Feb 5, 2024 Show Notes

Thank you all for viewing our?Mondays at Microsoft episode on February 5, 2024. Below are show notes and links for all we discussed.

You can view this episode?on demand here on LinkedIn or via Coffee in the Cloud YouTube .

?

Join us, February 19, 2024 for our next show, which will include more hot off-the-press information. Please keep the conversation going here in the?Microsoft Community ?or directly connect with us:?Heather Cook ?or?Karuana Gatimu .

?

Please share this Microsoft Community page, and see you back here again soon.

?

Check out?Seth Juarez ?and the?#AIShow ?that will stream right after us. View Seth and his guests talking about building safer online communities with AI at?aka.ms/AIShowLive

?

??

Microsoft One Big Rock?

Xbox and Gameheads are Amplifying Black Voices in Gaming

• Xbox partners with Gameheads to showcase Black-created games in recognition of Black History Month.
• Explore a wide variety of games curated by Black communities at Microsoft.
• This Black History Month, we’re sharing the importance of increased representation in gaming at Microsoft.
• Gameheads ?– A tech training program that uses video game design, development and DevOps to create diverse talent and bold new voices, train youth of color for the tech eco-system and prepare them for college, career and civic life. [US]
• Cxmmunity ?– A nonprofit organization committed to increasing BIPOC representation within the gaming and esports industry through STEAM education and career development. [US]

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2024/02/01/xbox-and-gameheads-amplifying-black-voices-in-gaming/

?

World Read Aloud Day 2024

?On February 7, 2024, the power of reading aloud is celebrated with World Read Aloud Day.?World Read Aloud Day ?was founded in 2010 by the nonprofit organization?LitWorld ?to position literacy as a foundational human right. And, so far, the day has become a real page-turner, celebrated by millions of readers and listeners in over 170 countries!?

https://educationblog.microsoft.com/en-us/2024/02/read-em-and-reap-the-rewards-world-read-aloud-day-2024

?We touched on this last week:

Reading Coach was already providing learners with personalized reading practice, instant feedback about pronunciation and fluency, while also giving insights back to educators. Now we’re excited to share new features that will fuel student agency and motivation with dynamically created stories that adapt to their reading level and individual challenges.?

Reading Coach takes a unique approach to?implementing generative AI with guardrails . Learners select the story’s protagonist, setting, and are provided with choices that alter the plot of the story as they read. Reading Coach combines these inputs with the learner’s selected reading level, and over time, words they mispronounce to dynamically create personalized stories. Students stay engaged and in the driver’s seat with the power to pick a path of a story while they progress through the chapters. The story content is moderated for quality, safety, and age appropriateness.??

https://educationblog.microsoft.com/en-us/2024/02/read-em-and-reap-the-rewards-world-read-aloud-day-2024

Community Insights Survey?

We also want to remind you of the launch of our Community Insights survey.? Make your voice heard and tell us what you like and don't like about the broader Microsoft Community that includes shows like ours, training events, user groups and of course our online forums like the Microsoft Tech Community and the Power Platform and Dynamics 365 hubs.

?We hope you complete this to give us feedback on how the overall Microsoft Community is working for you.

https://aka.ms/CommunityInsights

?

Product Segment

Microsoft 365 & Copilot??

Microsoft and Oracle announce that Oracle Database@Azure is now generally available

We are excited to share that Oracle Database@Azure is generally available in the Azure East United States region, with more regions coming in 2024. You can now use Oracle database services running on OCI hardware deployed in Azure data centers

https://azure.microsoft.com/es-es/blog/microsoft-and-oracle-announce-that-oracle-databaseazure-is-now-generally-available/?WT.mc_id=M365-MVP-4030767

Microsoft Copilot Dashboard – Now in Public Preview

Today we announced the Microsoft Copilot Dashboard, powered by Viva, to help Copilot customers across every stage of the transformation journey: readiness, adoption, and measurement. The dashboard will show how many employees are eligible and ready to benefit from Copilot based on Microsoft 365 app usage, break down Copilot usage across apps, and deliver early signals on Copilot impact on productivity based on meetings, chat, email, and documents. This dashboard rolls out in public preview starting today. In early 2024, the dashboard will add more advanced capabilities for customers with a Viva Insights license. These include Copilot adoption and usage metrics combined with collaboration data, out-of-the box reports for organizational leaders, before and after behavioral data and even insights from employee surveys.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-viva-blog/new-ways-microsoft-copilot-and-viva-are-transforming-the/ba-p/3982293

?

Business Applications

Power Apps

What's New Power Apps Feature Update?

Trust

Announcing General availability of Power Platform Customer managed key auto key rotation with Azure key vault key versioning

?

Maker Productivity

• Building new apps and tables with Maker Copilot is now available worldwide?
• Drag and drop controls within and between containers!?
• Create Formula columns using Natural Language?
• Inactive editor capability now available in Canvas Copresence?
• Dependent Assembly is now Generally Available?
• New Performant APIs are now Generally Available?

?

End User Productivity

• Optimize screens for mobile devices with stunning native UI/UX?
• 2023 recap and what is coming for modern controls in 2024?
• Announcing seamless Dataverse image and file support in canvas offline apps?

https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/whats-new-power-apps-january-2024-feature-update/

??

Power Automate

January 2024 update of Power Automate for desktop

Suggested actions are now available in preview

In addition to adding actions from the actions panel, you can now also use the suggested actions panel (in preview), which leverages AI to generate a list of actions that you could use as the next steps in your flow. This functionality is only available in US environments for work or school account users.

?

Power Automate for desktop now supports single sign-on

Power Automate for desktop now supports single sign-on, so that users can sign in faster with the account they used to sign in to their Windows session.

https://powerautomate.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/january-2024-update-of-power-automate-for-desktop/

?

Dynamics 365

Microsoft Copilot for Sales and Copilot for Service are now generally available

Now generally available,?Microsoft Copilot for Sales ?and?Microsoft Copilot for Service ?bring together the power of?Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 ?with role-specific insights and actions to streamline business processes, automate repetitive tasks, and unlock creativity. Both provide flexibility to integrate with your existing contact center and CRM systems, such as Salesforce and ServiceNow, to get more done with less effort.

https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/dynamics365/bdm/2024/02/01/microsoft-copilot-for-sales-and-copilot-for-service-are-now-generally-available/

Community

Hands-On tek Blog

January was a special month for the Hands-On tek blog, as it celebrated the 12th anniversary of sharing tips, tricks, and insights on Microsoft and other technologies. Great job Joao Ferreira blog. We want to thank you all for your continued support and feedback, which motivate us to keep writing and learning every day.

?https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/hands-on-january-2024-updates-jo%2525C3%2525A3o-ferreira-dekyf%3FtrackingId=Q5RbPUTv9C7yh7bqO9%252F9uw%253D%253D/?trackingId=Q5RbPUTv9C7yh7bqO9%2F9uw%3D%3D

?

Matthew Devaney is a Microsoft MVP from Winnepeg, Canada.

Last week his blog had a record 18,168 page-views in a single day - “Nobody reads blogs anymore” Not true. Great stats! Keep up the good work!

https://x.com/mattbdevaney/status/1753808999537840199?s=20

?

Amazing Apps Podcast with Neil Benson from Australia

Check out this cool show from MVP Neil Benson!

Should .NET Developers Stick or Switch to Power Platform? ( amazingapps.show )

?

Luise Freese always posts great stuff and she always adds this every week to Twitter. A great example of repeating a message on social media - omni-channel marketing and amplification!

How to contribute to this blog ( pnp.github.io )

(2) Luise Freese ?? Crown & Wand Academy (@LuiseFreese) / X ( twitter.com )

https://x.com/LuiseFreese/status/1754476974897086542?s=20

Fabric/Power BI

VNET Data Gateway for Fabric and Power BI is now Generally Available

We are very excited to announce that as of today, the VNET Data Gateway is now generally available to support production workloads. The VNET data gateway is a network security offering that lets you connect your Azure and other data services to Microsoft Fabric and the Power Platform. You can run Dataflow Gen2, Power BI Semantic Models, Power Platform Dataflows, and Power BI Paginated Reports on top of a VNET Data Gateway to ensure that no traffic is exposed to public endpoint. In addition, you can force all traffic to your data source to go through a gateway, allowing for comprehensive auditing of secure data sources. To learn more and get started, visit?VNET Data Gateways .

?

https://blog.fabric.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/7093?ft=All

Events Segment

So many great events coming up and all available to check out on www.communitydays.org

Past

Community Days | IntraTeam Event Online volume 9 about modern intranets and AI | January 17-18 | Virtual: CET Timezone

Community Days | aMS Strasbourg 2024 | January 18 | France

Community Days | Azure OpenAI and ChatGPT Fest 2024 | January 18-19 | Reston Virginia

Community Days | aMS Luxembourg 2024 | January 30 | Luxembourg

Community Days | Cloud Technology Townhall Tallinn 2024 | Jan 31 - Feb 2 -Tallinn, Harjumaa, Estonia

Community Days | Microsoft 365 Community Day Miami | Feb 2 | Miami Florida

Community Days | M365 Community Days at Sea 2024 | Feb 4-11, Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Seas, Miami FL

?

Coming soon

Community Days | M365 Saturday DC - A Community Day Event | Feb 10 | Washington DC

Community Days | M365 ReVival | Feb 15 | Oslo Norway

Community Days | Teams Nation 2024 | Feb 21 | Virtual - Sweden timezone

Community Days | Global Power Platform Bootcamp 2024 A Coruna | Feb 23 | Spain

Community Days | YYC Microsoft Community Day | Feb 24 | Calgary Alberta

Community Days | Digital Workplace Conference New Zealand | Feb 26-27 | Christchurch, New Zealand

?

M365 Conference is coming soon in April 2024 in Las Vegas. Register & more info:https://m365conf.com

?

Please share our Microsoft Community page with your colleagues and if you are hosting an event make sure to list it at CommunityDays.org .? We're continuing to build out the Community Page so stay tuned for our Community Call posts and the notes from today's show.

?

Aka.ms/MGCISignUp - we'd love for you to join the Microsoft Global Community Initiative where we host a monthly meeting to hear from you regarding community, and where we share what is new and upcoming events.

Join us Monday February 19th for our next show.

?

We'll catch you on the next Mondays at Microsoft!?