SharePoint Daily for October 29, 2008

Top News Stories
What Ray Ozzie Sees in Azure's Cloud (CNET)
In 2005, Ray Ozzie talked about the coming Live services push and what it would mean. He sent a big memo and held an event in San Francisco. Then he set to work and got pretty darn quiet. Sure, we got some hints along the way, especially earlier this year when Microsoft launched a preview of Live Mesh.

Data Backup, Recovery for SharePoint (MOSS) (CMSWire)
It is possible that SharePoint (MOSS) could go down in history as one of the most popular enterprise content management systems ever (note: we aren’t saying the best, just the most popular). This may happen even though out of the box the platform lacks some critical enterprise features. MOSS backup and recovery functionality is one good example of this.

Next Version of Office Heads to the Browser (CNET)
After years of questioning the value of Net-based productivity applications, Microsoft confirmed Tuesday that it will offer new versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint that can run from within a standard Web browser. As first reported by CNET News last week, Microsoft will use its Professional Developer Conference here to show off browser-based versions of its Office programs.

Windows Azure Defined (ZDNet)
Yesterday was the opening day of Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference (PDC), a four-day extravaganza that is the place Microsoft typically announces major new product initiatives. .NET was rolled out at a PDC, as was “Longhorn,” the code name for the version of Windows eventually released as Vista.

Microsoft's Cloud Will Be Profitable, Executive Says (CNN Money)
crosoft's newly announced "cloud computing" platform, Windows Azure, will be profitable for the company, the executive who runs its server business said Monday. "We will wind up having a business model that we think will be profitable," Bob Muglia said, although he added that building out the platform would produce certain capital costs initially.

Ballmer to Customers: Ready for the Revolution (CNet)
The following is an e-mail Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sent Tuesday addressing new technologies, some of which were showcased this week at the company's Professional Developers Conference. The e-mail is one of a periodic series from Microsoft executives sent to customers and partners who sign up to receive them. The links have been added for background.

MS Finally to Bring Office to the Web, Windows Smart Phones (The New York Times)
After teasing the market multiple times, Microsoft Corp. plans to finally confirm Tuesday that it's bringing its most money-making desktop software franchise online and to smart phones.

Amazon, Google, Microsoft Are All Pumping Cloud Computing Steroids (Web 2.0 Journal)
Google has shifted from solving problems in distributed, massively parallel computing to developing next-generation cloud-centric applications. Google can, with the deployment of software, deliver global services that other companies cannot match in terms of speed of deployment, operation, and enhancement.

What the Establishment Is Saying About SAAS (eWeek)
Thanks to the pervasiveness of broadband, increasing storage capacity, and improvement in networking software and hardware, software as a service is becoming a strategically important alternative in the enterprise, particularly during the current U.S. economic downturn. As SAAS grows into a major marketing, sales and administration tool for enterprise business, it is gathering "establishment" client/server enemies as it disrupts IT system after IT system.

Mashing Up The Corporation (Forbes)
Many generations of technology have promised to help users build their own solutions. The arrival of real user-driven innovation based on mash ups and other Web 2.0 technologies is one of the most startling aspects of the emergence of service-oriented architecture (SOA). One less frequently noticed byproduct of this achievement is the transformation in the relationship of the information technology function to the rest of the company. This week's Jargon Spy looks at how mash ups, in particular, are transforming IT staff from architects and builders to experimental chemists.

Around the Blogosphere
Sell! Sell! Sell! Why Build a Dashboard Anyway? (Part 2 of 6) (SharePoint Magazine)
In my last article, I introduced you to the idea of Business Intelligence within a SharePoint framework and the basic terminology around dashboards. To review, a dashboard, in the context of this discussion, is a container for scorecards, reports and other objects. Scorecards provide an aggregated, weighted view of business performance across varying functional areas. This time, we’re going to discuss the drivers for creating a dashboard.

Office 14 and Office 14 Web Applications on SharePoint! (SharePoint Joel's SharePoint Land)
Thanks Takeshi, great Office 14 demos. During PDC what we saw... Three Platforms for Office 14: 1) Client 2) Mobile 3) Web

PDC 2008 - Day 1 (Andrew Connell)
The first real day @ PDC 2008 kicked off with the Ray Ozzie and friends keynote pimping Microsoft's new offering: Windows Azure. There are plenty of others who've blogged in detail about this so if you're interested in finding out the skinny, go check those posts out (Sam Gentile has a good rollup post). My take is that it is pretty much a game changer. Late in the day I went to a session that showed how to go about creating your first web application hosted in Azure. I was amazed how easy and similar it is to regular development. The presenter showed how to store images, queues and tabular data in the cloud as well as the configuration and setup process. I'm quite impressed as the bar is very low for people to take advantage of this new infinitely scalable platform.

Office and the Mesh - Live collaboration on Office Docs (Andrew Woodward)
Wow the demo on the new Office collaboration feaures at PDC2008 was fantastic. Everyone always asked of Excel Services can I edit my workbooks in the browser?  Can I see what other people values?   Now you can and in near real time. aking advantage of the Live Mesh services changes are sync’d between all devices automatically. The online editing is also pretty amazing,  will run in IE, Firefox and Safari.

Windows Live Adds Support For OpenID, Calls It De Facto Login Standard (TechCrunch)
Login standard OpenID has gotten a huge boost today from Microsoft, as the company has announced that users will soon be able to login to any OpenID site using their Windows Live IDs. With over 400 million Windows Live accounts (many of which see frequent use on the Live’s Mail and Messenger services), the announcement is a massive win for OpenID. And Microsoft isn’t just supporting OpenID - the announcement goes as far as to call it the de facto login standard.

What's Cool in Windows 7 (SharePoint Joel's SharePoint Land)
PDC keynote this morning had a lot of pleasant surprises.  These 7 stood out to me.

Don’t Miss Any Of The Action At PDC – Watch The Sessions Live And On Demand (Michael Gannotti on SharePoint +)
So you wish you could be at the PDC, watching all the announcements and cool demonstrations but you are stuck in the office. Well don’t despair, you can be there, albeit virtually. All the main keynote sessions are broadcast and streamed live here at the PDC site. Missed a session, no problem. All the streams are archived and available for on demand viewing at Channel 9 here.

Notes of Wisdom When Talking With IT About SharePoint (EndUser SharePoint)
Paul Grenier, moderator of Stump the Panel, has a nice give-and-take going with Brian about requesting SharePoint help from IT. Here are his little pearls of wisdom. Check out the entire exchange if this sounds familiar.

Microsoft Office Embraces The Browser (Thank You Google) (TechCrunch)
Microsoft made a major announcement today - they will be offering “lightweight” versions of Office applications - Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote - through the browser. Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari will be supported. Users will be able to read and edit documents from the browser.

Around Bamboo Nation
SharePoint Calendars & Meeting Workspace Integration (SharePoint Blank)
The decision as to which of the SharePoint site templates I would investigate next was taken out of my hands due to Bamboo Nation Community Manager Chris Dooley's bringing to my attention a calendaring question that had been posed in our forums.  I suspect that Dooley asked me to take a look at the question for two reasons:  1) I did a fair amount of research in preparation for launching our topic area on Calendaring with SharePoint, and 2) We sit next to each other, so I was the closest colleague he could reach out to who might possibly know the answer.

SharePoint Events
October 27-30, Los Angeles, California, Microsoft Professional Developers Conference
October 29, Sydney, Australia, Sydney SharePoint User Group
October 31, Perth, Australia, Perth SharePoint Users Group

November 3-7 and 10-14, Barcelona, Spain, Microsoft TechEd
November 4, Grand Rapids, Michigan, West Michigan SharePoint User Group
November 5, Chicago, Illinois, The Chicago Microsoft SharePoint Business Strategies Group November Meetup
November 5, New York, New York, SharePoint User Group: New York City
November 6, Kansas City, Kansas, Office Developer User Group of Kansas City
November 10-13, Las Vegas, Nevada, SharePoint Connections Conference
November 10, Sydney, Australia, Sydney SharePoint User Group
November 11, St. Louis, Missouri, St. Louis Sharepoint Users Group
November 12, Bloomington, Minnesota, Minnesota SharePoint User Group
November 12, Colorado Springs, Colorado, Colorado Springs SharePoint User Group
November 13, Atlanta, Georgia, MOSSmosis Atlanta
November 13, Puget Sound, Washington, Puget Sound SharePoint Users Group
November 13, Reston, Virginia, SharePoint User Group of the District of Columbia
November 13, San Francisco, California, San Fransico SharePoint Users Group
November 15-16, Sydney, Australia, Office DevCon
November 18, Adelaide, Australia, Adelaide SharePoint Usergroup
November 18, Irving, Texas, DFW SharePoint Server Community
November 19, Iselin, New Jersey, NJ SharePoint User Group
November 19, Roanoke, Virginia, Roanoke Valley SharePoint Users Group
November 20, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand, Bay of Plenty User Group
November 20, Columbus, Ohio, Central Ohio SharePoint User Group
November 20, Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville Office Geeks
November 20, Louisville, Kentucky, Kentucky Sharepoint Users Group
November 20, Phoenix, Arizona, Arizona SharePoint Professionals Group
November 20, Virginia Beach, Virginia, Hampton Roads SQL Server and SharePoint User Group
November 26, Cleveland, Ohio, Cleveland SharePoint User Group
November 26, Melbourne, Australia, Microsoft Office System Special Interest Group

January 27-29, San Francisco, California, SPTechCon

February 2-4, San Diego, California, SharePoint Best Practices Conference

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

Microsoft Updates
Manage Lists and Libraries with Many Items (Windows SharePoint Services)
When a list or library has a large number of items, you must carefully plan its organization and how users need to access the data. By planning and using a few key list and library features, you can ensure that users can find information without adversely affecting the performance of the rest of your site.

Create a Library (Windows SharePoint Services)
A library is a location on a site where you can create, collect, update, and manage files with team members. Each library displays a list of files and key information about the files, which helps people to use the files to work together.

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