Microsoft Knowledge Network Team Blog : Knowledge Network

Updating the KN Release Plan

KNBlog — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 17:54:00 GMT

We’ve updated the KN release plan and wanted to post some details. We’re planning on releasing KN in the first half of calendar year 2007 as a Technical Preview rather than as a supported product feature of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. As a Technical Preview, KN will still be available to customers as a web download at no additional cost and will include documentation and community support. It won’t, however, be supported or covered by standard product support services or warranties.

This update comes as a response to customer feedback. Across the board, people are excited about KN, but they’ve also stressed that they’d like to see KN integrated into the core Office Client and Server products rather than released as an add-on. After carefully considering the trade-offs, we think that’s the right way to go. The release next year will be a preview of capabilities we’ll be working to incorporate into Office in the future.

Technical Previews are best used to pilot new technologies and solicit feedback, and that’s exactly what we want to do. We hope that that customers who use the release in this way will not only gain valuable insight into how the technology can be implemented more broadly, but will also provide us with input that will be invaluable in integrating these features into future releases of the Office System. Stay tuned for more.

SW and HW Requirements for KN Server and Client

KNBlog — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 16:19:00 GMT

We’ve been receiving questions about system requirements for KN. Important requirements include:

Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 or 2007 mailbox is required for users running analysis. KN client analysis will not work against any other email systems other than Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 or 2007.
Knowledge Network analysis will run successfully only on English email content.

See below for the more complete software and hardware requirements for KN on the client and server ends:

Software Requirements

Client:

Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista
.Net Framework 2.0
Microsoft Office 2003 or Office 2007
Outlook email client from Office 2003 of Office 2007
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or 7
Microsoft Exchange 2003 or 2007 mailbox required for users running analysis
Knowledge Network analysis will run successfully only on English email content

Either Windows Messenger, MSN Messenger, or Microsoft Office Communicator are required to import Instant Messaging contacts

Server:

32 bit Windows 2003 Enterprise Server SP1 with Office Server 12 or 64 bit (X64) Windows 2003 Enterprise Server SP1 with 64 bit Office Server 12
IIS 6.0 installed on the target server
.Net 2.0 and ASP.Net 2.0
Microsoft Office Server 2007 must be installed according to the appropriate server type (i.e. front-end or an application server)
Each of the computers must be using the NTFS file system
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 or 2005

Minimum Hardware Requirements

KN Client:

1 GHZ Processor (minimum)
512 MB of RAM
1 GB free space (2GB recommended)

Server:

Disk Space: 18 GB Data Space (30 GB Data space preferred)
Single box installation

CPU (X86 or X64): 2.5 GHZ
Memory: 4 GB recommended

Farm Deployment

Web server (CPU (X86 or X64): 2.5 GHZ, 2 GB RAM
App server (CPU (X86 or X64): 2.5 GHZ, 4 GB RAM
SQL (CPU (X86 or X64): Dual proc 2.5 GHZ; 4 GB RAM

KN TR on the new Microsoft Connect site

KNBlog — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 13:42:00 GMT

We've been getting a number of inquiries about the best way to contact us to get Knowledge Network, so we have updated that information here. We have now opened availability of the Knowledge Network Technical Refresh (KN TR) for selected organizations on our new Microsoft Connect site. Connect only allows email addresses that have an associated Passport account or a Windows Live ID to register. The KN TR bits are available for self-support only which means the KN team is not available to support you in your evaluation.

If you are interested in the KN team considering your organization for gaining access to the KN TR, please email us at knfeedbk at Microsoft.com and we’ll get back to you with a set of questions. Once we evaluate your responses we’ll let you know next steps. Recall also that KN requires that you run Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, so please only request KN TR access if you are also running SharePoint Server 2007.

Customer Experiences

KNBlog — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 15:48:00 GMT

We've been talking to many customers lately about their experiences with KN. You can hear a few present their highlights at the upcoming KMWorld and ECMWest conferences. We also have heard from top strategists who work with large organizations around the world. Here is what one of our colleagues in the field stated today about how KN can help manufacturing customers:

"Automotive companies have invested heavily in more responsive lean manufacturing processes, just-in-time inventory systems, synchronized design and development processes. Today, a significant percentage of the automobile is developed and manufactured by OEM supplier networks. Consequently, the cost and quality of a vehicle are a function of the productivity of a network of firms working in collaboration. Thus, identifying and accessing expertise within the organization and uncovering connections across the supply chain are critical elements of competitive advantage. KN can provide these just-in-time expertise location capabilities to allow customers to find, use and internally share their knowledge-based networks to achieve sustainable competitive advantage."