Office 365 Includes Customizable SharePoint Online; Linux on Windows Azure; Could Chrome Overtake IE?

Is the world ready for a Steve Jobs action figure?  -  Dooley

Top News Stories
Office 365 Cloud Product Includes Fully Customizable SharePoint Online (SearchContentManagement)
By now, most content management professionals have heard of Microsoft’s Office 365 cloud offering. It comprises four distinct software products: Exchange, Lync, SharePoint (all hosted on Microsoft servers at datacenters around the world) and Office (which exists on users’ local PCs). One of its best features is that the collaboration platform, SharePoint Online -- based on SharePoint 2010 -- offers many valuable customization capabilities. In fact, of the three cloud-based products, SharePoint Online offers the greatest opportunities for business modification to aid enterprise content management and collaboration.

Microsoft to Enable Linux on its Windows Azure Cloud in 2012 (ZDNet)
This headline is not an error. I didn’t have one too many craft brews over the New Year’s weekend. Microsoft is poised to enable customers to make virtual machines (VMs) persistent on Windows Azure, I’ve heard from a handful of my contacts who’ve asked not to be identified. What does this mean? Customers who want to run Windows or Linux “durably” (i.e., without losing state) in VMs on Microsoft’s Azure platform-as-a-service platform will be able to do so. Microsoft is planning to launch a Community Technology Preview (CTP) test-build of the persistent VM capability in the spring of 2012, according to partners briefed by the company.

5 Reasons to Look Forward to Windows 8 in 2012 (PCWorld)
2012 is finally here. Although Microsoft has not shared any details regarding an official launch date for Windows 8, all signs point to sometime this year. Windows 8 is still Windows at its core, but it is also a major departure from previous versions of the flagship operating system. So, what can we expect with Windows 8 on the horizon? Is there any reason to get excited about what Windows 8 has to offer? Here is a look at five features and capabilities of Windows 8 that may change the way you do computing in 2012.

Could Chrome Overtake Internet Explorer in the Browser Wars? (CNN)
A month ago, Google's three-year effort to push its Web browser, Chrome, took a major step when analysts said it had passed Mozilla's Firefox to become the second-most popular tool of its kind on the Internet. Today, that climb continues and has some tech observers wondering whether Chrome could do the unthinkable and topple perennial leader Internet Explorer from atop the browser rankings.

Windows Phone: Is any Relief Coming? (InfoWorld)
The latest Mobile Subscriber Market Share report from ComScore shows Microsoft's average share of smartphone subscribers in the United States has fallen yet again, from 5.7 percent in the three months ending August 2011, to 5.2 percent in the period ending November 2011. It's a significant hit, specifically because ComScore measures the total number of subscribers, not the number of new smartphones purchased, and the number of Windows Phones purchased in the United States is approaching oxymoron territory.

10 Resolutions Microsoft Should Make for 2012 (BetaNews)
It's my annual ritual. Rather than make predictions for the new year, I arrogantly tell Companies X, Y or Z what they should do. This year, I asked colleague Ed Oswald to offer Apple resolutions, and Google's will come from you. I've got Microsoft, but, sadly, my list looks too much like last year's, and that's disturbing. If the world doesn't end for the rest of us in 2012, as Mayans predicted, it could for Microsoft, if CEO Steve Ballmer and top execs don't take the post-PC era more seriously.

Around the Blogosphere
Troubleshooting SharePoint Search iFilter Registration (Matthew McDermott's Blog)
When I first started working on SharePoint Search I was troubled by how hard it was to figure out what was actually happening when the crawl was running. The crawler/indexer is a black box that I could not see into. This made it very challenging when I would open the crawl logs and see a cryptic error message. (Often the cryptic message is not the fault of SharePoint Search, the log is just bubbling the error up, often from the iFilter.) Here are two approaches that I use to troubleshoot specific errors. The first is a tool for troubleshooting iFilters the second for watching the actual crawl activity.

Health Check - Happy New Year to You and Your SharePoint Servers! (The SharePoint Farmer's Almanac)
Happy New Year. Hopefully you have recovered from all of the good times and/or you got some rest on the break. I figured many of us have SharePoint 2010 deployments at this point that are mature. Which is awesome. But one thing I know about mature SharePoint farms is we often take them for granted. Below I am going to throw a couple of things at you to double check this week and make sure SharePoint is happy.

Give Them Instructions! (EndUserSharePoint)
"Make it easier to use than not to use and it will get used." Someone in the SharePoint community used this quote in a webinar I watched years ago and it has never left me, I find myself quoting it often because it is just dorky (and easy) enough to remember. And again, proves the point that easy sells! The real gauge of an elegant solution is in its ease of use, not in how complicated it was to build. So how do I make SharePoint easy? I provide great instructions. I test solutions with users and think creatively about how they might end up frustrated or lost and include those tips in the how-to. Then I place the link at the top of the page for a consistent method of presentation.

Its 2012 Prepare for the Cloud! (AIIM)
Is 2012 the year to start thinking about moving part or all ECM functions into the cloud? I know the word “cloud” is beginning to (has?) be overexposed but nevertheless, cloud technologies offer great solutions today and even better solutions on the horizon. There are many cloud information management (CIM) systems that provide everything from simple storage to complete content management systems  and it is probable that people in your company are already using CIM systems or other cloud applications for ERP, CRM, PM, calendaring, and of course, social networking.

What is Meta Data and Why do We Care? (Perspectives on SharePoint)
Definition: “Meta data is defined as data about data” This is a terrible definition; let’s see if we can make better sense of it. If we examine: What can we deduce? It’s a word file, created 24/11/2011, 26 KB in size and based on the file name, it’s a performance review for employee 1244. All this information about the file is Meta data. Do we care about this information? No, we don’t; we care about the performance review, what is inside the Word document. However, we need this information so we can find the performance review for employee 1244 which we want to read.

Around Bamboo Nation
This Week in Bamboo (December 18th, 2011 - December 31st, 2011) (The Bamboo Team Blog)
For this week in Bamboo, we released SharePoint Project Management Central Release 3.0 for SharePoint 2007 to the storefront with many new improved features along with many resolved bugs. Please see the release announcement blog post by our Product Managers for more details.  Patches for the following products were also released at the same time:  SharePoint Task Master, Poll Web Part, List Search Simple, Password Reset Web Part and World Clock and Weather Web Part.  Please see more details on all of the changes can be found below, along with new features, bug fixes and known issues related to additional products.

This Week in Bamboo (December 11th, 2011 - December 17th, 2011) (The Bamboo Team Blog)
At Bamboo Solutions this week, SharePoint Task Master Release 3.0 for SharePoint 2007 was released to the storefront.  We also fixed some bugs and released the patch for SharePoint 2010 version of Workflow Conductor Release 2.1.2.  For more information about this week’s release, please see below.

SharePoint Job Listings*
SharePoint Analyst - Omaha, NE
The SharePoint Lead's primary responsibility will be the analysis, design, development and deployment for SharePoint solutions. This position requires knowledge of SharePoint architecture and a working knowledge of related technologies such as SQL Server, IIS and Active Directory. This position will be involved in transitioning the current MOSS 2007 environment to SharePoint 2010, migrating the current on premise environment to Microsoft's hosted BPOS Dedicated environment and implementing a Records Management strategy with SharePoint 2010, Office 2010 and Windows 7.

SharePoint Application Administrator - Phoenix, AZ
A SharePoint application developer will design and develop business solutions using the latest technologies in SharePoint 2010 with Microsoft .Net framework. A SharePoint developer will be part of a software development Scrum team focused on delivering content and functionality within the SharePoint platform. Utilize SharePoint 2010 for internal and external facing applications that integrate with custom web services and back end data sources. Develop customizations for branded solutions including templates, master page layouts, CSS style definitions, templates, and themes. Mentor and train Application developers on best practices and standards when developing in SharePoint.

Microsoft Updates
Create Visual Web Parts for SharePoint 2010 (MSDN)
Getting Started with Web Parts in SharePoint 2010:  Building Web Parts is one of the most common tasks that are performed by SharePoint developers. Learn to create and deploy Visual Web Parts that display hierarchical views of list items and SubWebs.

SharePoint Events*

• January 4, Online - Bamboo SharePoint Project Management Central Webinar
• January 4, Online - Bamboo SharePoint Workflow Conductor Webinar
• January 7, Virginia Beach, Virginia - SharePoint Saturday
• January 9, Online - SharePoint Migration Primer: Part II
• January 10, Online - Executive Briefing - Empower Your Organization with SharePoint
• January 11, Online - Bamboo SharePoint Community Central Webinar
• January 11, Online - Bamboo Knowledge Management Webinar
• January 11, Online - How to Build a Project Management Information System (PMIS)
• January 12, Online - Bamboo SharePoint Time Tracking & Management Webinar
• January 17, Online - Bamboo SharePoint Project Management Central Webinar
• January 18, Online - Bamboo SharePoint Community Central Webinar
• January 21, Austin, Texas - SharePoint Saturday
• January 24, Online - Bamboo SharePoint Administration Webinar
• January 25, Online - Bamboo SharePoint Workflow Conductor Webinar
• January 25, Online - Bamboo Knowledge Management Webinar
• January 25, Online - How to Build a Project Management Information System (PMIS)
• January 26, Online - Bamboo SharePoint Project Management Central Webinar
• January 31, Online - Bamboo SharePoint Time Tracking & Management Webinar



• February 26-29, San Francisco, California - SPTechCon
• February 27-29, Johannesburg, South Africa - Share Conference



• March 20-22, San Francisco, California - AIIM
• March 21, New Orleans, Louisiana - SharePoint Saturday



• April 23-26, Atlanta, Georgia - Share Conference
• April 30 - May 1, Reston, Virginia - SharePointConference.org

SharePoint Training*

• January 4, Online - Knowledge Base Accelerator Application Administration - Bamboo Solutions
• January 10, Online - Bamboo Component Training - Collaboration Enablers I - Bamboo Solutions
• January 9-12, Washington, D.C. - SharePoint 2010 Power End User - Mindsharp
• January 9-12, Online - SharePoint 2010 Power End User - Mindsharp
• January 9-13, Online - SharePoint Foundation 2010 Developer - Mindsharp
• January 10-13, Nashville, Tennessee - InfoPath 2010/SharePoint 2010 Workflow Deep Dive - SharePoint Solutions
• January 11, Online - Project Management Central (3.0) Application Administrative Training - Bamboo Solutions
• January 11-12 and 18-19, Online - Building Business Solutions with SharePoint 2010 - O'Reilly
• January 12, Online - Bamboo Component Training - Collaboration Enablers II - Bamboo Solutions
• January 16-20, Cleveland, Queensland, Australia - Developing Solutions with SharePoint Server 2010 - Intelligent Decisioning
• January 16-20, Online - SharePoint Foundation 2010 Developer - Mindsharp
• January 16-20, Washington, D.C. - SharePoint Foundation 2010 Developer - Mindsharp
• January 17, Online - Project Management Central Application Administrative Training - Bamboo Solutions
• January 17, Online - Bamboo Component Training – List Extenders - Bamboo Solutions
• January 17-18, Chicago, Illinois - Introduction to SharePoint Foundation 2010 - SharePoint Solutions
• January 17-20, Chicago, Illinois - Introduction to SharePoint Server 2010 - SharePoint Solutions
• January 19, Online - Project Management Central End User Training - Bamboo Solutions
• January 24, Online - Bamboo Component Training – Administration Enhancers - Bamboo Solutions
• January 24-25, Nashville, Tennessee - Exploring SharePoint 2010 - New Features - SharePoint Solutions
• January 24-27, Nashville, Tennessee - Applying MOSS Core Features - SharePoint Solutions
• January 24-27, Nashville, Tennessee - SharePoint 2010 Upgrade and Planning - SharePoint Solutions
• January 30-February 3, Boston, Massachusetts - Essential SharePoint 2010 for Developers Training - DevelopMentor



• February 1, Online - Knowledge Base Accelerator Application Administration - Bamboo Solutions
• February 7, Online - Bamboo Component Training - Collaboration Enablers I - Bamboo Solutions
• February 8, Online - Project Management Central (3.0) Application Administrative Training - Bamboo Solutions
• February 9, Online - Bamboo Component Training - Collaboration Enablers II - Bamboo Solutions
• February 13-17, Cleveland, Queensland, Australia - Professional SharePoint Server 2010 Administration - Intelligent Decisioning
• February 16, Online - Project Management Central End User Training - Bamboo Solutions
• February 21, Online - Project Management Central Application Administrative Training - Bamboo Solutions
• February 21, Online - Bamboo Component Training – List Extenders - Bamboo Solutions
• February 27-March 2, London, England - Essential SharePoint 2010 for Developers Training - DevelopMentor
• February 28, Online - Bamboo Component Training – Administration Enhancers - Bamboo Solutions



• March 6, Online - Bamboo Component Training - Collaboration Enablers I - Bamboo Solutions
• March 7, Online - Knowledge Base Accelerator Application Administration - Bamboo Solutions
• March 8, Online - Bamboo Component Training - Collaboration Enablers II - Bamboo Solutions
• March 14, Online - Project Management Central (3.0) Application Administrative Training - Bamboo Solutions
• March 15, Online - Project Management Central End User Training - Bamboo Solutions
• March 20, Online - Bamboo Component Training – List Extenders - Bamboo Solutions
• March 27, Online - Bamboo Component Training – Administration Enhancers - Bamboo Solutions



• April 11, Online - Project Management Central (3.0) Application Administrative Training - Bamboo Solutions
• April 17, Online - Bamboo Component Training – List Extenders - Bamboo Solutions
• April 19, Online - Project Management Central End User Training - Bamboo Solutions
• April 24, Online - Bamboo Component Training – Administration Enhancers - Bamboo Solutions
• April 30-May 4, London, England - Essential SharePoint 2010 for Developers Training - DevelopMentor

* Please contact Chris Dooley (chris.dooley@bamboosolutions.com) to be included in SharePoint Daily™.

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