SharePoint Daily for August 29, 2008

Top News Stories
Virtual SharePoint? (CMS Watch)
Last week Microsoft announced new licensing arrangement for its products, including SharePoint Server 2007. In particular the new licensing scheme will support those who want to virtualize their server environment, since in the past enterprises taking this route were somewhat punished financially. All in all the new approach is a good one and buyers should be happy. At the same time this raises questions about how many people actually want to virtualize their server environment, and what if any the drawbacks such an approach might present.

SetFocus To Fill Skills Gap with Launch of New Master's Program: SharePoint Training Track (eMediaWire)
Due to strong demand for professionals with SharePoint developer skills, SetFocus, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner for Learning Solutions (CPLS), is launching a 6-week Master's Program with a SharePoint training focus, offering intensive training in the principles and practices of customizing, deploying, managing and maintaining SharePoint 2007.

Collaboration Technology Helps Managed-Care Provider Eliminate Paper Piles (ECM Connection)
Managed-care provider IBH used paper-based systems, causing backlogs of 800-1,000 claims. It filled hundreds of file cabinets with patient charts, and claim processing took far too long. With its adoption of M icrosoft SharePoint Server, IBH doubled its operations with only two people. Original source docum ents now can be accessed electronically in seconds, rather than in hours. Productivity and custom er service im proved significantly.

Why a New Browser From Microsoft Matters (International Herald Tribune)
Microsoft's new Web browser, Internet Explorer 8, is now available in a beta version meant for ordinary users, and it's a pretty good piece of software.

Firefox Will Be Ubiquitous (The Money Times)
Can a computer learn to work the way you do? The open-source Mozilla Foundation thinks so. This week, it announced Ubiquity, a service within Firefox that allows users to easily combine data from different Web pages in useful ways.

Around the Blogosphere
Installing and configuring TS Gateway (Shared Points for SharePoint...)
This might appear to be a bit off topic, but it is really not. I have found this Windows 2008 role is very useful in my everyday life, doing development and demonstrations on SharePoint, so here we go:

Acceleration.. the New Need for Desktop Virtualization (Hybrid Consulting Group)
Desktop virtualization holds the promise of a simplified IT structure, cost effective IT utilizaiton & management.  Vendors such as VMware, Microsoft & Citrix claim that they can provide enterprises with a model of enterprise computing whereby any thin client can be used to securely access company data without the need for the individual to have their own machine, with their own data and their own applications running on it.

The SharePoint Best Practices Resource Center is Live! (SharePoint Hosting and Development)
To avoid common pitfalls and keep your Office SharePoint Server 2007 environment available and performing well, follow these best practices based on real-world experience from Microsoft Consulting Services and the product team.

Microsoft releases Popfly Game Creator Beta (Michael Gannotti on SharePoint +)
Very cool announcement from the Popfly folks. Cross posted from the Popfly team blog:

SharePoint Image Search (Part 1) (Matthew McDermott, MVP)
After working on several search projects it is clear that the out of the box search experience for images is, well, less than optimal. I mean look at how cool the Microsoft Live Search Images interface is, then, hover over an image and look at how cool the property display is!

EndUserSharePoint.com: SharePoint is So Easy Anyone Can Do It… Not. (End User SharePoint)
This plea for help came in earlier this morning. I hear this about once a week, so I thought I’d see how other people are selling up the food chain when it comes to telling management “We can’t do it alone!”

Around Bamboo Nation
Mindsharp Power End User Training Continues! (SharePoint Blank)
The D.C. offering of the Mindsharp Power End User class may have ended two weeks previous, but that doesn't mean that the class was over for lead instructor, Janis Hall.  You see, there were a number of "parking lot" items that had come up during the course of the three-day training session.  These were items that Hall had taken note of during the class, and promised to research further and provide her findings to all attendees via email.

Welcome to the August Edition of Bamboo e-news - PDF File (Bamboo Solutions)
August flew by at record pace as Team Bamboo launched two "gold medal" products, the SharePoint Custom Column Pack - Bamboo Visual Indicator, and the SharePoint Project Portfolio Dashboard. These new products are a project manager's dream-come-true, providing visually appealing “at-a-glance” views of SharePoint data, which are both included in the Bamboo Ultimate Suite.

SharePoint Events
August 25-29, Sydney, Australia, SharePoint August Training Summit

September 1-3, Auckland City, New Zealand, TechEd New Zealand
September 2, Chicago, Illinois, Chicago Microsoft SharePoint Business Strategies Group
September 2, Grand Rapids, Michigan, West Michigan SharePoint User Group
September 3, New York, New York, NYC SharePoint User Group
September 3-5, San Francisco, California, Office2.0 Conference
September 4, Washington, DC, Federal & Military SharePoint Users Group of Washington D.C.
September 4, Kansas City, Office Developer User Group of Kansas City
September 8-9, Stockholm, Sweden, SharePoint & Exchange Forum
September 9, Chicago Illinois, The Chicago Microsoft SharePoint Business Strategies Group September Meetup
September 9, Wayne, Pennsylvania, Philly Office Geeks
September 10, Bloomington, Minnesota, Minnesota SharePoint User Group
September 11, San Francisco, California, San Francisco SharePoint Users Group
September 11, Bellevue, WA, Puget Sound SharePoint Users Group
September 11, Reston, Virginia, SharePoint User Group of Washington, DC
September 11, Brookfield, Wisconsin, SharePoint: What Can I Do With It?
September 12, Brisbane, Australia, Brisbane SharePoint Usergroup
September 15-17, Washington, DC (McLean, Virginia), Best Practices SharePoint Conference
September 16, Sydney, Australia, Sydney SharePoint User Group
September 17, Iselin, New Jersey, NJ SharePoint User Group
September 18, Columbus, Ohio, Central Ohio SharePoint User Group
September 18, Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville Office Geeks
September 18, Louisville, Kentucky, Kentucky Sharepoint Users Group
September 20, Baltimore Maryland, Baltimore SharePoint Usersgroup
September 20/21, Waltham, Massachusetts, New England Code Camp 10
September 23, Franklin, Tennessee, Nashville SharePoint Users Group
September 24, Cleveland, Ohio, Cleveland SharePoint User Group
September 24, Melbourne, Australia, Microsoft Office System Special Interest Group
September 24, Roanoke, Virginia, Roanoke Valley SharePoint Users Group
September 25, Phoenix, Arizona, Arizona SharePoint Professionals Group

October 9-10, Tulsa Oklahoma, Tulsa TechFest
October 21, Tampa, Florida, Tampa Office Geeks Association
October 25-26, Los Angeles, California, SoCal Code Camp
October 27-30, Los Angeles, California, Microsoft Professional Developers Conference

November 3-7 and 10-14, Barcelona, Spain, Microsoft TechEd
November 10-13, Las Vegas, Nevada, SharePoint Connections Conference

January 26-28, San Francisco, California, SPTechCon

* Please contact Chris Dooley (chris.dooley@bamboosolutions.com) to include your event in our listing.

Microsoft Updates
Search for Items or Files in a SharePoint List or Library (Microsoft)
After you connect a SharePoint list or library to Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, you can search for list items or files, such as your Microsoft Office Word 2007 documents. You search the content on your SharePoint site similar to the way that you search an e-mail message or other items that you create in Outlook.

Open, Edit, and Update Files From a SharePoint Site (Microsoft)
You can connect to a library on a SharePoint site by using Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 and browse, edit, and even search the files. After you connect your SharePoint library to Outlook, you can work with the files on your hard disk, even when you are away from the office.

Track Updates to a SharePoint Site (Microsoft)
You can use Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 to track updates and manage notifications from a SharePoint site.

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