SharePoint Daily for September 11, 2008

Top News Stories
EMC, IBM, Microsoft Team on Content-management Interoperability (NetworkWorld)
EMC, IBM and Microsoft have teamed up to develop a specification that will let content management systems from different vendors interact, providing greater flexibility for enterprise customers.

SharePoint Gets Governance from Enterprise Informatics (CMSWire)
Boy when we get on a topic the news keeps coming in to support it. In this case, it’s still about governance for SharePoint solutions. This time, we bring news of Information Management Solution Provider, Enterprise Informatics, releasing a governance and information management solution for SharePoint called eB for SharePoint.

Build a Better Website with SharePoint Designer (CMSWire)
It just seems right to end the day with one final piece of news on SharePoint. This one comes from Packt Publishing who has released a new book on SharePoint entitled: SharePoint Designer Tutorial: Working with SharePoint Websites.

Get Virtual And Go Green (InformationWeek)
During the free "Get Virtual Now" event last Monday, September 8th that attracted over 1000 attendees, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) made several key System Center and virtualization software announcements, highlighted customer success stories, and outlined a new Microsoft "vision statement" that will be supported by $8 billion in annual software research and development spending that will be spread across entertainment software, Vista-enabled desktop computing, and cloud computing. The event also had a number of practical sessions designed to show how organizations can get started and create a project roadmap to adapt virtualization technologies, as well as how to use Microsoft assessment tools to reduce energy consumption and increase utilization of existing infrastructure.

Microsoft Exchange Spreads To More Mobile Devices (InformationWeek)
Nokia dramatically improved its value to corporate e-mail accounts in one fell swoop Wednesday by providing Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync for some 80 million Nokia handsets.

The Telecommuter's Tech Toolbox (PC Magazine)
Everyone dreams of being a teleworker: one of those lucky few who stay home all day, getting so much more work done than they would in the office yet collecting a regular paycheck and benefits. New hardware, software, and services make this lifestyle easier than ever.

Keys to Entering the Cloud (Computing)
For John Meakin, chief information security officer (CISO) at Standard Chartered Bank, the appeal of cloud computing is simple and compelling. “There are certain things that need to be done to deliver day-to-day parts of the information security armoury that are best done in the cloud. It is more cost-effective for the business and higher in security quality terms,” he says.

Cloud Rising (ZDNet)
First, we learned that SaaS is facing total collapse. Now we are told that the very notion of cloud computing is end-of-life. What’s next, Google falls from grace? Oh wait, that already happened (and some predict it’s all downhill from here for Google).

Around the Blogosphere
Stream Video And Location Together With GPS-Enabled Mobile Video And Then Render In SharePoint! (Michael Gannotti on SharePoint +)
I get the chance to work with some great, very bright folks from around the world at Microsoft and one of them just tipped me off to something that is VERY cool, great example of mobile media use for social computing and ties in to so many scenarios I have talked about in the past. Jocelyn, THANK YOU for passing this along on Facebook!

Announcing the Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) Specification (Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog)
Today represents the start of a new era in Enterprise Content Management (ECM) interoperability as Microsoft, EMC and IBM announced a jointly developed specification that leverages SOAP, REST and Atom to enable communication with and between ECM systems.  The new specification known as Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) defines a platform and language independent means of accessing ECM repositories and will be submitted to OASIS for advancement through its rigorous standards development process.

Packaging and Re-using SharePoint Designer Workflows (Part 2) (Agile|Direct - Emile Bosch’s Sharepoint Blog)
The purpose of this article is to explain how to create SPD workflows which are portable using an approach as described in an previous post. I’ve written an small BETA tool to export, import and attach the workflows. The GUID replacement is not the most elegant approach, but is faster than rewriting Microsoft’s SPD activities. Anyway I wanted explain how it should work already.

Create a Custom Site Theme and Make it Available to Others (Get the Point)
A theme in Office SharePoint Server is a set of fonts, colors, graphics, and other decorative elements that provide a consistent appearance to your site. A site comes with a set of themes that enable you to quickly change the appearance, based on your organization's needs. (For more information, see the article Change the site colors or theme on Office Online.)

User Groups Growing Like Crazy (BinaryWave)
As many of you know, I split my time between the US and UK, supporting both my local user group in Dallas/Fort Worth and the SharePoint UK user group. The UK group is the largest in the world and has just surpassed 4,000 registered members (by way of contrast, the DFW group has almost a 1,000 members and it's one of the largest groups in the US). That's an unbelievable number; I have no idea how Nick and Steve keep up with all those people but they do a bang up job keeping everything running. I spoke to the group in London last month and we had a huge turnout. Way to go, guys!

Around Bamboo Nation
Best Practices for your SharePoint Site: Group Creation (SharePoint Blank)
Today's best practice tip probably isn't one that's going to apply to most end users, but at the very least it might give you cause to impress your systems administrator the next time you need to ask for a new SharePoint group to be created.

SharePoint Deployment (The Bamboo Team Blog)
In a business relationship, sometimes the most challenging customer to satisfy is the "soft" (or, internal) customer.  Many of the clients we work with at Bamboo are faced with this particular challenge. If you are reading this, you may be an IT consultant, a "guru" working in your company's IT department, a SharePoint "farmer," or someone who had SharePoint added to his occupational responsibilities and was told to "make it work."

SharePoint Events
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, Irving, Texas, DFW SharePoint Server Community
September 16, Sydney, Australia, Sydney SharePoint User Group
September 17, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand, Bay of Plenty User Group
September 17, Iselin, New Jersey, NJ SharePoint User Group
September 17, San Diego, California, Southern California 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
September 30, Christchurch, New Zealand, Christchurch SharePoint User Group

October 2, Kansas City, Kansas, Kansas City Office Geeks
October 7, Grand Rapids, Michigan, West Michigan SharePoint User Group
October 8, Colorado Springs, Colorado, Colorado Springs SharePoint User 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 25, Orlando, Florida, MOSSmosis Orlando
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
November 13, Atlanta, Georgia, MOSSmosis Atlanta

January 26-28, San Francisco, California, SPTechCon

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

Microsoft Updates
Case Study: University Uses Web-Based Collaboration Platform for Student-Centered Learning (Microsoft Case Studies)
The Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology (CTLT) at Washington State University (WSU) is well known for its research into how technology can encourage student-centered learning. The CTLT had been looking for collaboration technologies to integrate into university curriculum so that students can take control of their learning experience and reach beyond the boundaries of the classroom. The CTLT found such a technology with Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007. Using the My Site feature, students can create their own workspaces, reflect on their learning, and share information with people inside and outside the university. All over WSU, students and faculty are using My Site to move beyond traditional classroom learning, better preparing graduates for using collaborative digital technologies in the workplace.

Example Solution Architecture: Twynham School Learning Gateway (Microsoft TechNet)
On the south coast of the United Kingdom, a small IT team is making a big splash with their Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 solution for schools. Starting with their own school, Twynham, Dave Coleman and his team of two Web developers, Chris McKinley and Darren White, and in partnership with Assistant Headteacher, Mike Herrity, designed a solution that was eagerly adopted by students, staff, and parents. The team followed this success by adding hosted sites for four additional schools. Then they hit the road to show the 63+ secondary schools in the area how to get up and running quickly with Office SharePoint Server.

Configure Permissions For a Blog (Windows SharePoint Services)
Configuring permissions and other settings for a blog is similar to configuring other types of sites. When you configure permissions for your blog, you can also configure permissions for posts, comments, lists, and libraries associated with your blog.

Watch this: Use Word 2007 to Post to a SharePoint Blog (Windows SharePoint Services)
See how easy it is to create rich blog posts with Office Word 2007 on SharePoint blogs

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