Month: January 2010

Categories
User Groups

Global SharePoint Users Group – 2 Feb 2010

GSPUG Logo What’s that, you live in a distant country that has no SharePoint Users Group but you’re hungry for fellowship with other SharePoint professionals and enthusiasts? Or perhaps you’ve heard about SharePoint and you’ve wondered what exactly it is or what you can do with it?

Well then, check out the Global SharePoint Users Group, organized by professionals in the community looking to further broaden the reach of SharePoint.  The purpose of the group isn’t to replace your local users group, but rather to supplement it and provide additional knowledge.

This month, Paul Schaeflein (@paulschaeflein), SharePoint MVP, will be presenting on the topic of PowerShell for SharePoint 2010.  Paul has done much for the SharePoint community nationally as well as in the greater Chicago area. He’s got a ton of tips and and tricks to share along the lines of best practices and contextual context for solving development problems with creative and innovative solutions.

So what are you waiting for? Head on over to the GSPUG site for more info or register now at Eventbrite for the Ground Hog’s Day Edition of GSPUG!

Who: Paul Schaeflein and the SharePoint Community
What: Global SharePoint Users Group
Where: Online – EventBrite Registration
When: 2 February 2010, 7 PM EST

Categories
User Groups

SharePoint Users Group – Richmond, VA Edition

In the 2003 editions of Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies, the learning curve for SharePoint development was significant as developers had to have a keen understanding of web development technologies such as CSS, JavaScipt and HTML in addition to the .net 1.1 framework as well as the webpart framework of the time. Then along came the 2007 editions of Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies in the form of MOSS and WSS v3. While there were vast improvements of the underlying development framework as most of the technical code base (but not necessarily concepts) supporting SharePoint were paved over as the collaborative framework and application server were rewritten in .net 2.0 with snippets of .net 3.0 components. This reduced the headaches of most .net developers attempting to work within the SharePoint framework as they now just had to learn the the SharePoint SDK rather than attempting to learn to pre-render HTML for their results in the previous edition as webparts were written. Additionally the solutions and features frameworks were added which made the management of added capabilities significantly easier and cleaner.

With SharePoint Server 2010, the core platform of SharePoint has been kept in place, but a lot of additional capabilities have been added to make it the developers collaborative platform dream. However, with great power comes a lot of responsibility and a lot of room for error and friction.

So where do you turn when you run into such problems?  Well there are several places to turn to when you need SharePoint help to include the MSDN Forums, SharePoint Overflow, Twitter, and your local user group.

Thursday, 28 January from 5:30-7:30 PM at SnagAJob in Glen Allen, the Richmond SharePoint User Group will be meeting. And to assist in helping developers transition into the SharePoint Server 2010 mindset, none other than Josh Carlisle from B&R Solutions will be presenting on “Reducing the Friction of SharePoint Development with SharePoint 2010”.

If you’re free and able, it looks to be a great presentation and excellent information to apply and integrate into your SharePoint delivery teams.  More information about the Richmond SharePoint Users Group can be found at:

http://go.spdan.com/rspug

Who: Josh Carlisle and other SharePoint Users, Practitioners and Professionals
What: Richmond SharePoint Users Group
Where: SnagAJob, 4880 Cox Road, Glen Allen, VA
When: 28 January from 5:30-7:30 PM

Categories
Off Topic

Operation ShareLove: Support Haiti Earthquake Victims

Courtesy of United Nations Photos on FlickrA little more than a week ago on 12 January 2010, the worst earthquake in nearly 200 years struck less than ten miles from the Caribbean City of Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. The severity of the quake was nothing to laugh at as a magnitude 7.0 quake devastated the country. There are some estimations out that approximately 100,000 perished in this event, with approximately a third of the population being displaced from their homes or perished. Think about this – 1/3rd of the country suddenly with no where to go. I’m befuddled by this.

Courtesy of United States Navy Photos on FlickrOver the past week we have all watched international aid pour into the country in hopes of rescuing survivors trapped under the wreckage of buildings as well as to assist those injured and to care for the population as “the basics” are no more. So I know I sit, ponder and ask myself, “What is it that I can do?” By now you’ve probably heard of the SMS code to send cash through your phone to the Red Cross in support of Haiti, but what else is there?

Dux Sy (@meetdux) has established “Operation ShareLove: Haiti” as a fund drive organized to support our global brothers and sisters in Haiti. Not only are you helping out in support of those in dire to continue on living, but apparently you can benefit as well.

For more details on how to participate in Operation ShareLove, I strongly urge you to check out the Op SL page at http://sp.meetdux.com/archive/2010/01/18/operation-sharelove-support-haiti-earthquake-victims-amp-win.aspx.

Categories
User Groups

SharePoint Users Group – Baltimore Edition

Live in the greater Baltimore Washington metropolitan region? Interested in applying and integrating SilverLight technologies to SharePoint Server capabilities? Then check out the Baltimore SharePoint Users Group on Thursday, 21 January from 6 til 8 PM at the UMBC Research and Technology Park South Campus. For more information about the event, check out the Baltimore SharePoint User Group site at:

http://go.spdan.com/bmorespug

Becky Isserman from B&R Solutions will be presenting “Dazzling SharePoint 2010 with SilverLight”. If you’re still diving deep into the SharePoint 2010 Server Beta 2 that was released back before Thanksgiving 2009, and UX is your thing, definitely consider attending this presentation – well worth your time.  On top of that though, the opportunity to network with others from the greater Baltimore Washington area in the SharePoint profession is a great opportunity.

Who: Becky Isserman and other SharePoint Professionals, and Enthusiasts
What: Baltimore SharePoint Users Group
Where: UMBC Research and Technology Park, South Campus, 1450 South Rolling Road, Baltimore, MD
When: 21 January 2010, 6-8 PM

Categories
Off Topic

Office Communicator Conferencing Add-in x64 Support

Office2010Beta2-OCSR2x64ConferencingTabFor those of you that are running Office Communicator 2007 R2 and Office 2010 Beta 2, and you’ve been running on Windows x64 and wondering when Microsoft would release their Office Conferencing Add-in pack that you could use without downgrading to x86 binaries of Office 2010 Beta 2, behold the x64 plug in is now available.

It’s best to first install the Office Communicator 2007 R2 Cumulative January Update referenced in a previous post here at SPDan.com here.

Once you’ve installed the Cumulative Update, Microsoft has the x64 Conferencing add-in available at:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA102368901033.aspx

If you’re looking to grab the x64 edition and don’t feel like scrolling down:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=180490

While this may not seem that big a deal to some, it’s very helpful for those that live by their calendar synchronized through Exchange and need to plan LiveMeeting invites a day or two out for distribution to several individuals to collaborate on a project together or demonstrate a code release.

Bottom line, thank you Microsoft for adding the capability for those using x64 based Office 2010 Beta 2 the ability to use Communicator more seamlessly!

Categories
Off Topic

Office Communicator 2007 R2 January CU

For those of you that leverage Office Communicator 2007 R2, you might be happy to know that Microsoft has released a cumulative update to fix a few of the integration problems between Communicator and Office 2007 and seems to work with the Office 2010 Beta 2 software for all you early adopters out there.

Like other cumulative updates the package contains hotfixes previously released to ensure that you’re not having to patch together several different patch packages (we’re living in 2010 remember, patch management processes have been ironed out).  The core three issues that this CU includes that go above and beyond the hotfixes previously released include:

More information about the package can be read at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/976135

or if you just want to download the package immediately for application to your system

Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2 Hotfix KB 976135

Upon completion of this installation your Communicator R2 application will be running at version 3.5.6907.83

Categories
User Groups

SharePoint Users Group – Hampton Roads Edition

The Hampton Roads SharePoint User Group will be meeting this month on Thursday, 21 January from 6:30-8:30 PM at the Virginia Beach Advanced Technology Center, Room 131. If you attended SharePoint Saturday Virginia Beach recently then you already know the location of the HRSSUG. This is a great event to meet fellow SharePoint professionals in the Hampton Roads area to include Susan Lennon, Kevin Griffin, Tasha Scott and several others.

This month, Kevin Griffin will be presenting on the topic of jQuery and how to utilize jQuery with SharePoint. While the topic is definitely geared more toward developers since Kevin is himself a profound .net developer, other SharePoint individuals such as architects and administrators would benefit greatly from such information.

For more information on the Hampton Roads SharePoint Users Group, check out their site at:

http://go.spdan.com/hrssug

Who: Kevin Griffin
What: Hampton Roads SharePoint Users Group
Where: Virginia Beach Advanced Technology Center, 1800 College Cresent, Virginia Beach, VA
When: 21 January 2010, 6:30-8:30 PM

Categories
Solutions

What makes my work flow…

There are a couple of different techniques that I use to try to keep on task and pressing ahead while working in the world of SharePoint Engineering.  A few of these include…

  • Headphones – If you’re working on a client site and you’ve got to focus, definitely consider getting a pair of in-ear headphones or a pair of over the ear cup noise canceling headphones.  I myself carry both with me (Shure SE530s and Bose QC15s). The in-ear headphones work great for isolating noise and they’re lightweight. The over the ear headphones, well okay, so the noise canceling is awesome. On top of that however, they make it pretty evident that you’re listening to music or something else and that you’ll actually have to try to get my attention – in-ear headphones unfortunately aren’t noticed and folks spend about two minutes yapping at me before realizing that I haven’t heard a word.  Overall benefit – Pretty high considering that it allows me to get rid of all the background noise.
  • Ergonomic Keyboard – What they say is true, if you’re more relaxed, you’re more likely to be productive. I use the Microsoft Natural Ergo Keyboard 4000 and cannot agree more that my hands aren’t more relaxed and able to press through a paper quicker and without as much wear on the joints than when I’m working with a regular keyboard.  Overall benefit – Less wear and tear on the wrists and fingers and increased typing speed when returning to a flat keyboard.
  • iPhone – Okay, so is there really anything to say about this? Whether you’ve got a Zune HD or an iPhone or iPod Touch, having music to listen to that isn’t too distracting but that is uplifting and get yous in the zone.  Overall benefit – Provides the rhythm for what I’m working on. For those moments that require significant detail and thought, it’s time for some Carl Orff and Carmina Burana. For those moments that just need focus and momentum, it’s all about Tiesto.
  • Screen Real Estate – Dell Ultrasharp 2408WFP LCD Display. So not only is it gorgeous, it’s big and offers tons of real estate to have documents at 100% in Word or multiple Visual Studio windows and code samples open without having to move a window so that you can see what’s in your plan.  Overall benefit – How often do you find yourself having to drag a window down, or left, or minimizing everything or changing the size of your windows? With more real estate, rarely do you have to worry about how to arrange things…

So what about you, what are your top four items that help you to get in the zone and press ahead toward excellence in your tasks and activities?

Categories
Events

Stump the Experts and Preparing for SharePoint 2010

Have a few questions relating to SharePoint that have been causing problems in your environment or looking for a better approach to development perhaps? Live or work in the Northern Virginia area? Check out the Stump the Experts Panel on 21 January from 2-4 PM at the American Chemistry Council in Arlington, VA.  SusQTech will be hosting this event and also presenting on the topic of  “Preparing for SharePoint 2010”.

For those tougher questions that might take a little time to come up with an elegant solution or you’re just curious if SharePoint can handle a particular business problem, send an e-mail to jenm at susqtech dot com prior to the event.

Who: SusQTech and other SharePoint Professionals, and Enthusiasts
What: Stump the Experts Panel & Preparing for SharePoint 2010 presentation
Where: American Chemistry Council, 1300 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA
When: 21 January 2010, 2-4 PM

Categories
User Groups

SharePoint User Group of Washington DC

The Washington DC SharePoint User Group will be meeting this Thursday, 14 January from 6 til 9 PM at the Hire Strategy Offices in Reston, VA. For more information, check out the SUG DC site at:

http://go.spdan.com/fsjzi

It looks to be some great presentations on Thursday night with Benjamin Hodes of Microsoft presenting “Introducing Access 2010 and Access Services” along with Will Lawrence of Pontis Communications presenting “sharejPoint”.

If you’re not familiar with Access Services in SharePoint Server 2010, then you’re definitely in for a treat, empowering the end users to integrate and deploy Access solutions, centrally managed.  And if you’re not familiar with jPoint, get ready to start rethinking your UX and how your users really work with SharePoint, delivering a rich user and developer interface to build some slick applications on SharePoint.

Who: Benjamin Hodes (Microsoft), Will Lawrence (Pontis Communications) and other SharePoint Professionals, and Enthusiasts
What: SharePoint User Group of Washington DC
Where: Hire Strategy, 11730 Plaza America Drive Reston, VA 20190
When: 14 January from 6-9 PM