Michael O'Donovan's SharePoint and Stuff

New Social Computing for the Enterprise SharePoint Site Launched

Check out http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/social. It’s about organisations using social computing technologies inside the firewall for business benefit. Watch this space (site) as it delivers more information over time which I am sure will be of value to you.

Oh, and yes, it’s built in SharePoint and Silverlight.

SharePoint Sessions at Tech-Ed Africa 09

The session list is now 95% confirmed, there might be a few tweaks here and there, but for the most part it is done. In total almost double the amount of SharePoint sessions from last year. We have also added self paced hands-on labs and instructor-led labs (although the exact labs have yet to be confirmed).

Anyway, here is the list of sessions which I can share with you today (and these exclude the BI track which cover’s SharePoint technologies too). The Tech-Ed web site should be updated with this in the near future.

Joel Oleson and Eric Harlan are speaking at Tech-Ed Africa

SharePoint guru Joel “Governance” Oleson is coming to South Africa to share his experiences around SharePoint governance, architecture and deployment at Tech-Ed. This is exciting news because there are many organisations who are still battling in this space. Co-founder of the Baltimore SharePoint user group Eric Harlan is also joining us to share his vast SharePoint experience from the field. They will also both be at the Ask the Experts evening (with I think is on Monday night at Tech-Ed, so you can drill them then).

We are excited that both of them will be joining us for the event and I am sure the South African IW community will show them our warm South African hospitality. That is, if they don’t get chomped by a Lion in Kruger before the event.

In my next post I will share with you the SharePoint session titles for the event. You will be pleasantly surprised that we have almost doubled the amount of SharePoint sessions from last year :-)

Michael

Durban FIFA World Cup 2010 Host City Web Site Launches on MOSS 2007

Featuring Microsoft Silverlight and MOSS 2007, Durban’s official FIFA World Cup Host City web site has launched. Local South African partner AdaptIT has done an excellent job in assembling this great looking web site.

This has been added to the SA showcase of MOSS internet sites.

Michael

Goodbye Groove, Hello SharePoint Workspace 2010

Straight from the Microsoft Groove Blog (well now SharePoint Workspace 2010 blog)

“Heads up – Groove is getting a new name as of the coming release of Office 2010.  Please welcome SharePoint Workspace 2010! 

The name makeover is in concert with the direction the product is going.  SharePoint Workspace will provide easy access to SharePoint content (or content from any server that implements the publicly documented protocols) in an effort to provide a seamless online/offline experience.

SharePoint Workspace 2010 will be easier to deploy and easier to manage, and it supports a new set of scenarios to help Office and SharePoint users be more productive.  It will also make it easier for IT folks to implement a consistent information strategy based on SharePoint technology throughout the organization.

There will be changes in the way the product is delivered, as well – e.g. SharePoint Workspace (and OneNote, for that matter) will be added to the Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 release.  Keep an eye peeled for further announcements from Microsoft on new product plans for Office.”

Check out the announcement here…..

http://blogs.msdn.com/groove_development_team/archive/2009/05/13/makeover-for-groove-sharepoint-workspace-2010.aspx

SharePoint Chop Chop brings you “An Introduction to COMET Document Automation 2008” – 21 May

The South African Information Worker community brings you the first SharePoint Chop Chop Live Meeting session. Proudly South African Lee Child and Ray Meiring from Relate Technologies will chat about how intelligent templates, designed using Microsoft Word and managed in SharePoint, enable users to take control of their document generation requirements.  Processing is taken care of by a proprietary multi-threaded server that rapidly turns intelligent templates into fully generated documents.  This leaves the user’s machine free from clumsy Word macros and scripts while generating documents faster, with fewer errors and better quality.

This Live Meeting takes place on Thursday 21st May between 10am and 11am local time.

To view in the invite for the Live Meeting, just follow this link

Hope to “see” you there,

Michael

Would you like to be considered for the Office 2010 Technical Preview?

As of today, you can request to be part of the Office 2010 Technical Preview program. All you need to do is hop on over to http://www.office2010themovie.com/ and click on the Technical Preview button.

More information about the program can be found on the newly created Office 2010 official blog http://blogs.technet.com/office2010/

Lata,

Michael

Invite: Official K2 Blackpoint Launch in Johannesburg – Wed 6th May

You are invited to attend the official K2 Blackpoint launch. Email Samantha on samantha@k2.com or follow the hyperlink on the image below. The event will be run from the Microsoft offices in Bryanston and happens on Wednesday this week (6th May).

I hope to see you there.

“K2 blackpoint is a Business Process Management (BPM) solution for SharePoint, which has become the de-facto portal, collaboration and content management platform for a wide spectrum of businesses."

“Based on the same K2 platform as K2 blackpearl, K2 blackpoint represents a low cost solution for rich, visual designing, managing and reporting for workflow and process-based applications that operate in the context of SharePoint. K2 blackpoint promises and delivers a rapid "no code" approach to building powerful business applications for SharePoint. Furthermore, if the need arises, K2 blackpoint can be upgraded to K2 blackpearl, the flagship BPM product from K2, for additional non-SharePoint functionality and extending to other line of business (LOB) systems.”

Michael

Free SharePoint Hands on Lab Day in Johannesburg – Community Led

Hi All,

On the 23rd of May (yes, it is a Saturday), the IW Community will be hosting a SharePoint Lab Day (SLAB). This means you can come and choose from over 30 SharePoint Hands On Labs to brush up on your SharePoint skills. You choose the lab, you work at your own pace!

Yes, and this is all totally FREE!

You need to register ASAP because seats are limited and running out fast.

The labs cover IT Professional and Developer scenarios, if you are new to SharePoint or experienced there will be labs for you!

Examples of topics covered in the labs:

• Web Parts
• Data Lists
• Event Handlers
• Workflow
• Silverlight
• Page Navigation
• Page Branding
• Web Services
• Content Types
• User Management

lata,

Michael

ToolFest Community Meeting – Thank You

Last week we had one of the most exciting IW community meetings. We had 7 presenters show off a codeplex tool or 3rd party component which they feel adds value to them in their SharePoint world. Each presenter had 15 minutes to strut their stuff. By the end, the audience had really got their monies worth, even though it was a free event. I would like to thank the following community members for their time and effort in preparing and presenting.

• Dario Mratovich – from Microsoft Consulting Services (MCS) in Johannesburg. Dario spoke about the CodePlex project SharePoint Manager 2007
• Dirk Prinsloo – from iSolve in Johannesburg. Dirk spoke about GARY LAPOINTE's STSADM extensions
• Bramley Maetsa – from DataCentrix in Johannesburg, Bramley spoke about tips and tricks using STSADM.exe
• Zlatan Dzinic – from BCX in Cape Town. Yes, we Live Meeting’ed this puppy in and he did his show and tell remotely. Zlatan spoke about the CodePlex project Sushi
• Cathy Kohler – from Intervate in Johannesburg. Cathy showed off Nintex Reporting
• Michael O’Donovan (that’s me) – from Microsoft in Johannesburg. Michael presented Colligo for Outlook and Colligo Pro.
• Marc Lenferna-De-La-Motte – from 3Fifteen in Johannesburg. Marc presented the CodePlex project SmartTools for SharePoint

Dirk Prinsloo walked away with new super snazzy Microsoft keyboard and mouse set for being voted as the best session. Well done Dirk!

We hope to have a few more sessions like this over the years. Keep the feedback coming.

Michael

SharePoint “How To” Videos on TechNet – Done by “Our” very own Hilton Giesenow

Proudly South African Hilton Giesenow has been putting together some really great “How To” SharePoint videos for TechNet. These are short videos (generally around 10mins each) which show you how to do some of the important configuration tasks required in a SharePoint environment. For example; how to configure outgoing email; installing and configuring MOSS 2007; email enabling a SharePoint list and loads more.

Check them out here

MOSS 2007, WSS 3.0 and Office 2007 SP2 – Release Date and Features Announced

Service Pack 2 for MOSS 2007, WSS 3.0 and Office 2007 will release on the 28th of April 2009. This announcements was made on the Office team blog, along with an introduction to some of the fixes / features added.

My top 6 improvements are:

1. Support ODF 1.1 in Office 2007 (read and Save As)
2. Built in Save as PDF in Office 2007 (no need to download add-in anymore)
3. Performance in start-up, shutdown, view rendering, and folder switch has been improved in Outlook 2007 – I have been testing this, and WOW it is a major improvement!
4. Substantial improvements to Forms-based authentication in WSS – I like :-)
5. The performance and stability of content deployment and variations feature has been improved in MOSS
6. SP2 offers support for a broader range of Web browsers

Check out the full blog article here

Reminder: IW Community Meeting on Wednesday, it will be the best yet!

Hi Folks,

Tomorrow (Wednesday the 15th April) will see the best South Africa Information Worker community meeting EVER! We have a large number of people registered for the ToolFest and expect it to be an absolute hoot.

It is not too late to register, so hop on over to www.informationworker.co.za and click the registration banner of the home page.

We have about 8 15 minute sessions, giving an overview of each of these tools / extensions for SharePoint:

• Gary Lapointe’s STSADM extenstions for WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007
• STSADM.EXE tool tricks
• Visual Studio 2010 & SharePoint
• Colligo for SharePoint & Outlook
• Nintex Reporting
• SharePoint Manager 2007 from Codeplex
• Smart Tools for SharePoint
• Sushi

See you there,

Michael

SharePoint Designer is now FREE!!

Yes folks, Microsoft have announced that Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 is now available as a FREE download.

For more information about the announcement, and also what it means for existing customers, please read the following FAQ.

Another GREAT MOSS Bootcamp completed

Yesterday we completed another 2 day MOSS 2007 bootcamp (held in Fourways, Johannesburg), and the general feedback was that it was a fantastic event. Not only did the delegates love the content and labs, but they found the networking opportunities to be very valuable to.

I did promise that the slides which were used would be published today, and so please us this link to download the PPTs off of my SkyDrive

If you are in the South African region, please don’t forget to join the Information Worker Community and use it as a way to keep in touch with other SharePoint focused South Africans (both technical and business).

Over and Out,

Michael