SharePoint Daily for December 19, 2008

Top News Stories
2009 Predictions for Web CMS, ECM, Mobile, MOSS and More (CMS Wire)
And so it has started. The end of the year is upon us and everyone is thinking about what's ahead. Independent analyst firm CMS Watch has offered up their 2009 predictions. If the results of how they faired with last year's round are any indication, we may all do well to pay attention.

SharePoint Alternatives Seek to Fill in the Gaps (Search CIO Midmarket)
When it comes to departmental file sharing or collaborative workspaces, Microsoft's SharePoint has legions of fans in midsized companies. But for those not interested in paying for SharePoint (the basic version is free), or who find some features immature in the latest version, there are SharePoint alternatives.

Top 10 Cloud Computing Predictions for 2009 (International Business Times)
As the year draws to a close, many companies are left wondering what next year will bring for this year's hottest technology trend -- cloud computing. To answer these questions, Appirio( www.appirio.com) today released its top 10 predictions for how cloud computing will evolve in 2009 and the impact those trends will have on IT and business. Appirio is a leading on-demand product and professional services company, and one of the fastest growing companies in the cloud computing space.

Can We Really, Really, Trust the Cloud? (ZDNet)
My last post summarized some analysts’ predictions that we will soon start to see large cloud ecosystems evolving, offering everything from infrastructure to applications to online tools from the cloud. However, many people still have reservations about moving mission-critical systems and data (or control of data) to outside cloud providers. A reader of this blog, mr1972, posted an interesting argument as to why enterprise cloud computing still carries risk, noting that as companies seek to cut costs, they will leap to the clouds before considering the ramifications to security, common-sense IT management,  and other matters.

A Year of Browsers - and Censors (NewStatesman)
If the internet were a country, futurology would be its national sport. At about this time of year, predictions abound online of where the net will go in the next 12 months. In a space that has been defined by rapid innovation, making pronouncements about what is about to happen is a dangerous game. Indeed, one of the more curious features of the web in 2008 was the rise of online prediction markets, such as Hubdub.com, where users bet virtual money on future events in the worlds of politics, sport and technology. In a stroke of marketing genius, Hubdub's makers launched PunditWatch, a project that tracked predictions made by major tech pundits such as Silicon Alley Insider and TechCrunch against actual events as they unfolded.

Google Pushing Users Away From IE? (Tech Radar)
Google has taken the aggressive step of advising some of the people using its Gmail webmail to use Chrome or Firefox rather than Internet Explorer. When users log into their Gmail using Internet Explorer a red text link appears at the top right of the page saying 'get faster Google Mail.'

Some Testers Expecting an Early Windows 7 Beta 1 Present (ZDNet)
There’s talk that Microsoft has signed off internally on the Beta 1 Windows 7 bits. Word is the build number of what goes out to testers will be 6.1.7000.0.081212-1400. What do all those digits mean? And when will testers actually get their hands on the code?

Around the Blogosphere
SharePoint Update Log - Part 2 (Ferrara Data Consulting)
In Part 1 of this article I compared and contrasted the various methods that we could use for our SharePoint update log application. I’ve chosen the custom aspx site/SQL table method as it is the most effective solution for what I currently need. I don’t intend to design a full-fledged application with reporting features, logins, AJAX menus(well.. maybe a little AJAX would be cool!), etc. I need a custom site that is independent of SharePoint, so developers/admins can log their updates to the database. If SharePoint breaks, then we should be able to access this data as it might help us determine the point of failure. Simple and effective.

The Fairy Tale: Users Won’t Tell You What They Need From Your Site (EndUser SharePoint)
Your user community is generally interested in two things when they visit your SharePoint site: “What’s new since I last visited here”, and “What information does this site contain that will make MY working life easier?”

The Dreaded InfoPath Forms Services (IPFS) Error Box (Michael Lotter)
If anybody does any type of InfoPath 2007 browser based form development knows all about the dreaded IPFS error box.  In my opinion it's dreaded because the lack of error details it gives or when it does give details how cryptic it is.  If you don't do this type of development and think I'm kidding checkout the warning box that I got today.

Myth #3: A SharePoint Deployment Isn’t Complete Until You Turn on Email-enabled Lists (Offline SharePoint)
This is the fourth post in a guest series I’m doing here on Email Management in SharePoint. The third post was Myth #2. Emailing a post to a blog … very cool or archiving an Exchange Discussion List to a SharePoint list … super cool … but be careful. Email-enabled self service lists can easily get out of control. Microsoft IT, which loves to use nearly every feature of SharePoint, decided against using email-enabled lists.

Trend Reporting Against a SharePoint List (EndUser SharePoint)
A programme manager I work with wanted to view trend information regarding the projects in his portfolio. His problem was that weekly reports were all well and good but with around a dozen projects under his wing he could not readily visualise where projected milestone delivery dates were, in general, getting worse or better.

Around Bamboo Nation
What is the 'My OWA' Link in a SharePoint My Site? (SharePoint Blank)
I had noticed the appearance of the My OWA hyperlink in my My Site recently (in the same real estate that used to simply contain a My Site link), and thought to myself, "hmm, I wonder what that is?" Until today, however, my curiosity hadn't yet gotten the better of me, and the My OWA link had remained unclicked on my My Site.  I clicked the link today, however, and was presented with ... a login challenge.  So I entered my login info, expecting the mystery to be revealed but, alas, access was denied.  No soup for me!

December e-news Recap (The Bamboo Team Blog)
Wrapping up the year, Bamboo Solutions CEO, Mike Tanner speaks optimistically about Bamboo’s future, SharePoint’s future, and IT in general with his year-end blog: From the Desk of the CEO: An Optimistic View for 2009 and Beyond! Product Releases: This month we had 6 major releases including:

Microsoft Updates
Team up with Groove 2007 and SharePoint 2007 Technologies (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS))
Microsoft Office Groove 2007 and SharePoint 2007 technologies are complementary software products that work together to support the new virtual team environment. If you want to collaborate in a secure, efficient, and immediate way with colleagues and partners, whether they are in the next office or half-way around the world, whether they are online or offline, or whether they are inside or outside the enterprise firewall, then this article is for you.

Work Together: Anyone, Anytime, Anyplace (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS))
Having trouble getting together? Office Groove 2007 makes it easy for teams to work together, no matter their location, time zone, or work hours. Spend less time coordinating with each other and more time working on the project at hand. Groove 2007 collaborative workspaces put people, tools, and data in one place, so you and your team members have access to everything, right on your desktops. And you stay in synch, automatically.

Error message when you try to save a site as a template in SharePoint Server 2007: "Failure decompressing data from a cabinet file" (Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - KBAlertz)
In this scenario, you may receive an error message that resembles the following: Failure decompressing data from a cabinet file. This error can occur even though the template file (*.stp) is smaller than the value that was specified in the Stsadm.exe command. For example, this error can occur if the .stp file is smaller than 500 MB.

Description of the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 hotfix package (Sts.msp): December 16, 2008 (Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - KBAlertz)
This article describes the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 issues that are fixed in the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 hotfix package that is dated December 16, 2008. This article describes the following items about the hotfix package:

SharePoint Events
December 24, Melbourne, Australia, Microsoft Office System Special Interest Group
December 30, Online, What's New from Bamboo

January 7, Online, Bamboo SharePoint Project Management Webinar
January 7, Online, Bamboo SharePoint Administration Webinar
January 10, Virginia Beach, Virginia, SharePoint Saturday
January 14, Online, Bamboo SharePoint Project Management Webinar
January 14, Online, Bamboo SharePoint Administration Webinar
January 15, Online, What's New from Bamboo
January 21, New York, New York, 2009 IMAGINE Event -- SharePoint in the Real World
January 27-29, San Francisco, California, SPTechCon

February 2-4, San Diego, California, SharePoint Best Practices Conference
February 7, Kansas City, Kansas, SharePoint Saturday
February 21, New York, New York, SharePoint Saturday

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

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