I think I could get used to a four-day work week.  -  Dooley

Top News Stories
SharePoint Implementation Checklist: Aligning People, Technology & Process (CMSWire)
SharePoint adoption in the enterprise is growing at a rapid pace, but many organizations are still struggling to achieve the proper mix of “people,” “technology” and “process.” In the midst of just trying to figure out the technology side of SharePoint, many organizations overlook the people and process side of an implementation. Pushed even further to the backburner are the “business value” considerations of SharePoint. What is the purpose of implementing SharePoint in the first place? How will SharePoint improve operations and drive overall business results?

Sensitive Information Protection and SharePoint (White Paper) (SDTimes)
To enable SharePoint for use by your company’s executive staff, boards of directors, and human resources departments, you and your fellow SharePoint administrators must go beyond common SharePoint security mechanisms such as role-based access control and security for the network session. As you’ll learn about in this short white paper, your company needs to make sure that privileged IT administrators cannot mistakenly or maliciously access sensitive content. However, new security controls must not hamper the end users’ productivity.

Too Big to Fail? Microsoft, ARM, and Windows 8. (ZDNet)
In 1912, three of the ten biggest companies in the world were J&P Coats, Pullman, and U.S. Steel. They were giants in their day. Today, they’re either business history footnotes or shadows of their former selves. Why in the world should we think Microsoft will be any different? I wrote recently about Microsoft trying to block any other operating system from running on Windows 8 ARM-powered devices . While Ed Bott think that seeing this as an attack on Linux and other operating systems is FUD, I don’t think that’s the point.

2012 Is The Year Of Social Business (BCW)
There have been numerous reports predicting 2012 will be the year of social business, and the increasing popularity of ‘digital transformation’ services touted by management consulting firms would appear to support this theory. However, I expect companies will struggle to “revolutionise” the way they do business. In a word of caution, consultants and vendors alike will champion ‘digital transformation’ initiatives ala Y2K. But take their advice with a pinch of salt as most of these changes operate on a rip-and-replace model, asking companies to take a major leap of faith by dumping their existing communication and collaboration tools in favour of the latest, greatest social business paradigm.

Windows 8′s Locked Bootloaders: Much Ado About Nothing, or the End of the World as We Know It? (Ars Technica)
Microsoft has published the hardware requirements that manufacturers must follow if they want to slap a “Designed for Windows 8″ sticker onto their systems. In among many innocuous requirements—multitouch systems must support at least five points of touch, there must be at least 10 GB of free space available to the user, and more—are a set of requirements for Windows 8 systems’ firmware. These requirements have reignited Linux users’ fears that they will be locked out of Windows 8 hardware. The concerns revolve around the use of a new feature called UEFI Secure Boot. All Windows 8 systems that meet Microsoft’s certification requirements must use UEFI firmware with Secure Boot enabled.

Is Skype the Windows Phone Wildcard? (SlashGear)
That Windows Phone lacks a Skype app is, like Apple’s fixation on the word “Magical” and the rampant popularity of Justin Bieber, one of life’s great conundra. Microsoft is desperately seeking “must have” apps to showcase its smartphone platform, and yet it already owns a VoIP company putting out what could legitimately be described as just that on iOS and Android. Delivering Skype for Windows Phone would certainly answer one great criticism of the OS, and cross a further reason off the wait-and-see list for many buyers. Still, it’s the promised deeper integration of Skype into future iterations of Windows Phone, however, that could signal the turning point for the “third platform.”

Collaboration: What’s Next? (Business Standard)
Globally, the ‘workplace’ is evolving. Productivity at work today has less to do with the individual’s physical proximity to his/her workplace and more to do with access to the network and to collaborative tools. According to a recent report commissioned by Cisco, 60% of the employees surveyed felt that it was unnecessary to be in the office to be productive. Major technological and demographic transitions are fundamentally changing the way we communicate, work and collaborate. Taken individually, each one of these trends by itself is very powerful. Taken together, what we see is a tremendous transformational force.

IBM Offers IBM Docs, Social Email, Social Content Management (CMSWire)
So we’ve told you about the latest version of IBM Connections, unveiled at Lotusphere 2012 this morning. But that’s not all IBM announced. We also saw a new socially enabled enterprise content management solution and a brand new cloud-based productivity suite.

 

Around the Blogosphere
SharePoint in Education – The Social Intranet (Introduction: Part 1) (SharePoint 365)
When I first started writing on Edugeek, many will remember me as one of the SharePoint gang. My more recent writings may have convinced some of you that I was less interested in it now…but that couldn’t be further from the truth. SharePoint 2010 is a brilliant product – and one which could be put to great use in Schools and Colleges.

O365/SPO + Azure + AuthN – Workarounds and Fixes for Claims-Based Auth Sites (Andrew Connell)
Now let’s see how we can address the authentication fixes for each of the different ways you can access SharePoint remotely. In this post I’ll cover each of the specific tools (REST or OData / CSOM / Web Services / WebClient) and how to address each of the tricks. Each one has it’s pros & cons, hence why I had to use all four tools in my demo in my breakout session Out of the Sandbox and into the cloud: Build your next SharePoint app on Azure at the Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2011 (see that link for where you can download the sample).

3 Things to Know Before Using SharePoint to Build Your Website (EndUserSharePoint)
Starting any Microsoft SharePoint project can be a daunting task, especially when it’s the corporate website – it is generally a very high profile project. If you are thinking about using SharePoint for Web Content Management (WCM) or Customer Experience Management (CXM) here are my three top points to consider to ensure your project is a success:

A look at Visual Web Parts in Visual Studio 11 (Corey Roth [MVP])
I recently published my first post about SharePoint development with Visual Studio 11 and I mentioned that there were some changes in how the Visual Web Part worked.  If you are familiar with the Visual Web Part in Visual Studio 2010, you know it really is just a glorified user control and it doesn’t work in the sandbox.  Luckily, the community stepped up and provided some alternatives that do work.  Visual Studio 11 now provides a Visual Web Part that works in the sandbox out of the box.  Since I am always curious about how things work, I decided to take a deeper look to see just how this web part is implemented now.

 

SharePoint Job Listings*
Sr. SharePoint Architect – Seattle, WA
As a Sr. SharePoint Solutions Architect, you will provide technical and consultative leadership for technical solutions opportunities on a range of complex IT consulting engagements. These projects may include analyzing requirements, implementation, customization, integration and documentation for the customer. You will work closely with internal teams and customers to ensure a smooth implementation and transition from start-up to integration/production mode.   You will ensure the successful execution of all consulting engagements including evaluating customers’ strategic business issues, identify requirements, create business case justifications, and propose appropriate enterprise solutions. Other duties and responsibilities include:

SharePoint Architect – Arlington, TX
The SharePoint Architect is responsible for the development of technical specifications through analysis of functional and business requirements, coordinating the high and low level design effort on projects impacting our SharePoint environment, providing guidance and mentoring on technical issues, helping to define and document development standards and providing architectural oversight on projects to ensure that systems conform to AmeriCredit’s architectural standards. This employee has contact with other Company departments.

 

Microsoft Updates
Managing Enterprise Metadata in SharePoint Server 2010 (ECM) (MSDN)
Learn the core concepts of SharePoint Server 2010 managed metadata and how to use it. Managed metadata is a hierarchical collection of centrally managed terms that you can define, and then use as attributes for items in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. This topic introduces the core concepts about managed metadata, and then describes ways to use managed metadata. The final section presents several benefits of incorporating managed metadata into your SharePoint Server 2010 solution. This topic includes:

 

SharePoint Events*

• January 17, Online - Bamboo SharePoint Project Management Central Webinar
• January 18, Online – Bamboo SharePoint Community Central Webinar
• January 18, Online – Sean McDonough on The Essentials of SharePoint Disaster Recovery
• January 20, Tampa, Florida – Understanding the Business Benefits of Enterprise Social Computing
• January 21, Austin, Texas – SharePoint Saturday
• January 21, Buenos Aires, Argentina – Sharing the Point South America
• January 23, Montevido, Uruguay – Sharing the Point South America
• January 24, Online – Bamboo SharePoint Administration Webinar
• January 24, Santiago, Chile – Sharing the Point South America
• 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 25, Online – Weston Solutions’ Eight Steps for Achieving World-Class Collaboration
• January 26, Online - Bamboo SharePoint Project Management Central Webinar
• January 26, Villa las Estrellas, Antartica – Sharing the Point South America
• January 31, Online – Bamboo SharePoint Time Tracking & Management Webinar
• February 2, Washington, DC – So the Active Directory Team Won’t Let UPS Update User Information
• February 4, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – SharePoint Saturday
• February 7, Silicon Valley, California – Get Social. Bicoastal.
• February 7, New York, New York – Get Social. Bicoastal.
• February 26-29, San Francisco, California – SPTechCon
• February 27-29, Johannesburg, South Africa – Share Conference
• March 6-8, Denver, Colorado – 2012 NewsGator Collective
• March 20-22, San Francisco, California - AIIM
• March 24, New Orleans, Louisiana – SharePoint Saturday
• April 14, Twin Cities, Minnesota – SharePoint Saturday
• April 16-18, Québec – SharePoint Summit
• April 23-26, Atlanta, Georgia – Share Conference
• April 28, Boston, Massachusetts – SharePoint Saturday
• April 28, Houston, Texas – SharePoint Saturday
• April 30 – May 1, Reston, Virginia – SharePointConference.org

 

SharePoint Training*

• 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 18-19, Online – Building Business Solutions with SharePoint 2010 – O’Reilly
• 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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