The Ananda College of Living Wisdom, of which I've written a few posts lately, is seeking to expand its Board of Directors with two new members.

If you explore the College's website linked above, you'll see that the College is very much part of a new movement in higher education to approach subjects from the standpoint that consciousness, not matter, is the fundamental reality of creation. As a result, the College and its cirriculum accept and embrace the need for spiritual awareness and personal, inner development, rather than rejecting such concerns or confining them to a few courses on "religious philosophy."

For those of us who have taken such steps in our own lives, being part of a larger effort--and watching it grow from nothing more than an idea in early 2003--is truly inspiring. Having been involved from the beginning myself, and participating in the College's "Travel Abroad" program with the students and faculty, I'm very much looking forward to its development in the years ahead.  What might it be 15 years from now, when my own young son is ready for his higher education? In some ways I feel that my efforts as a member of the Board of Directors is to serve him, or at least many others like him who will find such a College transformative for themselves and, through that, transformative for the world at large.

So we're inviting others who are also so inspired to join us in the development of the College by volunteering to serve as a Director or by simply nominating others who might be interested. The kind of people we're seeking is described below. If you're interested or have suggestions, please contact myself (kraig (at) kraigbrockschmidt.com) or registrar (at) anandauniversity.org

I also want to mention that we're looking to build our newly-created Advisory Board whose first member is Dr. Amit Goswami whom I wrote about in an earlier post. This board will be composed of those who are inspired by what the College is doing and want to participate at a level of influence, but are not otherwise able to commit the time and energy as a full Director.

I'll also suggest, in my capacity as a Director, that if you are inspired by the college too but aren't in a position to serve, do consider a tax-deductible (and employer-matchable) donation. As noted in my prior post, we are a pioneering effort and deeply appreciate the support of people like yourself. Indeed, as Dr. Goswami would point out, waht matters so very much at this early stage is not so much the size of the gift, but the very fact of a gift. For taking such a step gives tangible expression to a new consciousness in higher education that is trying to manifest on our planet at this time. Contact information for the college is found at http://www.anandauniversity.org.

My heartfelt thanks to you in advance for your consideration.

Ideal Qualities for Prospective Board Members:

1. A passion for launching a new approach to higher education for higher consciousness, integrating non-dogmatic, non-sectarian, and universal spirituality into an intellectually stimulating curriculum. This passion extends the development of higher consciousness in oneself through personally chosen spiritual practices.

2. A willingness to bring a new level of creativity and intuition, in addition to the necessary time commitment, to help build and guide this new paradigm of higher education.

3. A background that ideally includes experience as a board member, professor, consultant, or fundraiser in a contemporary if not progressive higher education setting (colleges, universities, and non-profits). Fundraising abilities within spiritual venues are especially desirable at this time.

4. A network within their fields or professions that may include:

   1. Fundraising ties with science, business, and industry.

   2. Business and industry ties that are looking for interns and/or graduates trained in ethics, holistic approaches, sustainability, entrepreneurship, a unitive world view, and other key values expressed in the Ananda College of Living Wisdom curriculum.

   3. The ability to spread awareness of the College and its unique offerings and goals within that network.

Current Board Members:

• Nischala (Sara) and Nakula (Paul) Cryer, directors of the Ananda College of Living Wisdom
• Devi Novak, co-director of Ananda Sangha worldwide
• Walter Cruttenden, founder of the Binary Research Institute
• Nayaswami Seva Wiberg, also of Ananda Sangha and representing the spirit of renunciation
• Henry Huta (retiring from the Board), founder and CEO of EcoEarth Energy
• And myself, Kraig Brockschmidt, Senior Program Manager at Microsoft Corporation

It's great to be working within a department at Microsoft that is not only building some great technology, but also expanding! The Data & Modeling Group of which I'm part, and which owns technologies like the ADO.NET Entity Framework, WCF (ADO.NET) Data Services and the Open Data Protocol (OData), and other new stuff including the SQL Server Modeling technologies that I've written about on this blog (the "M" language, "Quadrant", and SQL Server Modeling Services).

There are opportunities within software development, testing, program management in most of these teams (around 30 open positions); we're looking for both individual contributors as well as team leads. These openings are listed on Microsoft's career portal, and the following search URI will give you the list (plus a few others in the larger Server & Tools Division--this is as close as I could get in the search):

https://careers.microsoft.com/Search.aspx#&&p4=all&p0=DMG+Quadrant+Modeling+DIT+%22Data+Tools%22&p5=2134&p1=1%2c17%2c3%2c19%2c15%2c20&p2=all&p3=1014

Oh, and if you apply for one of these positions, I appreciate being listed as a referral (you know--our management is giving out prizes for this sort of thing!).

I've been wanting to add some recordings to my Music Performances page for a while, primarily pieces from a Christmas concert of last December. I finally got a chance to do that just now, and also added two other pieces on that page from 2007 that I found while consoldating some backup hard drives.

The teams at Microsoft working on the ADO.NET Entity Framework and WCF (ADO.NET) Data Services are wrapping up work for .NET Framework 4, and are ready to kick off the next round of features. This is really part of their open design processes, and they're right looking for your input on new features.

Here's where you want to go:

http://blogs.msdn.com/adonet/archive/2010/02/10/vote-for-future-entity-framework-and-data-services-features.aspx 

Data Services Page: https://connect.microsoft.com/dataplatform/content/content.aspx?ContentID=15540 
Entity Framework Page: https://connect.microsoft.com/dataplatform/content/content.aspx?ContentID=15541   

Available on my main website: New Year's is Good Timing for New Year's Resolutions!

Comments are welcome here.

Cases of terminal childhood diseases often awaken our pity, and even dismay at the apparently unfairness of the universe. But in some cases, at least, there is the possibility of real purpose behind what otherwise appears to be a life cut short, a purpose to awaken in us not mere pity, but a deeper compassion and understanding.

This article explores that possibility more deeply. I'd originaly written it in November but neglected to announce it; at least it gave me the chance to make a few edits just now.

Comments are welcome here.

In moving my printer the other day I remembered that the box it was sitting contained about 40 spare copies of my book, Mystic Microsoft!

So I thought I'd offer these to readers of this blog as holiday gifts, completely free (I'll even pay the shipping). In other words, drop me your name and address to kraig (at) kraigbrockschmidt.com along with how many copies you'd like, and I'll send them to you. No strings attached. I'll even sign them! 

I would only request, without obligation of course, that you too enter into the spirit of generosity during the holidays, by giving of your time and/or money to any cause that inspires you.

Update 12/1/09: A good dozen books went out in the last week, but I still have more. Requests are still welcome.

Update 12/15/09: Still 15 copies left, with others heading out to various parts of the world.

Update 1/1/10: Still a few copies remain, so inquiries still welcome. Thanks to all those who've written their appreciation for the gift and haev also paid it forward.

It's been a long time coming for me to finally get a blog going. That I've done it was pretty much motivated by the need to post materials related to my work at Microsoft, which will likely form the bulk of the first entries. But I'll also be using this space for non-Microsoft stuff too, things that aren't lengthy or polished enough to warrant being an article on my main website.

I've actually hesitated for a long time to create a blog because of the whole commenting business. Yes, I know this is a big part of the democratic information/web 2.0/social bit, but fact of the matter is that most comments on blog posts leave much to be desired where thoughfulness is concerned (and sometimes prove that the commenter didn't actually read the post). The last thing I really want when I post a carefully thought-out article is to have oft-random comments and rants carelessly negate the points I'm trying to communicate. In other words, I believe that an article should carry more weight than the comments, and that an article should be presented in its own context without the distraction of comments.

This way, the main part of kraigbrockschmidt.com is a resource for people who are interested in what I, individually, am sharing with them. Thus anything produced in that spirit will continue to go on that part of the site. I'll make a reference to that piece on this blog and invite comments here; that way, there is still a space for discussion that won't othewise interfere with the presentation of the work itself.

Most of my Microsoft-related stuff, on the other had, will go directly here because obtaining feedback is one of the primary reasons for writing such pieces in the first place. (A curious side-note is that at Microsoft I'm part of a group that's focused on 'modeling' where software engineering is concerned, while 'modeling' has another place in my life in terms of model rockets and trains, thanks to my almost three-year-old son.)

In any case, this blog is up and running now using BlogEngine.NET, which is an easy system to work with on an ASP.NET-oriented website.

For more about my intentions for the blog (any the name I chose for it), see the About "Luminarity" page.