Ed Wilson: Preparing for the 2010 Scripting Games

I have been really busy trying to get ready for the 2010 Scripting Games at the TechNet Script Center. We will have 40 guest commentators who will each write their own solution to one of the 20 scripting events. There are 20 script events because the 2010 Scripting Games consists of 10 beginner and 10 advanced events. The reason for the 40 commentators is because we will have solutions in both VBScript and in Windows PowerShell. In all likelihood, this will be the last year that we will have VBScript in the Scripting Games. The reason is not because I do not like VBScript – after all I wrote three books for Microsoft Press on VBScript, but that IT Pros are rapidly migrating to Windows PowerShell because it is easier and more powerful than VBScript.

The 40 guest commentators will include many commentators who participated in last years highly successful 2009 Summer Scripting Games. The commentators are Microsoft MVP’s, Microsoft employees, and various assorted authors of scripting books. All in all, it is a tremendous learning event, and quite fun.

My challenge in designing the events is to ensure that the beginner events are not too hard, and that the advanced events are not too easy. It is a real balancing act. The use of VBScript and Windows PowerShell complicates matters considerably, because some things are incredibly hard to do in VBScript – and therefore would be an advanced event, but that same task is super easy in Windows PowerShell – and therefore would be a beginner event.

This year we will be using Twitter to help us to announce events, as well as the Hey Scripting Guy Blog. Craig has been put in charge of rounding up prizes for contestants and he assures me we will have some excellent prizes to give away. We are continuing our partnership with the Windows PowerShell MVP community at PoshCode, and we will use their script repository to hold the entries. This allows us to make all of the scripting entries available to the scripting community. Last year there were some excellent scripts contributed.

We ran a survey on Twitter, and one of the number one requests was to reintroduce the element of competition to the 2010 Scripting Games. This year, we will have a leader board and keep track of the contestants ranking. The winner will receive a grand prize.

The 2010 Scripting Games begin on April 26, 2010. Stay tuned for more information.