The Ribbon: the things to come from MS SharePoint

What is SharePoint? I paused to think, well, it is not what is, but what it does, and what is does is creating an ubiquitous user experience across the Office world, which up until this day, rules the world.  Already announced, MS SharePoint will have one major change: the user experience (UE).  MSSP today provides a rather web-like experience, but MSSP 2010 will try to convey the Office world by borrowing some its user interface/experience.  The Ribbon, to be more precise.  Back in 2007, MS Office introduced the ribbon experience. Here is a brief summary: prior to the 2007 release, MS struggle to add and categorize commands and features, and as these were added, they were increasingly buried within an application menu system that was great for a limited set of features but which struggled to surface capabilities to users.   Over the years, the learning curve increased. So, Microsoft’s RD team  introduced the Ribbon, a contextual user interface, which surfaces features and functions depending upon the activity the user is engaged in.

The Ribbon comes to SharePoint as well.

“SharePoint 2010 promises an experience in reaching across the firewall to connect with partners and customers. With new features like personal password management, Office web applications, enhanced Web 2.0 features and more. Now your internal content creators can set aside concerns about HTML, PHP, and the like. They can confidently produce documentation in Office, publish it to SharePoint and know that their intended consumers of that content will be able to open it, and if they have appropriate permissions, even edit the content, all from a web browser.”

http://sharepoint2010.microsoft.com/Pages/videos.aspx

It’s not smoke, it’s the Cloud

Image source: http://infreemation.net/cloud-computing-linear-utility-or-complex-ecosystem/

I am going to go a little off topic with “The Cloud”, mainly because I have been flooded with task requests from employees at work to train them how to get around SharePoint.  I also had an insane amount of homework from school and a lot family events I needed to attend.

The first time I head the “Cloud” term was in a BBC article about Open Source back in 2006.  It got my attention. I am a late adapter to the whole social network thing, but a techie, beta tester, for Web 2.0 applications.  Eventually I caved in, I started using FaceBook.  I had to, the social network world gravitates around Web 2.0 trends.

THE CLOUD

Software-as-a-service, SaaS. Wikipedia defines software-as-a-service (SaaS) as “a model of software deployment where an application is hosted as a service provided to customers across the Internet.

Let’s say you have a growing small business, and your IT infrastructure has reached its limit. You are then confronted with two gaps. First, figure out what you need in order to keep your network going while implementing a scalable, cost effective solution.  The second gap to fill is to find the person or people that can do this for you. Your shock comes when find that the upfront cost was probably not projected as a expense in your books.

Image Source: http://exacterm.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/saas.jpg

The Solutions: SaaS or as my friends call it, look up to the cloud!

What SaaS does is: it takes away the customer’s burden of software maintenance, ongoing operation, and support. In other words,  the service eliminates the need to install and run the application on the customer’s own computer. You cost becomes a monthly, yearly expense.  With the right advice, it can be a tax deduction to your business as a recurring expense and not an asset.

Cloud computing opens up innovative ways to use rich-media capabilities, such as video integration into presentations, data tracking, etc.  A direct single source point made possible by Web-Based application that can dissipate information quick.

Taking the MS out of MS SharePoint

There a few way to integrate your company’s look and feel in SharePoint. For example, you can customize the CSS, the forms (using InfoPath), the general “terms” used, the theme, but the one you want to start with should be the Logo. Branding your SharePoint site(s) is essential for users to know where they are.  In a corporate environment, branding could prove the difference on how quick user learn to identify with their department–and could potentially lead to new users adapt quicker and to the new medium. The learning curve is high as it is and most users get lost after a few clicks.  My boss came to me the other and asked me if we could use the top navigation links (tabs) for all the kinks in the site– to my count we have a about 40 site and sub-sites, so my answers was no.   He insisted on the need to achieve this because it takes too long for him to find what he needs.  His perception is that SharePoint is “our” website and as such, it should be built/designed on the same principles as a commercial website should be designed to its customers.    I agree, except that even thought SharerPoint can be access from the outside the company’s network, it resides and works within the intranet site, designed under and for the purpose of document and content management.

This is a quick over view of how to change the logo and the description on you SharePoint site. Enjoy!

The Netoff: Drupal and SharePoint

Back in 1998, I got a job at CircuitCity (back when they were profitable) as an assistant manager.  The “MD” mini-disc was a big thing and a threat to the CD; that was my understanding.  It sounded good and it looked good, but best of all, the MD promised “skippless” play time.  So, I went and bought a Phillics 3200 MD player. In 1999, I started college at Art Center College of Design and by then the MD was becoming obsolete–the amount of hours I spent transferring my music library to those mini-discs was growing at the same rate my fear of the MD rolling out of the market kept growing.  The MD is no longer with us.

Lesson learned: don’t jumped on the rope so soon.

Over the last year, I have been in charge of implementing SharePoint in our office.  Due to the chaos our inadequate document management/workflow creates, I had to take on the task,  as I was also the one pushing for the implementation of SharePoint services in our network.  The goal analysis was to regain control of document management and work-flow of the office and was centered on the fact that boss had made Outlook his document library causing Outlook to fail at least once a month.

At the moment, I am finding out more about Drupal and how it used, who is using it, how they are using, and I am curious enough to start a pilot project. I have no idea how to start– all I know is that we are running on MS Server not Apache, so that could a problem.

Here is a little comparison of the key features/aspect between the two CMS.

Sharepoint has a better document management framework and it integrates with the MS world.
Drupal on the other hand, has a better grasp on managing users; it has more of a human resource framework. When it comes to upgrades, I have read both are pain.

For more information

• CMS Matrix – compare drupal and sharepoint, side-by-side
• Comparison by Drupal founder - pay especial attention to the comments of readers.
• Alfresco – for those who desire open-source document management.
• Sharepoint
• Drupal