Road Trip anyone? This so looks worth the drive.  -  Dooley

Top News Stories
Discussion Point: What Does the Yammer Acquisition Mean for Microsoft SharePoint? (CMSWire)
Microsoft made it official this week — it is taking the enterprise social network provider Yammer under its wing. The news has brought up a number of questions, including what this means for SharePoint. In this week’s discussion point we went out and asked a number of industry analysts and Microsoft partners for their views. Here’s what they said.

I Collaborated—And Survived (Lansing Business Monthly)
The question I most often field about the cloud from customers is: “Should I take my business to Google or Microsoft?” Though the question seems straightforward, the answer is not always immediately obvious, because neither Google Apps for Business nor Microsoft Office 365 is a “one size fits all” solution. Both have their strong points, and the solution a business chooses needs to be the one that best fits the goals and needs of that business.

Microsoft Details Its Windows 8 Upgrade Plans (CNET)
Microsoft has shared with select partners some specifics about what those upgrading to Windows 8 can expect when moving from Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. According to what my contacts have told me, here’s the guidance released to them privately by Microsoft this month.

Microsoft’s Scattered Strategic Vision (ZDNet)
Enterprise anxieties around Microsoft seem to have increased rather than decreased with the confirmation of their Yammer purchase for an astronomical 1.2 billion dollars, which from various conversations I’ve had over the last few days appears to be fundamentally about sending positive messages to Wall Street about Microsoft strategic direction. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is famous for his impassioned ‘developers, developers, developers‘ performance in the mid-nineties, but the Yammer marriage sends a message that it’s cheaper to raid the colossal Microsoft bank balance than attempt to develop this type of technology in house, which is not so great for enterprise customer perceptions.

First look at the Windows Phone 8 Marketplace (The Windows Phone Developer Blog)
Greetings from Amsterdam. I’m speaking at Microsoft’s TechEd Europe event this week and wanted to share some of what I’ve been telling audiences here about the new Windows Phone 8 Marketplace—including the list of new markets and new money-making opportunities that Windows Phone 8 makes possible. Before digging in, let me add the same important caveat that everyone has been repeating all week: This is just the beginning of what we’ll be saying about Windows Phone 8 and the new store for apps and games in the weeks and months ahead. Stay tuned to our official blogs for the latest news.

Microsoft: The Evil Empire Re-Surfaces (ZDNet)
Last week, Microsoft announced its Surface Windows 8 Tablet, breaking 30 years of tradition of strictly being a software company, their consumer video game console efforts with XBOX and sad Zune experiment notwithstanding. The event was a surprise to everyone and it generated a lot of excitement for Microsoft. The tablet itself appears to be a compelling device and the company should be commended for its engineering efforts. If it means anything, I’m going to be buying one myself, although I haven’t figured out whether I want the x86 or ARM version.

 

Around the Blogosphere
SharePoint Applied: Large Files in SharePoint 2010 (CODE)
When a team at Microsoft first conceived of SharePoint, the product team decided that the content database was the best place to store file uploads in SharePoint. Before you pull out daggers, consider that there were many advantages to this choice. You can never have a virus corrupting the server in an upload that goes into the database. No filename issues. Transaction support. Easy backups, etc. Also, believe it or not, for a certain file size (smaller the better), databases can actually offer better performance than traditional file systems for storage. In addition, the product team decided to rely heavily on GUIDs and clustered indexes inside the content database – again, a choice with positives and negatives.

Redirect Users if They’ve Taken the Survey (SharePoint 911)
The basis for today’s blog post is regarding some work I’ve been doing with a client and the Microsoft Productivity Hub (here’s a description of it).  The Productivity Hub is great because it gives the enterprise users a one stop place to go to for self-service training on many different Microsoft products. The client wanted to provide end users a link to the Productivity Hub in their environment, but they didn’t want to overwhelm everyone, and wanted to gradually wean them into it.  They also wanted to start out by just providing the SharePoint training modules at first, and then put the other MS Office modules later, in Phase 2, once they’re used to the interface.

Brand SharePoint: Search Refiners (EndUserSharePoint)
The more I explored the Search Center CSS, I realized that the page is actually a table. Last time, when we talked about branding the search results, I didn’t really notice because I was inside a cell of that table the whole time. Today I want to show you how to Brand the Refinement Panel of the Search Center.

Deleting the SharePoint Training Kit Site (SharePoint (and Project Server) Shenanigans)
So you have had your SharePoint environment installed for a while and you installed the SharePoint Training Kit as a site for end users to get used to the idea of lists, libraries, check in / out etc…  but you are a couple of years into your implementation now and you want to clean up sites that aren’t being used anymore.

How to Import Data Using Forms-based Authentication (FBA) with List Bulk Import 2.5 (The Bamboo Team Blog)
To provide a better user experience when authenticating in SharePoint, many corporations rely on an authentication method called Forms-based Authentication (FBA). FBA is a method where instead of the traditional pop-up authentication dialog, users are presented with a Web page with the login controls built in.  This allows organizations to easily integrate other components, such as contact information, access agreements, and change password controls that traditional pop-ups do not provide. FBA also provides a challenge as the actual authentication method is different from Windows authentication.

 

SharePoint Job Listings*
SharePoint Developer/Architect Expert – Chicago, Illinois
I need a C# SharePoint SME that does in and out of the box development and architecture with strong custom development skills. You will be architecting SharePoint solutions using ASP.NET, C# skills. Candidate will be the Business Analyst as well so must have great communication skills. This is a 3-6 month Contract to Hire role.  Full time role after 3-6 months.

Federal – SharePoint Administrator / Developer – Ashburn, VA
The SharePoint Administrator / Developer shall be knowledgeable in administration, configuration, and maintenance of several SharePoint server farms as well as customizations and development of the SharePoint application in support of the Interim Transition Capability (ITC) program. The resource shall work with other SPS Specialists, the infrastructure technical teams, and a governing SharePoint requirements board using Agile methodologies to administer / configure SharePoint environments and to develop dynamic pages. The SharePoint Portal shall facilitate cross team information sharing in multiple domains and environments. The resource shall also provide input and recommendations to current and future policies, standards, and processes that support the overall governance and oversight of SPS.

 

Microsoft Updates
Vehicle Manufacturer Propels Customer Engagement with Digital Marketing Solutions (Microsoft)
Polaris Industries, a maker of recreational vehicles, wanted to better engage with customers to generate higher sales and revenues. The company implemented a solution that takes advantage of the Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 digital marketing platform along with technologies from Webtrends and GNet Group. Now, Polaris marketers use web-based dashboards to gauge the effectiveness of their marketing strategies. The solution integrates data from numerous channels to provide insights about the performance of each Polaris brand’s effectiveness in reaching consumers—much faster than before. For instance, Polaris produces real-time reports to measure engagement on its website and in other channels to improve engagement and optimize its marketing investments. Since implementing the solution, Polaris has achieved a double-digit reduction in “bounce rate” and cost-per-visit for its online ads.

 

SharePoint Events*

• June 30, Dayton, Ohio – SharePoint Saturday
• June 30, Adelaide, Australia - SharePoint Saturday
• June 30, San Diego, California – SharePoint Saturday
• July 7, Toronto, ON – SharePoint Saturday
• July 10, Online – Bamboo SharePoint Project Management Central Webinar
• July 10, Online – Bamboo Knowledge Management Webinar
• July 11, Online – SharePoint as a Platform in a Highly Regulated Environment
• July 12, Online – Bamboo SharePoint Workflow Conductor Webinar
• July 12, Online – My Sites for Everyone
• July 17, Online – Bamboo SharePoint Project Management Central Webinar
• July 17, Online – Bamboo SharePoint Community Central Webinar
• July 18, Online – SharePoint as a Platform in a Highly Regulated Environment
• July 19, Online – Bamboo SharePoint Project Management Central Webinar
• July 19, Online – Webinar: NewsGator Gives Benco Dental Social Bite
• July 19, Online – Integrating Office 365 With the Rest of Your Enterprise – Best Practices & Common Pitfalls
• July 24, Online – Bamboo SharePoint Project Management Central Webinar
• July 26, Online – Bamboo SharePoint Time Tracking & Management Webinar
• July 26, Online – Business Intelligence & Reporting
• July 28, New York, New York – SharePoint Saturday
• July 28, Louisville, Kentucky – SharePoint Saturday
• August 7, Online – Building Choices: Using Managed Metadata to Create Managed Choice Columns
• August 22-24, Washington, DC – SharePoint Saturday: The Conference
• August 28, Online – SharePoint Training Best Practices
• September 8, Branson, Missouri – SharePoint Saturday
• September 22, Manchester, New Hampshire – SharePoint Saturday
• September 25-27, Chicago, Illinois – SharePoint Fest
• September 29, Troy, Michigan – SharePoint Saturday

 

SharePoint Training*

• July 3, Online – Workflow Conductor Designer Training – Bamboo Solutions
• July 6, Toronto, Ontario – How to Manage SharePoint Projects Workshop in Toronto - Innovative-e
• July 9-13, Online – SharePoint 2010 Foundation Developer – Mindsharp
• July 9-13, Dulles, Virginia – SharePoint 2010 Business Intelligence Training – SusQtech
• July 10-13, Nashville, Tennessee – InfoPath 2010/SharePoint 2010 Workflow Deep Dive – SharePoint Solutions
• July 10-13, Online – SharePoint 2010 Power End User – Mindsharp
• July 13, Online – Bamboo Select – Bamboo Solutions
• July 16-20, Minneapolis, Minnesota – SharePoint 2010 Advanced Developer – Mindsharp
• July 16-20, Minneapolis, Minnesota – SharePoint 2010 Designer – Mindsharp
• July 17-18, Chicago, Illinois – Introduction to SharePoint Foundation 2010 – SharePoint Solutions
• July 17-20, Chicago, Illinois – Introduction to SharePoint Server 2010 – SharePoint Solutions
• July 18, Online – Project Management Central (3.0) Application Administrative Training – Bamboo Solutions
• July, Online – Project Management Central (3.0) Application Administrative Training – Session 2 – Bamboo Solutions
• July 19, Online – SharePoint Re-Design And User Adoption Seminar – Mindsharp
• July 23-27, Online – SharePoint 2010 Core Technologies – Mindsharp
• July 24, Online – Project Management Central End User Training – Bamboo Solutions
• July 24-26, Dallas, Texas – Introduction to SharePoint 2010 for Server Administrators – SharePoint Solutions
• July 30-Aug 3, Online – SharePoint 2010 Power End User – Mindsharp
• July 30-Aug 3, Online – SharePoint 2010 Foundation Developer – Mindsharp
• July 30-Aug 3, Atlanta, Georgia – The Great SharePoint Adventure 2010 – Critical Path Training
• August 1-3, Minneapolis, Minnesota – SharePoint Information Architecture – How to Optimize Findability in SharePoint- Earley & Associates
• August 6-10, Dulles, Virginia – Power User 2010 Train the Trainer – SusQtech
• August 7, Online – Workflow Conductor Designer Training – Bamboo Solutions
• August 7-10, Washington, DC – InfoPath 2010/SharePoint 2010 Workflow Deep Dive  – SharePoint Solutions
• August 13-16, Dulles, Virginia – SharePoint Styling & Branding Week – SusQtech
• August 14-17, Dallas, Texas – Introduction to SharePoint Server 2010 – SharePoint Solutions
• August 21-23, Nashville, Tennessee – Introduction to SharePoint 2010 for Server Administrators – SharePoint Solutions
• August 22, Online – Project Management Central (3.0) Application Administrative Training – Bamboo Solutions
• August 24, Online – Bamboo Select – Bamboo Solutions
• August 28, Online – Project Management Central End User Training – Bamboo Solutions
• August 28-30, Toronto, ON – SharePoint Information Architecture – How to Optimize Findability in SharePoint – Earley & Associates
• August 28-31, Chicago, Illinois – InfoPath 2010/SharePoint 2010 Workflow Deep Dive – SharePoint Solutions

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

 

Have SharePoint Daily™ delivered to your email inbox every morning.