Dan Holme
Office & SharePoint Pro
Community Manager
Back to Reality "Ni hau" and "aloha" to you all. I've made it back to the United States after an epic summer in China. Thanks to those of you that followed some of my adventures, both technical and personal, through this newsletter and on my blogs. It was a truly mind-blowing experience. The three weeks' journey through China gave me a much greater insight into the complex and rapidly-changing country that will play a major part in all of our lives in the 21st century. And the six weeks in Beijing working on the broadcast for NBC Olympics was as stressful, exhausting, rewarding, and utterly exhilarating as you could imagine. It took me about a week after returning—until just now in fact—to even begin to decompress. It's a bit challenging returning to my "real life" and to my clients and explaining that, yes, I saw some of the most amazing events, ceremonies, and sights in the world but it was, in fact, a lot of work! And what a lot I learned! Credit Where Credit Is Due
I've got to give a big "shout out" to the team at NBC Olympics I.T., and to the entire NBCOLY organization, which is made up of the most amazingly talented folks I've ever had the pleasure to meet. I also have to give a really big shout out to SharePoint, which performed like a champ. There were half a dozen situations that arose during the run-up to the Games, and during the Games themselves, which SharePoint solved brilliantly, on top of the solutions we'd built ahead of time and the many collaborative sites we supported. I wrote about several of those solutions over the past few weeks, and will document a few more in upcoming issues. A final shout out goes to AvePoint. We put its Backup and Recovery solution to the test, both as a solution and as an evaluation for future long-term use, and it, too, deserves a medal. The installation was easy, the learning curve was short, we had our environment backed up in no time, and we actually leveraged its item-level recovery to restore some InfoPath forms from a problematic server's SharePoint library to a file share at one point. Talking Story
Here in Hawaii, there is a tradition of "talking story," and no fewer than four days after returning from Beijing, I found myself in front of the Hawaii SharePoint User Group. I spent almost two hours discussing the solutions we delivered with SharePoint, as well as the role SharePoint played in other aspects of the Olympics. The talk put a 'real world' context to the value of SharePoint in an organization. Microsoft talks about the "SharePoint Wheel"—you know, the wheel with six "pieces of pie" that sets forth SharePoint's roles in collaboration, search, portal, forms, Business Intelligence (BI), and content management. As I've said in earlier newsletters, some of these "pieces of pie" are tastier than others, and some are half-baked. It can be helpful to see just how creatively SharePoint can be applied to achieve business value in some of those areas. I'm going to go out on a limb and offer to present this discussion to other users groups, enterprises, or organizations that are interested. So if you're curious about this kind of thing, shoot me an email at danh at intelliem-dot-top-level-commercial-domain. Fall into Knowledge
Hard to believe summer's drawing to a close, and fall is here! And with golden leaves come golden opportunities to learn more about SharePoint. Our independent gurus will be offering several in-person and online events, similar to events we did in the Spring. You'll get all-new, best-of-class content for IT Pros and Developers coming to a city near you or streamed to your desktop, and you'll get the chance to ask questions, get answers, and interact in real time. One online event, scheduled for September 30 and October 1, will double the action and double the fun, with three sessions for IT Pros and three sessions for Developers! We'll also be visiting seven cities near you with more in-person events. Each event will allow you to discover best practices and tips for both architecting and administering SharePoint. Online Events:
For Developers: Tuesday September 30, 2008, 11:00 AM EDT- MASTERING SHAREPOINT, DEVELOPER
For IT Pros: Wednesday October 1, 2008, 11:00 AM EDT - MASTERING SHAREPOINT, IT PRO In-Person Events:
For SharePoint Architects & Site Admins: Starting September 25, 2008 - DEPLOYING SHAREPOINT There's also a fantastic and unique event in San Francisco, October 6-8. IT Connections features not just SharePoint content, but content across a wide range of Windows technologies, and the cool thing about this event is that there are sessions both for IT Pros and IT Leadership. That means your entire team—management and admins alike—can soak up guru-level knowledge about strategic and technical issues and come back "singing the same song" and with an action plan for making the most of SharePoint, Active Directory, Group Policy, automation, and more. IT Connections is the first event of its kind—I'll be there and I'm very excited about it! Last but definitely not least, SharePoint connections is co-located with Windows Connections, Dev Connections, Exchange Connections and much more at the Mandalay Bay in November. The Vegas Connections event is phenomenal, and you can still register for this exciting event here. So pick your month, pick your city, and pick up some incredible learning! Until next week, all the best! Dan Holme
danh at intelliem dot (top level commercial domain) |
Events and Resources
LAST CHANCE - For Early Bird Pricing on SharePoint Training
Attend this SharePoint event to for best practices and tips regarding infrastructure, design, redundancy, site administration, and ECM. Register today to take advantage of Early Bird special pricing for only $99 – Extended Until September 15th! Network with your SharePoint Peers and check out what's on the horizon for SharePoint. With economic pressures affecting every companies' bottom line, now is the time make your training dollars stretch further. Register today and save as much as $100. ITTV.net--Visit the New Windows IT Pro Video Site Today!
Now there's a new way to connect with your IT peers! With IT TV (http://ct.email.officesharepointpro.com/rd/cts?d=33-13530-982-443-3598-1419706-0-0-0-1-2-196), an exciting video website by Windows IT Pro, engaging interactively with other IT pros and developers has never been easier. As a member of the Windows IT Pro community, you will discover independent analysis, candid appraisals, real-world troubleshooting, trustworthy content, and behind-the-scenes insight to keep your Windows infrastructure running smoothly. Visit today! Change is Not the Enemy – Learn Best Practices
Understanding why change management is necessary and how to apply change management best practices to your project. This on-demand seminar by David Chernicoff will help identify tools you need to make change management an integral part of your successful business enterprise. Application Uptime for Critical Components of Your Business Infrastructure
As delivering web-based applications becomes a more critical component of the business infrastructure, IT needs to find tools that enable them to meet the requirements of service agreements and deliverables. View this on-demand web seminar to look at common problems that affect the successful delivery of web-based services and get ideas for dealing with these potential problem areas. Got SharePoint? Get Specialized Training!
Whether you're an IT pro or a developer, master SharePoint with help from the world's most respected SharePoint experts in three SharePoint workshops built just for you and presented straight from your desktop! On September 30 and October 1, Windows IT Pro and OfficeSharePointPro.com bring SharePoint MVPs Dan Holme, Michael Noel, and Andrew Connell direct to you to share their real-world perspective, experience, and expertise and help you build a better SharePoint infrastructure, develop more effective SharePoint applications, and enable more powerful collaboration. Choose the info-packed sessions that are right for you. Get SQL Server 2008 at SharePoint Connections
Don't miss SharePoint Connections, the premier event for Microsoft IT Professionals, in Las Vegas, November 10-13. Every attendee will receive a copy of SQL Server 2008 Standard Edition with one CAL. IT Connections: Oct 6 – 8, San Francisco Marriott
Behind the hype, behind the scenes, dive into the new Microsoft platforms and products you implement and support with the experts from Microsoft, TechNet Magazine, Windows IT Pro, and industry gurus. There are 70+ sessions and interactive panels with networking opportunities. Register today! |