoft 365 components.
For example:
1) When started, the OneDrive client does not connect and remains in “connecting”. If you try to unlink your company account and re-enter it you receive a proxy error 2606
2) A message appears on Teams saying that the program can be used but some features are limited due to communication problems with the servers
3) Outlook shows the inbox correctly but if you open a new message the text does not load in the window
By deactivating the DOH everything works again.
No other problems have been reported with other software or with normal web browsing
Both DNS have both Google and Cloudlfare public DNS as forwarders.
Both local DNS are running Bind9 updated to the latest version/build.
Hello everyone,For some time now, two DNS servers with DOH enabled have been added to our company’s local network.Both servers are equipped with a valid SSL certificate issued by a trusted certificate authority.However, if we use our Windows 11 clients with DOH enabled on DNS we encounter some anomalous behavior with Microsoft 365 components.For example: 1) When started, the OneDrive client does not connect and remains in “connecting”. If you try to unlink your company account and re-enter it you receive a proxy error 2606 2) A message appears on Teams saying that the program can be used but some features are limited due to communication problems with the servers 3) Outlook shows the inbox correctly but if you open a new message the text does not load in the windowBy deactivating the DOH everything works again.No other problems have been reported with other software or with normal web browsingBoth DNS have both Google and Cloudlfare public DNS as forwarders.Both local DNS are running Bind9 updated to the latest version/build. Read More