I have just taken the time to set up two Google Groups for the CFPHP group.

Central Florida PHP

The Central Florida PHP group is an open discussion for any PHP developer who wants to discuss anything related to PHP or this group’s activities.

Central Florida PHP Announcements

The Central Florida PHP Announcements group is an announcements-only group (IE: nobody can post except for admins and super heroes).

You will find signup forms on on the sidebar of this page if you want to quickly join.

And I quote:

Microsoft has formed a technical partnership with Zend Technologies to optimize its open-source scripting language PHP to work better with Windows Information Server.

You can read the full article Microsoft Wants Speed Advantage With Open Source PHP on Dr. Dobb’s

This is some interesting stuff–definitely something I did not expect from a closed-source company with a highly competitive server-side language. I’m quite sure that ASP will continue to grow in it’s own direction, completely independent of PHP’s influence. What I’m hoping for is a much tighter integration with IIS because running PHP as a binary really sucks.