The new Outlook.com looks pretty good. I guess it’s time to try it for a few days and see how it goes.  -  Dooley

Top News Stories
AIIM Study: What CEOs Should Know About Microsoft SharePoint (NBCNews)
AIIM, the global community of information professionals, today announced a new Industry Watch Report titled, “The SharePoint Puzzle – Adding the missing pieces.” The study based on the responses from 551 organizations identified a lack of expertise, lack of strategic plans and resistance from users as the top three most prevalent business issues associated with SharePoint. But despite these concerns, most organizations are planning to increase or maintain the level of SharePoint spend on internal development, integration to other repositories, training, add-ons, hardware, services and licenses over the next 12 months.

When is an App Not an App? When It’s in SharePoint 2013 (CMSWire)
The recent beta release of SharePoint 2013 brought with it many things. One of those was “apps.” CMSWire has covered this topic, but in a nutshell, SharePoint apps are stand-alone applications that can be installed and managed all on their own. Apps can be written using a number of web standards like HTML, JavaScript, ASP.NET and even PHP. Microsoft has a lot more information on apps over at MSDN.

Sharing is Caring. Or is it? (AIIM)
When I was consulting on Enterprise Content Management technologies, I became very fond of the “pre-mortem” practice, plan ahead for what is probably going to go wrong. Then we’d think of ways we could have prevented the project’s failure—a sort of after-the-fact analysis done beforehand. A consequence of several years of this practice is a skeptic’s brain. When a new version of a product comes out, I get very excited at first and want to know all about it, but quickly start to wonder, “How are the advancements in this product going to cause problems for its users and implementers?” Well, guess what! SharePoint 2013 is out.

Will Microsoft Office 2013 Finally Challenge Google Docs? (Digital Trends)
I would like current technology to solve a problem for me. I hate the process of trading files with people through e-mail. Particularly I hate the fact that I, a Gmail user, have to download any files that I need to work from. As a writer and editor, this process is done quite a few times in a workday. Most documents I only have to use as a reference, which seems wasteful of my precious disk space. What I need is an online office system that saves files to the cloud, where I can share the files with my clients and editors. I think you know where I’m going with this.

Will Windows 8 be the Most Secure OS in Town? (ITProPortal)
After a week of rampant hacking at the Black Hat and DEF CON security conferences in Las Vegas, one operating system escaped unscathed: Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 8. Yes, Windows 8 – you read that right. It is looking like Microsoft’s creation will be the most secure desktop OS out there – and perhaps the most secure mobile OS, too.

Shifting Subscriptions: Microsoft’s Bet-the-company Strategy for the Future of Software (ZDNet)
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has been talking a lot about “big bets”. Windows 8 is a big bet. Azure is a big bet. Surface is a big bet. Windows Phone another, along with the new Office and Office 365. But as big as they are, it’s becoming clear that they’re not the really big bet that the Redmond giant is making — though they’re all part of it.

Microsoft Did the Impossible: The New Hotmail Is Fantastic (Gizmodo)
No need to be kind here: telling people you use Hotmail has been the Internet equivalent of admitting to necrophilia. But after a decade as a punchline, Hotmail just pulled off the biggest victory in the inbox game since Gmail. And it might just get you to switch. This is starting to look familiar to the point of predictability. Microsoft takes something boring, partially broken, and thoroughly entrenched: Windows, Office, Mobile. Toss nearly everything ugly and uninspired into the ash heap, put smart people to work on it, and pack it full of Metro. Windows 8, Office 15, and Windows Phone have all turned stale things into vibrant, modern successes. And Hotmail—now Outlook—can boast the same.

8 Features to Look Forward to in Microsoft Outlook Mail (CIOL)
The launch of Microsoft Outlook.com, the company’s new web-based e-mail service replacing Hotmail, has finally put an end to the speculations about Microsoft’s plans for its 16 year old e-mail service. The news that the software giant has finally decided to pull the plug from its old web-based mail service, bought from Sabir Bhatia for $400 million, does not come as a surprise after having seen what all it did to revive the e-mail service to suit to the present scenario.

 

Around the Blogosphere
What Makes Good SharePoint CSS? (Our SharePoint Experience)
I recently read an interesting post that I think is a good starting list for judging CSS files. You can check it out here: Judging CSS / Spotting Bad Code. Reading that article and my ensuing comment that I posted based on my experience with SharePoint led me to think… why not write this up for SharePoint? So here I am. Let’s get started with chatting briefly about why you should even care about what makes good SharePoint CSS code.

What Does SharePoint 2013 Mean to the Visual Studio Developer Ninjas? (SharePointDevWiki)
Jeff Teper has concerned some community folk after Mike Watson posted something in the SharePoint Yammer community that pointed to a comment made around “Use SharePoint as an out-of-box application whenever possible…I’ve seen many SharePoint deployments where they would have been better off out of box and with the new UI we want to be really clear on that”. Wictor Wilen (MCM, MVP) made a great comment on this “that blog post and statement will be with us for a long time and for us dealing with clients the “We encourage you not to modify it [...]” will really impact the business for SharePoint 2013”. And the definition of “out-of-the-box” is not restricted to just Visual Studio Development…we are talking JavaScript and HTML 5 tinkering too…all put the UI at risk for upgrades and operation supportability which is where Jeff is coming from.

SharePoint – InfoPath 2010: Form Library Modal Popup (EndUserSharePoint)
In the last couple of weeks I have worked on several InfoPath projects which are using form library’s to save the completed form. However I did not like the way the user was navigated away from the site to enter a new form, several of these forms I wanted to be rapidly completed and therefore I started to look at a different way to open the forms.

You Can Depend(ency) on Me (The Bottom-Line PM)
Remember way back at the beginning of this blog when I talked about dependencies? Of course, I had no real idea about what they were at the time. And, to be honest, I still don’t know more than very high-level stuff. But linking your project tasks, as we did in last week’s post helps you establish dependencies for your project, and that is a Very Important Critical Crucial Project Management Thing.

Leverage the Video Feature in Discussion Board Plus 1.5 to Communicate and Collaborate Using Video and Audio in Discussions & Forums (The Bamboo Team Blog)
In many instances, video is a powerfully effective form of communication, and in business use cases such as training, “show and tell” presentations (or conference meetings) that don’t require being in the same room, video can be an indispensable tool. In Discussion Board Plus R1.5, we’ve provided the ability for users to add video to forum posts from multiple sources, including your local computer, Bamboo Video Library, or from video-hosting sites such as YouTube).

 

SharePoint Job Listings*
SharePoint/.NET Developer Lead Job – Arlington, VA
The Lead SharePoint Application Developer will enable timely delivery of high quality SharePoint 2010 based custom coded solutions that meet CACI’s business objectives. Candidate will design and build creative SharePoint solutions using .Net using industry best practices and following the organization’s standard software development lifecycle methodologies. Responsible for Identifying and implementing organizational best practices throughout the SharePoint team to improve SDLC processes, introduce iterative methodologies and increase efficiency. Overall mission is to drive innovation in technology, tools and iterative processes.

Senior SharePoint Developer – Stoughton, MA; Brockton, MA
SharePoint, ASP.NET, C#, SharePoint, ASP.NET, C#, SQL Server, SharePoint Implementation, VB.Net, XML, XSLT, SharePoint Developer is responsible for interfacing with customers, defining requirements, designing, developing and deploying SharePoint based business applications. This is a dynamic position where you will have ownership of our SharePoint solutions in house, and with our largest and most important customers!

 

Microsoft Updates
New SharePoint Technical Content (SharePoint IT Pro Blog)
These are indeed exciting times for the Microsoft Office Division as a whole, and definitely for those of us who work on the technical content. First off, we hope you like the refreshed look and feel of this blog. Look for more design evolutions as time goes on, and of course, lots of SharePoint IT pro content! Check out the TechNet home page and feature package that launched today. They cover top-level IT professional content for new Office, Office 365, SharePoint, Exchange, Lync, and Project and even include an Editor’s note by yours truly.

 

SharePoint Events*

• August 1, Online – Five Ways to Prepare for SharePoint 2013
• August 2, Online – Bamboo SharePoint Project Management Central Webinar
• August 7, Online – Bamboo SharePoint Project Management Central Webinar
• August 7, Online – Bamboo Knowledge Management Webinar
• August 7, Online – Building Choices: Using Managed Metadata to Create Managed Choice Columns
• August 8, Online -  Secure Social Collaboration in the Public Sector
• August 9, Online – Bamboo SharePoint Workflow Conductor Webinar
• August 9, Online – Bamboo SharePoint Time Tracking & Management Webinar
• August 9, Online – Critical Path Training No Cost Webinar Series: “What’s new with Workflow in SharePoint 2013″ with Andrew Connell
• August 14, Online – Bamboo SharePoint Project Management Central Webinar
• August 14, Online – Bamboo SharePoint Community Central Webinar
• August 15, Online – Five Ways to Prepare for SharePoint 2013 – Establish Governance Today
• August 16, Online – Bamboo SharePoint Project Management Central Webinar
• August 21, Online – Bamboo SharePoint Project Management Central Webinar
• August 22-24, Washington, DC – SharePoint Saturday: The Conference
• August 23, Online – Bamboo SharePoint Time Tracking & Management Webinar
• August 28, Online – SharePoint Training Best Practices
• September 8, Cape Town, South Africa – Sharing the Point
• September 8, Cape Town, South Africa – SharePoint Saturday
• September 8, Branson, Missouri – SharePoint Saturday
• September 10, Johannesburg, South Africa – Sharing the Point
• September 12, Kigali, Rwanda – Sharing the Point
• September 12, Online – Five Ways to Prepare for SharePoint 2013 – Choose Code-Free Customization
• September 13, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania – Sharing the Point
• September 15, Nairobi, Kenya – Sharing the Point
• September 15, Nairobi, Kenya – SharePoint Saturday
• September 22, Manchester, New Hampshire – SharePoint Saturday
• September 22, Redmond, Washington – SharePoint Saturday
• September 25-27, Chicago, Illinois – SharePoint Fest
• September 29, Troy, Michigan – SharePoint Saturday
• October 3, Online – Five Ways to Prepare for SharePoint 2013 – Perform Inventory and Analysis
• October 6, Bend, Oregon – SharePoint Saturday
• October 13, Sacramento, California – SharePoint Saturday
• October 27, Cincinnati, Ohio – SharePoint Saturday
• November 3, Bloomington, Minnesota – SharePoint Saturday
• November 7, Online – Five Ways to Prepare for SharePoint 2013 – Implement Data Externalization
• December 5, Online – Five Ways to Prepare for SharePoint 2013 – Consolidate Content
• December 8, Nottingham, UK – SharePoint Saturday

 

SharePoint 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 2010 Styling & Branding – 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
• September 4, Online – Workflow Conductor Designer Training – Bamboo Solutions
• September 11-12, Nashville, Tennessee – Introduction to SharePoint Foundation 2010 – SharePoint Solutions
• September 11-14, Nashville, Tennessee – Introduction to SharePoint Server 2010 – SharePoint Solutions
• September 14, Online – Bamboo Select – Bamboo Solutions
• September 18-21, Dallas, Texas – InfoPath 2010/SharePoint 2010 Workflow Deep Dive – SharePoint Solutions
• September 19, Online – Project Management Central (3.0) Application Administrative Training – Part 1 – Bamboo Solutions
• September 25, Online – Project Management Central End User Training – Bamboo Solutions
• October 2, Online – Workflow Conductor Designer Training – Bamboo Solutions
• October 9-12, Nashville, Tennessee – InfoPath 2010/SharePoint 2010 Workflow Deep Dive – SharePoint Solutions
• October 12, Online – Bamboo Select – Bamboo Solutions
• October 17, Online – Project Management Central (3.0) Application Administrative Training – Part 1 – Bamboo Solutions
• October 23, Online – Project Management Central End User Training – Bamboo Solutions

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

 

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