Spotlight on Bob Fox, SharePoint Rock Star

Bob Fox is a three-time SharePoint MVP, a consultant, a published author, a regular SharePoint blogger, and a valued member of Bamboo's Technical Advisory Board.  Bob is also a pillar of the worldwide SharePoint community, evidenced most recently by his leadership in helping to form the recently launched International SharePoint Professionals Association (ISPA).  In these early, post-launch days of the ISPA, that seemed a natural subject with which to begin our latest SharePoint Rock Star spotlight... 

Let's start with your recent announcement of the formation of the International SharePoint Professionals Association (ISPA), which you were instrumental in getting off the ground.  The notion of an international, community-run, not-for-profit organization designed as a resource by and for SharePoint professionals is inspired and most commendable.  Would you mind providing a brief history of the ISPA, from conception to launch for our readers?

Sure, when the ISPA concept first came about it happened a little over two years ago in a simple instant message conversation with Darrin Bishop.  We were both yammering on about what was missing in the community and what we could offer. At that point the idea of the ISPA was born.   This organization is not the same as the one we thought up originally.   The original ISPA board had 12 members (all very well known MVPs) but with a group like that, with strong opinions and busy workloads, we couldn't seem to get it past the concept stage.  After we dissolved the original organization, we cut down the board to 5 members including myself, Spence Harbar and Darrin waving the MVP flag, and also Chris Regan of B&R Business Solutions, and Natalya Voskresenskaya, formerly of Conchango fame and now part of EMC. 

We went live with the site on July 16, 2008, but in reality we were already out there in the world assisting groups worldwide.  To facilitate this we formed an ISPA Regional Evangelist group and placed people based on their location into regional buckets to act as a support mechanism for any User Group both established and newly formed.

This was an area Microsoft was having problems supporting, so I always felt there was a strong need for the ISPA.  Much thanks to Lawrence Liu who has been and always will be one of our top community leads, and a valuable resource to the ISPA.

Were there any particular hurdles you faced during the formation of the Association?

I'd love to say this has run like a well-oiled machine from the start, but I already have a few lightning bolts that are owed me, so I will avoid saying it.  As far as hurdles go, the site will always be a major one .... branding and the tools we place on the site were things that kept me up at night.   Luckily for branding, I found a great resource in Heather Waterman who did the logo and the ISPA branding.    Publishing is ... not one of my stronger areas, but once the site went up it seemed to go static.  Natalya and I enlisted our good friend Eric Shupps to come in and start working with the publishing offerings, and although we're just beginning to get this up, we should have some great content rolling out in the next few months.

One huge hurdle --and this is something we are going to address very soon-- is the fact that as an International Association based here in the United States, some were feeling this was not truly an international entity.   I could go on and on about the holes in this thinking, mainly due to the work the Regional Evangelists are doing throughout the world under the ISPA flag, but one key area that was mentioned that is valid is the translation of languages within the ISPA.  Our publishing is currently only catering to the English-speaking world ... what about the Spanish speakers?  Or Italian, French, Russian ... the list goes on.   We plan to address this issue with the use of different language variations, pulling in translators worldwide to work with us on the content.

How has the response been so far?  I understand that there are already new user groups in the process of being formed in Vietnam and Russia as a direct result of the ISPA, so that's got to be incredibly fulfilling.

So far the response has been overwhelmingly positive.   We have over 56 User Groups now listed worldwide and we are working with countries such as Vietnam, Hungary, Russia and most recently, Hong Kong, to start what is in some cases the first SharePoint User Groups in these countries.  It's very exciting being a part of this.  

Let's back up a little in order to provide some additional context on your career.  From your Linkedin page, I see that you spent four years as a Systems Engineer prior to making the switch to SharePoint.  Are there any accomplishments from that phase of your career you recall with particular pride?

I'm not sure how up to date that page is but I got started in the IT industry IT back in ‘96 after changing careers as a Commercial Hard Hat Diver.   I felt at the time that the IT field may be a bit safer.     I worked as a Network / Systems Administrator for 5-7 years as my primary track.   In that role, I maintained everything from Active Directory to SQL to IIS to DNS to user support.  Jack of all, but master of none.  All the while, I was working with SharePoint in its infancy when it was just a simple Digital Dashboard snapin for Outlook, and then to a full product in 2001.  I guess I really got deeply involved with the product back in 2003 when I got thrown into a deployment for a company I was working for, and I had to do it alone.   I was pretty much hooked from that point on.  I soon transitioned to focusing exclusively on SharePoint Technologies.   I would not trade what I learned from the other technologies -  I feel this understanding is extremely valuable for an IT Pro / Architect going into engagements, but also when it comes time to troubleshoot and fix issues.   I'm sticking with SharePoint until retirement.    

Was there a specific "trigger event" that led to your changing gears to dedicate yourself to SharePoint or, for that matter, do you even see it as a changing of gears?

Like others, I would say that I have a very strong belief in this product.  I have watched it grow into this platform that companies are all jumping on board to harness.   I see the future of this product being a cash cow for me with the amount of work it will drive to me, but also it's just that whole collaboration aspect that SharePoint brings to an organization.   Having in a past life dealt with DFS (distributed File Systems) Exchange Public Folders, and other collaborative technologies ... SharePoint surpasses them all and it's only going to get better. 

Currently, your full-time role is as Technical Lead at B&R Business Solutions.  Are you available for consulting gigs outside of your B&R capacity?

I'm pretty satisfied currently with my role at B&R.  We have plenty of work that keeps me busy, and the group I work with includes some of the best people I have ever come across.   I do on rare occasions do some side work, but for the most part I don't see myself leaving these guys for a while.   We are one of the only companies in the U.S. Northeast that has two SharePoint MVPs (me and Jason Medero), and we have a great group of developers, such as Michael Lotter and Josh Carlisle to name just two.   Plus Chris Regan is simply one of the nicest guys I have ever come across, so for me that makes all the difference when working with a company.  We are small but growing and we have a solid footprint established as a Microsoft Gold Partner.  We are 100% focused on delivering solid SharePoint consultation.

You were a contributing author to the O'Reilly Media book, SharePoint 2007: The Definitive Guide.  How was the experience of collaborating on a multi-author SharePoint book?

I am not what you call a typical writer.  Some people are really good at doing this and meeting deadlines, but I really don't enjoy it.  If a really good topic is presented to me though, I can't pass it up.  This book in particular was a very broad set of topics revolving around all things SharePoint, so I proposed we bring in a larger group of authors to help with the book.  I was also originally one of the authors for the Real World SharePoint 2007 along with a large group of other MVPs.   My chapter was on Knowledge Networks, and just before the book was to go to press, Microsoft pulled Knowledge Networks from its shelves so we decided it would be best to pull that chapter from the book.  Maybe next time.

In addition to blogging SharePoint on your own site,  you've written articles for several other sites.  I'm curious how you go about determining which topics should be blog entries, and which should be more formal articles?

I guess it all depends on what I'm working on at the time, or if there is a current Microsoft release happening such as an SDK, Patch or whitepaper.  Readership varies between the MVPs so someone like Andrew Connell, Rob Bogue, or Bill Simser ... although all are very popular bloggers, they are on the development side of the group.   Then you have Todd Klindt, Jason Medero, myself and a few others, who are on the IT Pro / Admin /Architect side, so we get our readers.  When something is released, we like to make sure the word goes out, so that is one reason why people who consume all of our blogs will see a lot of duplicated information out there at certain times.

In the past I have run into problems and liked to post on the solutions that fixed those problems, and I have also done a few product and book reviews along with an occasional screencast.   These days I have really slacked off from the technical articles and have been very focused on community efforts that are happening with the ISPA.   Once things start to normalize and slow down, I will be posting some more technical stuff.

Given your extensive involvement in SharePoint user groups, the ISPA, along with regular speaking engagements, and being a frequent blogger, even within the MVP community you're clearly one of the foremost evangelists for SharePoint.   What's the most rewarding aspect of being such an active member of the SharePoint community?

Easiest question to answer thus far.  Getting to know the people in this community, and build the friendships that I have made the past few years worldwide... that is the biggest reward I have gained here.  

You'll be speaking at the SharePoint Best Practices conference in Washington, D.C. in a couple of weeks.  Care to give our readers an exclusive sneak preview of the topic you'll be addressing?

There are two presentations I'm going to be a part of.  One is an "Ask the Experts" panel which should be a free-for-all discussion, and I'm looking forward to the audience nailing us with questions.   The second one is something I have wanted to do for years.  I will be presenting with Bill English, who is someone I have looked up to for some time so I'm very excited.   We will be presenting on Topology Best Practices.

In conclusion, I'd like to wrap up with a set of questions that we ask all the SharePoint experts we speak with, beginning with:  What would you say is your single favorite feature/functionality of SharePoint?

Search.   Search and more Search.

Conversely, what do you feel is SharePoint's biggest weakness/drawback?

GeoSynch capabilities.   Hands down the biggest issue I come across.   It's hopefully being addressed by the Product team, but I have no word on this

The other area is also a lack of a strong understanding on working with Kerberos in an environment.   It's a weakness for both Microsoft support and people in the field.  Better implementation documentation must be put out there, and no, I'm not volunteering. 

What is your vision of collaborative computing five years from now?

Although touching a bit on collaboration as we know it today, I see that getting more enveloped into the whole Social Computing buzz that is going on right now.   Back when MOSS 2007 was RTM'd there was a little add-in called Knowledge Networks which I was working with deeply.   It was pulled from the shelves and never made it to RTM, but it was a great idea and I hope it returns in the next version.   I see this type of product as a beginning for Microsoft's entry into the Social Computing realm. 

On Linkedin, you list your non-technological interests as:  Irish history and traditions, a good pint of Guinness, scuba, underwater archeology (shipwrecks), fishing, and boating.  Sounds like you're quite the outdoorsman when you're not shackled to a computer.  If you had to choose, which of those would you say is your favorite hobby or interest?

Ah, I got old ... I gotta update that Linkedin site it seems.   For me now, a relaxing time is getting on the train and heading into NYC on my free time to explore the city.   On occasion when at a conference you may find me splashing in a small fountain with Joel Oleson, Ted Pattison and Fitz.  I enjoy having fun with the guys when we have the chance to get together.