Microsoft Expands BPOS to New Markets; How Not to Build a Cloud; Google Docs Updates

SharePoint Daily — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 11:53:00 GMT

Top News Stories
Microsoft Expands Its Online Services Markets (Redmond Channel Partner)
Microsoft today announced the expansion of its Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) to 17 new markets. The expansion of Microsoft's hosted application service follows Monday's announcement that Microsoft has broadened the availability of its Windows Azure cloud computing platform to "20 countries and regions." The two services currently are not housed in the same datacenters, according to veteran Microsoft watcher Mary-Jo Foley, although she noted the countries described in Microsoft's two announcements tend to track.

Microsoft to Turn Semblio Educational Application into a Service (ZDNet)
Microsoft Semblio. You may never have heard of this Microsoft educational-software add-in/toolset that was codenamed “Grava.” But some of my readers had. In fact, some were tinkering with the Semblio software development kit, investigating ways they could use it to extend Office with educational content.

Google Docs Updates: A Look Inside (ChannelWeb)
Google this week revamped the underlying architecture for its Google Docs cloud-based office productivity suite. The updates, which have been viewed by some as the latest shot across the bow of Microsoft, add new levels of functionality in the roughly three-year-old cloud offering from the search giant. The retooled Google Docs, which tie together word processing, spreadsheets and other document-creating and editing offerings online, comes just weeks before Microsoft is expected to start shipping Office 2010, its latest productivity application version that adds cloud-based versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Visual Studio 2010 Launch to Boost Azure (TechWorld)
Microsoft this week has released its Visual Studio 2010 software development system and the accompanying .Net Framework 4 platform, which will be followed by the release of Silverlight 4 rich Internet plug-in software. The three products are upgrades to key Microsoft technologies and have been touted by the company for some time now. The Visual Studio 2010 platform is anchored by the Visual Studio IDE and also features application lifecycle management tools.

Windows 7 Won't Raise Your Game (BusinessWeek)
Every few years as softball season approaches, I get this dumb idea to upgrade my equipment. Some years I'll drop hundreds of dollars on a glove, thinking I'll be able to snare more ground balls at shortstop. Or I'll buy a new bat hoping to hit fewer pop-ups. A few weeks into the season, reality sets in. I'm not getting any younger and my game isn't getting any better.

Microsoft Ignores Danger and Goes for the Teen Market with Kin (TelecomTV)
Microsoft is resurrecting its mobile phone strategy: first stop the consumer market and the socially networked teen - the fruits of the expertise it bought in with its Danger purchase in 2008. But what about Windows? Peggy Albright reports.

How Not to Build a Cloud (CIO)
The metaphor of cloud computing may go all the way back to mainframe computing, though some cloud gurus heartily dispute that view. Still, the implementation is new and complex enough that many of the basic rules are still being set, according to analysts and IT departments building heavy-duty cloud infrastructures.

Around the Blogosphere
Learn How to Design an Internet Business Solution with SharePoint 2010: Free 2-Day Training for SharePoint Partners (Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog)
25 Seats Available for a 2 day SharePoint 2010 Solution Designer training for partners in Redmond (April 26-27, 2010). The SharePoint Solution Designer training objective is to skill Business Analysts and Solution Architects on reusable ‘best in class’ patterns for the SharePoint platform using real-world scenarios across a solution area.

Making Your SharePoint 2010 Customizations Visual Upgrade Aware (Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog)
Hi, Jonathan Kern here again. Today’s post is about one of the new features in SharePoint 2010: Visual Upgrade. Visual Upgrade allows administrators to decouple UI upgrade from system upgrade. This helps make upgrading to a new version of SharePoint far less painful for your users and for your helpdesk personnel. Much of our UI is aware of Visual Upgrade in that it conditionally renders based on the Site’s UI Version (2007 UI or 2010 UI). But SharePoint is built as a platform, so there are several ways in which your customizations can also be aware of Visual Upgrade.

Claims-Based Identity in SharePoint 2010 (Bill Baer)
Claims-based identity or Claims Mode Authentication in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 has been all the buzz. Developers are looking to do more with augmentation of claims and IT Professionals are looking at new opportunities to delegate identities - whether across machine or trust boundaries, or to provide seamless and secure solutions enabling robust interoperability scenarios with external systems. Understanding claims-based identity is the first step in realizing its potential and to understand it, we need to understand the basic concepts and nomenclature.

User Engagement: Creativity Counts! (NetworkWorld)
This week, I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Montreal, Canada for the SharePoint Summit. In my talk about designing successful SharePoint solutions, we had a collaborative exchange about creating ideas to encourage user engagement. In this post, I'll share my favorite suggestion from the audience and a few ideas of my own.

Creating School Websites with SharePoint part 1 (SharePoint in Education)
During 2008 and 2009 we have moved beyond the creation of internal Learning Gateways to the creation of external anonymous access websites. The first project was our main school website which was being redesigned in the summer of 2008. Moving the site into our SharePoint set up was a big challenge but the benefits for many schools are clear as they can save in hosting costs. More importantly moving websites into SharePoint allows them to be updated by chosen end users without the need for developers. As soon as the design was completed by an external team our SharePoint team set about creating master pages to produce the website which can be seen below.

Around Bamboo Nation
Guest Blog by Black Marble's Linda Hogg: Considering SharePoint - Part 1, Using the Microsoft Stack (The Bamboo Team Blog)
Hello, I'm the Director of Black Marble, a software development and IT consultancy based in the North of England. We use Microsoft SharePoint, BizTalk and Visual Studio Team System to deliver what customers require - quality IT assets to power their growth and make their systems run smoothly. We see the benefits of these products every day, so when Bamboo Nation asked us whether we fancied writing a guest post or two to share our experiences, we were keen to get involved.

A Beginner's Guide to SharePoint Vocabulary: Part 2 (The Bamboo Team Blog)
Today I learned that cool people "in the know" about SharePoint don't say "Global Assembly Cache;" they just called it the "GAC," or the "gack." My more knowledgeable coworkers joked that this mistake would make a good blog post. I laughed along with them, and then in private I wrote myself a reminder to actually blog about it.

SharePoint Task Master Version 2.0 – Coming Soon With Many New Options (The Bamboo Team Blog)
As with all of our Bamboo products, we appreciate your continued feedback into our product life cycle. We try to incorporate your comments into our product roadmaps and schedules as much as we can. Many of you have asked about the status of the next release of SharePoint Task Master, so the Bamboo Product Management team offers you the following update.

SharePoint Job Listings**
SharePoint Implementer - Highlands Ranch, CO
Principal Responsibilities: SharePoint Implementation (WSS, MOSS, 2010), which includes SharePoint Designer, SharePoint Services, knowledge of Microsoft product stack, network integration of hardware and software, design and troubleshooting, network operating support.

SharePoint Applications Developer - Basking Ridge, NJ, Green Bay, WI, Hartford, CT or Plymouth, MN - Multiple locations
Provide support for existing SharePoint solutions and work with system specifications and business requirements developing new .net solutions for the SDLC process and Application Development Repository(ADR). Prototype concepts and develop potential solutions using SharePoint, .Net and other development tools.

Microsoft Updates
Error message when you access an Office SharePoint Server 2007 site by clicking “View My Site” in Office Outlook: User not found (Microsoft Support)
Consider the following scenario: You try to access a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 site by clicking View My Site in Microsoft Office Outlook. This site belongs to a user who has an apostrophe in their e-mail address. In this scenario, you receive the following error message: User not found.

Bamboo Partner Events*

April 15, New York, New York, SharePoint for Enterprise Content Management - DataLan
April 21, Waltham, Massachusetts, Introduction to SharePoint 2010 - DataLan
April 22, Iselin, New Jersey, Introduction to SharePoint 2010 - DataLan
April 27, Online, Breakthroughs in SharePoint for Management and Reporting - DataLan
April 28, Malvern, Pennsylvania, Introduction to SharePoint 2010 - DataLan
April 29, Basingstoke, England, What is new with SharePoint 2010 - ICS

May 4, Charlotte, North Carolina, Your Business ... Accelerated: Using CRM, SharePoint and Unified Communications to Lower Costs, Boost Sales and Improve Service - C5 Insight
May 6, Washington, DC, Your Business ... Accelerated: Using CRM, SharePoint and Unified Communications to Lower Costs, Boost Sales and Improve Service - C5 Insight
May 11, Raleigh, North Carolina, Your Business ... Accelerated: Using CRM, SharePoint and Unified Communications to Lower Costs, Boost Sales and Improve Service - C5 Insight
May 11, Basingstoke, England, What is new with SharePoint 2010 - ICS
May 13, Atlanta, Georgia, Your Business ... Accelerated: Using CRM, SharePoint and Unified Communications to Lower Costs, Boost Sales and Improve Service - C5 Insight
May 20, London, England, What is new with SharePoint 2010 - ICS

SharePoint Events**

April 17, Atlanta, Georgia, SharePoint Saturday
April 18-21, Baltimore, Maryland, SharePointConference.org
April 19-21, London, England, SharePoint 2010 Evolution Conference - Use code "evolution2010" for a 10% discount during registration.
April 21, Online, Bamboo SharePoint Project Management Central Webinar
April 21, Online, Bamboo SharePoint Project Management Central Webinar
April 21, Online, Bamboo SharePoint Project Management Central Webinar
April 21, Online, Bamboo SharePoint Administration Webinar
April 21, Online, Live Meeting: Introduction to SharePoint
April 21, Waltham, Massachusetts, Introduction to SharePoint 2010
April 22, Iselin, New Jersey, Introduction to SharePoint 2010
April 24, India, SharePoint Saturday
April 27, Online, Breakthroughs in SharePoint for Management and Reporting
April 28, Online, Bamboo SharePoint Project Management Central Webinar
April 28, Online, Bamboo PM Suite Webinar: Building Blocks for Implementing Your Own Project Management Solution
April 28, Malvern, Pennsylvania, Introduction to SharePoint 2010
April 29, Basingstoke, England, What is new with SharePoint 2010

May 1, Huntsville, Alabama, SharePoint Saturday
May 1, Houston, Texas, SharePoint Saturday
May 4, Charlotte, North Carolina, Your Business ... Accelerated: Using CRM, SharePoint and Unified Communications to Lower Costs, Boost Sales and Improve Service
May 6, Washington, DC, Your Business ... Accelerated: Using CRM, SharePoint and Unified Communications to Lower Costs, Boost Sales and Improve Service
May 8, Belgium, SharePoint Saturday
May 8, Brisbane, Australia, SharePoint Saturday
May 8, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, SharePoint Saturday
May 11, Raleigh, North Carolina, Your Business ... Accelerated: Using CRM, SharePoint and Unified Communications to Lower Costs, Boost Sales and Improve Service
May 11, Basingstoke, England, What is new with SharePoint 2010
May 13, Atlanta, Georgia, Your Business ... Accelerated: Using CRM, SharePoint and Unified Communications to Lower Costs, Boost Sales and Improve Service
May 14, Peru, SharePoint Conference Peru
May 15, Washington, DC, SharePoint Saturday
May 20, London, England, What is new with SharePoint 2010

June 12, Ozarks, SharePoint Saturday
June 26, Tampa, Florida, SharePoint Saturday

July 24, Chicago, Illinois, SharePoint Saturday
July 31, New York, New York, SharePoint Saturday

August 24-27, Washington, DC, SharePoint Best Practices Conference

October 20-22, Boston, Massachusetts, SPTechCon

SharePoint Training**

May 17-20, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Office SharePoint 2007 Power End User - Mindsharp
May 17-20, Online, Office SharePoint 2007 Power End User - Mindsharp
May 17-21, Huntsville, Alabama, Create Branded Solutions with SharePoint's Web Content Management - Mindsharp
May 17-21, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Core Technologies in Office SharePoint Server 2007 - Mindsharp
May 17-21, Online, Core Technologies in Office SharePoint Server 2007 - Mindsharp
May 17-21, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Customize SharePoint Sites without Writing Code Using SharePoint Designer 2007 - Mindsharp
May 17-21, Online, Customize SharePoint Sites without Writing Code Using SharePoint Designer 2007 - Mindsharp
May 17-21, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Developer’s Guide to Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 - Mindsharp
May 17-21, Online, Developer’s Guide to Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 - Mindsharp

* If you are a Bamboo Partner please contact Janet Goda (janet.goda@bamboosolutions.com) to have your event included in the Bamboo Partner Events.

** Please contact Chris Dooley (chris.dooley@bamboosolutions.com) to include your event or job listing in SharePoint Daily.

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SharePoint Daily : Claims-Based Identity, Windows 7, Business Productivity Online Suite

Microsoft Expands BPOS to New Markets; How Not to Build a Cloud; Google Docs Updates