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SharePoint Daily for September 25, 2008

Chris Dooley — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 11:57:00 GMT

Time is running out on the Bamboo Nation Tell Us Why You Love (or) Hate SharePoint & Win Free Stuff giveaway. If you haven't entered, be sure to comment and let us know your favorite or least favorite feature in SharePoint. Prizes include a $500 certificate to the Bamboo store, an iPod Shuffle and more.

Top News Stories
Chesapeake Energy Deploys Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to Meet Growth Challenges (Your Communication News)
Helping one of the nation's leading energy companies meet the challenges of rapid growth while boosting worker productivity, workflow and collaboration, Microsoft Corp. today announced that Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy Corp. has deployed an extensible and scalable enterprise solution based on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 across its entire enterprise. The new solution integrates the company's intranet, extranet and Internet presence and, through its extensibility, streamlines collaboration across project teams -- including teams with remote employees -- creating a foundation for business intelligence applications, stronger content management and consistent communications with external stakeholders.

Social Networking and Collaboration Platforms Lead the News (redOrbit)
NewsBreak Update I wrote about several new initiatives in the last issue that enabled social networking and fostered collaboration. Now there seems to be no end in sight for such news. Over the last month, my inbox has been filled with information about new tools, new sites, upstart companies, and cooperative deals. With the current economy in the U.S., some people say that "frugal is the new black." For me, social networking and collaboration are the "new black" in the online arena.

Cisco Unveils Collaboration Lineup; Enterprise 2.0 on the Move? (ZDNet)
Cisco on Wednesday rolled out its collaboration portfolio as it targets the enterprise market–and notably the Microsoft SharePoint juggernaut.

Ten Definitive Strategies for Enterprise Social Networking Success (The Earth Times)
Are you thinking of deploying something like Facebook as a business tool in your enterprise? Many companies are: Enterprise spending on Web 2.0 technologies will surge over the next five years to reach $4.6 billion globally, predicts Forrester Research. The following strategies will help ensure your initiative flourishes, says social computing company NewsGator in a white paper authored earlier this year.

Cisco Tries to Break Out of the Data Center Role (The New York Times)
Forget the switches and routers that built Cisco Systems into a giant, albeit somewhat boring, company at the core of the Internet. These days, the company is peddling e-mail software, video conferencing systems, cable TV boxes — even furniture — as it tries to break out of the data center and get its products in front of ordinary office workers.

Oracle and Intel Jump on a Cloud (CNET)
Forget stargazing. Oracle and Intel are looking up at the clouds. The technology giants announced Wednesday they're teaming up to accelerate cloud computing for corporate titans, collaborating on improving the efficiency, security, and standards-based technology for pushing programs and data storage into virtual clouds.

Internet Explorer 8 versus Chrome (Financial Times)
You find the web page you want. You scroll down, find what you need to know, close the page and get back to work. Then two minutes later, you think of something else you need to check, so you have to either trawl through your browser history or run the search all over again.

Chrome Antics: Did Google Reverse-engineer Windows? (E-Linux)
Chrome's source is interesting for a variety of reasons: there's the new V8 JavaScript virtual machine with its boasts of near-native code performance, the WebKit rendering engine that does all the hard work of understanding and displaying web pages, and (last but not least), Chrome's secure sandbox designed to minimize the impact of any security flaws that might exist in both the browser and plugins alike. It is this secure sandbox that has piqued the curiosity of some observers, and for a reason that many may find surprising. From reading the source, it looks as though Google has reverse-engineered Windows, and that's explicitly prohibited by the Windows EULA.

Around the Blogosphere
Complexity Bites: When SharePoint = Risk (Clever Workarounds)
I think as you age, you become more and more like your parents. Not so long ago I went out paintballing with some friends and we all agreed that the 16-18 year olds who also happened to be there were all obnoxious little twerps who needed a good kick in the rear. At the same time, we also agreed that we were just as obnoxious back when we were that age. Your perspective changes as you learn and your experience grows, but you don’t forget where you came from.

Business Data Catalog Survey – The Results (Lightning Tools Blog)
Many thanks to everybody who took the time to fill out the Big BDC Survey. We’ve had a great response, especially as the email and link were sent out on a Friday afternoon (or perhaps that was a good thing! :)). Around 500 people have completed the survey to date which is fantastic. Part of the reason for the survey was a bit of market research for ourselves, but also a chance to let everybody else know how the BDC is being utilized…….so here we go, the results. I’ve added my own personal interpretation also, but bear in mind these are my own conclusions. If you agree or disagree let us know in the comments!

Sample Code Acceptance Checklist for IT Organizations (Shared Points for SharePoint...)
"Web sites that are based on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 often include custom solutions. The ability to customize sites by adding custom solutions gives Office SharePoint Server 2007 power and flexibility. However, a poorly designed or implemented executable module that runs in a SharePoint farm can do harm even beyond the scope of the Web application for which it was intended. Poorly implemented custom solutions can introduce security or performance risks, increase the cost of support, complicate deployment, and reduce productivity.

Webcast on Solutions That Fill SharePoint Gaps (SharePoint Joel's SharePoint Land)
Owen Allen is at it full speed. He's put together a not to miss partner solution webinar. I was looking at the topics and was impressed. Some of the most common things I hear are... How do I take this offline and get 2 way sync? I have more than one location and our links aren't very good, what should I do. This webinar is a chance to both help your business understand what the solutions are, or if you're a consultant it's a way to pack into 1 hour, two top SharePoint partners and hear the solutions without any pressure. Awareness is the problem and the solution.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 VHD (Shared Points for SharePoint...)
The Microsoft VHD Test Drive Program provides customers with an enhanced server-based software evaluation experience that’s faster, better supported and more flexible. You can now access the entire catalog of pre-configured Microsoft and partner products and solutions in the VHD format and start evaluating and testing today from www.microsoft.com/vhd.

MOSS: Goodbye 2000 limit, Hello 3000? (mo.notono.us)
The rule of thumb for SharePoint lists has always been “no more than 2000 items in a given container”.

Around Bamboo Nation
Create a Column in a SharePoint Document Library (SharePoint Blank)
Adding a new column to a document library in SharePoint is a fairly straightforward process, presenting a variety of preconfigured choices as to the type of content which will reside in the column. One of those preconfigured choices is, well, choice (i.e., a menu from which users must choose), and that's the one I'm going to look at today.

The Bamboo Mantra and Why You Should Care! (The Bamboo Team Blog)
Hey readers... this is Joel Oleson AKA SharePoint Joel. I'm doing a guest blog series on some of the cool things happening over here at Bamboo. I've spent some time with Lam, Steve, Jonas, among others at Bamboo and noticed some very important characteristics, and values that set them apart.

SharePoint Events
September 25, Phoenix, Arizona, Arizona SharePoint Professionals Group
September 25, Wellington, New Zealand, Wellington SharePoint User Group
September 30, Christchurch, New Zealand, Christchurch SharePoint User Group

October 2, Kansas City, Kansas, Kansas City Office Geeks
October 7, Chicago, Illinois, The Chicago Microsoft SharePoint Business Strategies Group October Meetup
October 7, Grand Rapids, Michigan, West Michigan SharePoint User Group
October 8, Bloomington, Minnesota, Minnesota SharePoint User Group
October 8, Colorado Springs, Colorado, Colorado Springs SharePoint User Group
October 9-10, Tulsa Oklahoma, Tulsa TechFest
October 9, Puget Sound, Washington, Puget Sound SharePoint Users Group
October 9, San Francisco, California, San Fransico SharePoint Users Group
October 14, Southfield, Michigan, Southeastern Michigan SharePoint User's Group
October 16, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand, Bay of Plenty User Group
October 16, Columbus, Ohio, Central Ohio SharePoint User Group
October 16, Louisville, Kentucky, Kentucky Sharepoint Users Group
October 21, Adelaide, Australia, Adelaide SharePoint Usergroup
October 21, Tampa, Florida, Tampa Office Geeks Association
October 25-26, Los Angeles, California, SoCal Code Camp
October 25, Orlando, Florida, MOSSmosis Orlando
October 25, Puget Sound, Washington, Puget Sound SharePoint Users Group
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
Demo: Make Better Business Decisions With Reports and Dashboards (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS))
Business intelligence (BI) is the process of aggregating, storing, analyzing, and reporting on business data in order to support informed business decisions. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 provides a number of tools that can help you extract data from a variety of sources and present that data in ways that facilitate analysis and decision making. In this demo, you'll see how employees at a fictitious company called Adventure Works use a Report Center site to create and manage reports, dashboards, and key performance indicators (KPIs).

Introduction to Excel Services and Excel Web Access (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS))
Excel Services is a Microsoft Office SharePoint technology that makes it simple to use, share, secure, and manage Microsoft Office Excel 2007 workbooks (.xslx, xslb) as interactive reports in a consistent way throughout the enterprise.

Interacting With Data (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS))
Calculate and recalculate data in Excel Services, Filter data in Excel Services, Refresh external data in Excel Services, Sort data in Excel Services, Outline data in Excel Services, Change workbook parameters in Excel Services, Expand or collapse data details in Excel Services.

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SharePoint Daily for September 4, 2008

Chris Dooley — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:27:00 GMT

Top News Stories
Do's and Don'ts for Managing IT Projects With Wikis (InfoWorld)
Wikis are a simple technology for managing information -- but used simplistically, they can do more harm than good.

While You Were Out This Summer... (TMCnet)
Like many of you, I recently returned from some R&R this past summer and as I head into the fall, I think it would be instructive to take a look at the important news from the past few weeks so we can accurately gauge where things are headed for the rest of the year. After all, it is very possible that while you were vacationing on that cruise ship, news of a killer contact center solution has emerged, which could make your job easier and in doing so save and/or make money for your corporation.

Google Apps Tops 1 Million Businesses (CNET)
Google is well known as a one-trick pony. Almost all of the company's revenue comes from its search engine, which last quarter accounted for more than $5 billion. New initiatives, such as the Chrome browser, Google Gears, and Google Friend Connect, are focused on building a mostly open-source Internet operating system out of Google technology in order to funnel more user data and targeted advertising opportunities into the Googleplex financial engine.

IBM Delivers Resources to Help Educators Prepare Students for IT Jobs (PR Domain)
IBM announces today it is making its courseware and technical skill-building tools accessible free of charge to university faculty. These new resources will help them prepare for Fall semester IT and business courses as they expose students to in-demand IT job skills such as software development, enterprise systems management and business process modeling.

Google App Engine: Getting Data Out Ain't Simple. Yet. (CIO)
Developers who adopt the Google App Engine for their cloud computing platform today may fear data lock-in, since the only way to import or export data is using a Python-based API. Google is working on a tool to improve data exchange to improve data portability.

Chrome Outshines Rivals to Become Fastest Browser (Financial Times)
Google denies that the Tuesday release of its internet browser, Chrome, was a competitive strike against Microsoft, as many commentators have suggested.

Microsoft Debuts Live Mesh for Mobiles (APC)
Microsoft has demonstrated a version of its Live Mesh synchronisation platform for mobile devices, due out at the end of the year.

Around the Blogosphere
My Site Available Features by Permission Level (SharePoint Blogs)
My Sites have features that can be controlled by personalization permissions. These permissions are managed under the Shared Services Provider in the SSP Administration console. These permissions can be set for specific users or active directory security groups. The table below outlines the features available with each my site access level. The personalization permissions used with each level are noted below the table.

Leveraging the SharePoint Platform (Part 2) (SharePoint Magazine)
This the second post of a six part series on Leveraging the SharePoint Platform. In the first post I introduced at a high level the Capabilities, the Editions, the Infrastructure and the API of the SharePoint Platform. In this post I will give my own opinion on what capabilities to start with and what ones to use Open Source/Partner Solutions with or to wait for SharePoint 2009.

Microsoft Office SharePoint – What Capabilities To Start With (Michael Gannotti on SharePoint +)
One of the great things about being involved in the SharePoint community is all the creative thoughts and passion generated by so many members of this worldwide group. I am continually amazed by the time and effort that people will go through to help others navigate in this vast ocean of SharePoint opportunity. I just was checking out one such effort and had to pass it along as I think it is great stuff!

Around Bamboo Nation
Creating & Managing Alerts in SharePoint...with Bonus Best Practices Content! (SharePoint Blank)
Continuing the documenting of my best practices learning in honor of the upcoming SharePoint Best Practices Conference, I figured I'd stick with the naming theme I touched on in yesterday's entry on metadata. Today's topic has to do with the naming of alerts.

Tell Us Why You Love (or) Hate SharePoint & Win Free Stuff (The Bamboo Team Blog)
As I promised yesterday, I finally have the details on the next Bamboo Nation giveaway. I heard a few random grumblings that last month's giveaway was too difficult, so I decided to make this one even easier. For September, all you need to do is leave a comment to this post and tell us your favorite or least favorite facet of SharePoint. See, I told you it would be simple. No finding the right forum. No requirement of what Bamboo product you are using (though that would be nice). No images are needed. Does it really get much easier than that? Now on to the good stuff... The Prizes.

SharePoint Events
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 9, St. Louis, Missouri, St. Louis SharePoint User Group
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
Error message when you edit an .aspx Web page in SharePoint Server 2007: "Value does not fall within the expected range" (KBAlertz)
When you edit an .aspx Web page in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, you receive the following error message: Value does not fall within the expected range.

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