Collaborpedia

Ning has recently announced new functionality to improve the management of members of respective Ning networks.
The major wrinkle in Ning’s member management policy is in the area of suspending members. The previous option was to ban a member completely. There are additional controls within the suspending policy.

Suspending members from your Ning Network

Now, instead of banning a member, you’ll have the ability to suspend the member instead. This is much more than a language tweak; in fact, you’ll see three new options enabled with suspending:

* During the suspension process, network administrators can delete member content.
* New re-instate feature for members that have been suspended.
* New “Suspension Notes” feature to keep detailed info on why the member was suspended.
To access the suspension feature, acess the Manage Members page, check the box next to one or more members, and click “Suspend” in the “Actions…” drop-down menu.

Written by: Shadeed Eleazer

Written by: Shadeed Eleazer

The Philadelphia Area SharePoint User Group will be unveiling SharePoint 2010 at their next meeting scheduled for October 28th starting at 5:30pm.

The meeting location will be the Microsoft Greater PA District office located in Malvern, PA.

Meeting Overview

We will discuss the business momentum and investment areas in the new release including demonstrations of new functionality that makes SharePoint the premier choice for a business collaboration platform. We will drill into the new functionality in Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and the benefits it provides to end users, IT professionals, and developers.

Areas such as SharePoint Communities, Insights, and Sites will be discussed and demonstrated to show the value that the new Microsoft SharePoint 2010 can bring to enterprises of all sizes.

Explore the Business Connectivity Services (BCS) and the remarkable changes to the Business Data Catalog (BDC).

5:30 - 5:45 Registration, Food and Beverages, Networking and News

Discussion of events and news in the local SharePoint community.

5:45 - 6:00 Topic: SharePoint Tips and Tricks

Audience: All
Technical Level:  100 - 200

6:00 – 7:00 Topic: SharePoint 2010 Unveiling

Audience: All
Technical Level: 200

7:00 – 7:45 Topic: SharePoint 2010 Composites

Audience: All
Technical Level: 200

7:45 - 8:00 Round Table Q and A, Raffles and Giveaways

Round table discussions will be held on specific challenges facing the members. If you have an issue that you would like to have addressed by the group submit your questions to phillysharepoint@rjbtech.com

Written by: Shadeed Eleazer
The SharePoint Conference held in Las Vegas, NV marked the first public unveiling of the SharePoint 2010 release. The SharePoint conference welcomed over 6,000 international attendees. The feedback was excellent and excitement surrounding the platform is at an all-time high. There were many professionals who could not attend the SharePoint conference for various reasons. To fill the void, The SharePoint 2010 Unconference (ShareClave)was organized to provide attendees with a free viewing of SharePoint 2010.

What distinguishes this event from other code camps, expos, etc. is that the structure of the event will be utilizing the Unconference method. The UnConference concept is used heavily in the arena of Social Media/Networking events, so the spontaneous nature of such an event will be new to the SharePoint community.

What Is An UnConference?

Unconferences are governed by deep discussions by passionate people of a spontaneous nature. At a traditional conference, attendees are “spoon-fed” topics and are asked to decide which topics are of relevance to them. Unconferences typically feature a blank board with timeslots. The conference structure is dictated via collaborated at the beginning of the event. If a topic moves you, and you would like to discuss it, you are welcome to write your topic down and host a discussion.

The strongest rule governing Unconferences is the “Law of 2 Feet” which states that:


“If you find yourself in a situation where you are not contributing or learning, move somewhere where you can.”

The event is sold out which indicates a huge interest in both the release of SharePoint 2010 and the concept of the event.

Event Details

When: Saturday October 24, 2009
Where: Microsoft Mid-Atlantic Office
12012 Sunset Hills
Reston, VA 20190
Start:8:30am
Stop:6:00pm
More Info: http://shareclave.org

Photo Credit: viccolino

Written by: Shadeed Eleazer

The DC Metro area public transportation rail system known as the Metrorail has implemented a long-awaited expansion of cell phone service via Verizon. The expansion will service 20 of the busiest Metro platforms.

What if I have a carrier other than Verizon?
Metro patrons who use T-Mobile, Sprint Nextel, and AT&T will be able to surf the Web, text, and make outgoing calls from the approved 20 platforms. The caveat is that the service will be available only on the platforms but once a rider boards the train or inside the tunnel, the reception will be lost.
The Plan for Expansion
Service is expected to expand to cover the entire station for the initial 20 pilot stations. By the close of November 09, the expectations are to have coverage from the surrounding street down to the platform. Fall 2010 should include the remaining 27 stations with the initial wiring.
Full underground coverage is not planned to happen until fall 2012.

Written by: Shadeed Eleazer

The Baltimore SharePoint User’s Group October meeting will feature Eric Harlan delivering a topic centering around SharePoint List Mashups Using SharePoint Designer.

Please RSVP here!

Presentation Overview

SharePoint List Mashup’s using SharePoint Designer

Mashups can cover just about any combination of data or design elements within SharePoint specifically. In this session we will go over how to mashup DHTML, XSLT and SharePoint lists into clean news rotation web parts. This method will allow administrators to make simple changes in a list view that they are already comfortable with to make a news rotation change. This session will also focus on the infamous DataView web part and some of the cool data presentation and integration tips used to show your users different editable views of list data.

There will be other news, notes, and announcements surrounding SPC09, ShareClave and updates surrounding Baltimore SharePoint.

View the LiveStream of the session by accessing the Baltimore SharePoint homepage

Written by: Shadeed Eleazer

As the government moves forward to the next generation of transparency known as “Open Government”, Adobe has organized a free one-day conference that offers its participants a community forum to discuss the transition and what measures Adobe has implemented to meet the needs of tomorrow’s govement sector.

The Keynote Speaker for the event is Cokie Roberts, Political Analyst for ABC News and NPR Senior News Analyst
What a Difference a Year Makes – Creating Transparency in a Culture of Change

Additional speakers include:
Dee Dee Myers, Former White House Press Secretary, Political Analyst, Commentator, and Author

Price Floyd, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, Department of Defense

Alan Cohn, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Strategic Plans, Department of Homeland Security

Event Details

Where: Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Washington, D.C.
When: November 4, 2009; Registration begins at 7:45 a.m.; Program runs from 8:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. - Stay tuned for more details

Doors open at 7:45am with registration, networking, and breakfast.
View the Event Program

For more information about the Adobe Government Assembly program, directions and venue information:
http://www.adobegovernmentassembly.com.

Written by: Shadeed Eleazer

The UMBC Tech Center was the backdrop as the Baltimore SharePoint User’s Group gathered for a great evening of discussion of SharePoint and its unique iterations that it becomes when applied to each member’s unique environment.

The evening’s guest was Juan Santiago, Project Manager and Business Analyst for VA based i3 Solutions. His topic was Building Business Processes in SharePoint. After a round of announcements which recapped SharePoint Saturday NYC, which both BSPUG co-founders Eric Harlan and I attended and delivered two sessions each, to the explosion of SharePoint Saturday events throughout the calendar month of November 2009.

I recently prepared a slide that I delivered that touched upon the business value of SharePoint Saturday and why companies should take part in the events throughout the region.

Juan’s session was videotaped in HD for future viewing on the Baltimore SharePoint User’s Group site.

All-in-all a great session. Feedback was excellent from attendees.

Next month, BSPUG will welcome Solutions Architect Fabian Williams.

When: Friday, September 25, 2009, 6:00-8:00 pm

Where:

University of Baltimore
William H. Thumel Sr. Business Center
M. Scot Kaufman Auditorium
11 W. Mt. Royal Ave.
Baltimore, MD 21201

To register for this event, click here.

Join the Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization and Leadership UB for their fall kick-off event, featuring an innovative presentation on technology, innovation and leadership in good times and bad.

Technology’s role in business and life continues to grow each day.  Integration of technology and recent innovations is essential to be an effective leader and producer in the 21st century.  Join us for a unique perspective on how to use technology and innovation to your advantage  in good and bad times alike. Mario Armstrong translates technology for non-tech audiences, through his radio shows, tv appearances, public speaking, print and online.

About Mario Armstrong

He is the on-air tech expert and contributor for NPR’s Morning Edition program reaching 17 million households & NPR’s News & Notes show. He hosts his own technology talk shows on XM radio, USTalknetwork.com, WYPR & WEAA. On TV he appears on NBC-Baltimore, AOL.com and he delivers a business tech segment for SBTV.com. He’s also appeared on CNN, CNBC, TV-One, PBS and C-Span. Mario covers the stories, issues, devices and news makers of the day through the lens of technology! He explores how technology impacts our lives, education, institutions, entertainment, politics, society and business.

This event, hosted by the Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization and Leadership UB is open to all students and the general public at no cost.  Registration is required.  To register for this event, please click here.

For more information on this event please contact the EOC at 410.837.4892 or at opportunity@ubalt.edu or call CSI at 410.837.5419 or at abutler@ubalt.edu. This event fulfills a workshop requirement for Leadership UB certification.  Visit www.ubalt.edu/leadership for details.

Written by: Shadeed Eleazer

As our nation stood in solemn remembrance of 9/11, an event that altered this country’s moral fabric, a new community event was stirring within the Microsoft SharePoint community during the weekend. SharePoint Saturday, an event started by Michael Lotter and Josh Carlisle in Virginia Beach in the late fall of 2008, has grown into an international phenomenon, with hosts organizing in Capetown, Toronto, and Copenhagen and various host cities throughout the continental USA.

The stage was set for the 2nd SharePoint Saturday event to be held in New York City at the Learning Tree Facility in Manhattan’s Financial District.
Despite rainy conditions which plagued the weekend, there was a great turnout of developers, admins, managers, and end users to the totally clueless to interact with speakers and vendors who traveled far and wide to interact, connect, and grow from the experience.

The event, organized by Dux Raymond Sy and Michael Lotter was a success by all accounts as a gathering of close to 40 speakers were lined up to deliver their viewpoints and perspective on the rapidly changing landscape of SharePoint from a technical point of view.

The huge anticipation for the release of Office SharePoint 2010 influenced the course content for speakers as well as there was the highest collective focus on areas such as social computing than any other SharePoint Saturday event I’ve witnessed or spoken at to date.

I delivered two sessions entitled Redefining SharePoint Administration: The 2010 Mindset and Transitioning Into SharePoint Careers. The 2nd session was recorded and is available online
I had a great time with both with tons of follow-ups to do. One idea I’ve developed is to do follow-up conference calls with my session attendees to handle all Q&A for the subject matter.
I had an awesome time and met great speakers, sponsors, and attendees within the SharePoint community.

The speaker’s social and SharePint gatherings were held at Ulysses, located within walking distance on 95 Pearl Street. What makes SharePoint Saturday special is the interaction that attendees are afforded to internationally known speakers and community leaders free of charge. In an economy where training budgets are down, SharePoint Saturday fills a much needed void for quality content.

For more information on SharePoint Saturday and to view the upcoming schedule of SharePoint Saturday events being hosted in your area, visit:

Written by: Shadeed Eleazer

The Federal Chief Information Officer, Vivek Kundra, has announced that the Federal Govt will officially begin the usage of cloud computing.

In accordance with this announcement, Kundra has revealed a new government site Apps.gov. This site is the location where you can find pre-approved cloud computing applications that are to be used by agencies, departments, components, and sections.

Applications are broken down into 4 categories:

Business Applications which contains 33 sub-topics

Productivity Applications which contains 7 sub-topics

Cloud IT Services which contains 4 sub-topics

Social Media Applications which contains 9 sub-topics

The government is making a big push with the adoption of approved social media applications.

FriendFeed, YouTube,  MySpace, TwitVid (video app for Twitter), and photo sharing application Flickr are all subsequent to open enrollment.

Implications

Cloud computing will greatly reduce IT costs within the federal government. There will be issues to be ironed out with security issues and policies will have to established in Phase 1 of this new approach to computing within the federal sector.

Written by: Shadeed Eleazer

View video here

The video is an in-depth discussion of the impact of microblogging platform Twitter.com within the SharePoint community. The presentation of the video is a back-and-forth discussion between Quest SharePoint Architect and author of uber-popular blog sharepointjoel, Joel Oleson and Principal Architect for Sogeti Consulting and Co-Founder of the Baltimore SharePoint User’s Group Eric Harlan.

Twitter is a mainstay within the SharePoint community. It has a great impact on conferences, most notably SharePoint Saturday events. It has introduced the community to a growing new crop of speakers that will become the future experts and MVPs of tomorrow.

Mike FitzMaurice (NINTEX) – Building Business WorkFlows with No Code

FitzMaurice is the Vice President of Product Technology at Nintex. He started with Microsoft in late 1997 in Microsoft Consulting Services, often creating collaboration and messaging solutions. Mike was a part of the consulting squad that helped the very first early adopter customers beta test “Tahoe”, which would become SharePoint Portal Server 2001. And was part of a team that authored best-practice deployment solutions for optimal usage of SharePoint Server 2001 and SharePoint Team Services in a corporate intranet. Mike FitzMaurice became a Technical Product Manager in time to bring SharePoint Server 2003 and WSS 2.0 to completion, and has not strayed from SharePoint ever since.

Register HERE

Nintex is a leading global innovator of software products that extend Microsoft technology, with over 1000 customers in 60 countries, including 40 Fortune 500 companies. The company focuses on building software that bridges the gap between that which can be bought from Microsoft today and common functionality requested by customers – with a passionate commitment to innovation and user experience. As a Microsoft Gold Partner, Nintex aligns with Microsoft’s strategic and architectural direction to ensure that Nintex and Microsoft products work in harmony, both today and into the future.

5:30 - 5:45 Registration, Food and Beverages, Networking and News

Discussion of events and news in the local SharePoint community.

5:45 - 6:15 Topic: SharePoint Tips and Tricks

Audience: All
Technical Level: 100-200

6:15 – 7:30 Topic: Mike FitzMaurice – Building Business WorkFlow with No Code

Audience: All
Technical Level: 200

7:30 -7:45 Round Table Q and A, Raffles and Giveaways

Round table discussions will be held on specific challenges facing the members. If you have an issue that you would like to have addressed by the group submit your questions to phillysharepoint@rjbtech.com

Where: Microsoft Great PA District Office, Malvern, PA

The meeting is free, but space is limited. REGISTER NOW!! If you have already registered, it is not necessary to register again.

Written by: Mr.Shadeed Eleazer

SharePoint User’s Group of Northern Virginia will be hosting two sessions for its September meeting.
Session 1 kicks off with Architecting a Robust Global SharePoint Infrastructure delivered by Tom Lin of AvePoint, one of the leading providers of SharePoint backup and recovery.

Session 2 is Nelson Johnson with CRM Integration. Food and soft drinks will be provided. The organizers are requesting that you RSVP to properly accomodate attendees.

CRM integration
September 2009

Meeting Agenda:
Thursday September 10th, 2009
6:00 PM Meet, Greet and Eat (food and drinks provided by Surfray)
7:00 PM Group business, sponsor introductions, summer conference plans
7:10 PM Presentation #1 (see below)
8:15 PM Presentation #2 (see below)

Location:
At the offices of Hire Strategy, 11730 Plaza America Drive Reston, VA 20190
Map: http://tinyurl.com/24qv88

Please RSVP if you plan to attend so that we can buy enough food

Presentaiton #1: Architecting a Robust Global SharePoint Infrastructure

Speaker: Tom Lin, AvePoint

When deploying SharePoint as a business-critical collaboration platform and digital-asset repository, ensuring data access, availability, and protection, is absolutely critical. Though SharePoint and SQL Server offer some scalability and data protection natively, these may prove inadequate for most competitive organizations.

In this session, we will discuss the key components of any successful SharePoint global deployment. This will include architecture configurations for efficient data access across geographies and networks, considerations for high availability of data and SharePoint sites, and robust design including backup & recovery planning. After analyzing SharePoint’s native capabilities, we will identify best practices, available free tools, and other best-of-breed solutions for ensuring a fully distributed and protected SharePoint platform.

Finally, we will discuss SharePoint archiving, and review how intelligent archiving procedures, when coupled with successful replication and data protection plans, can improve platform performance and reliability, and lower storage and management costs.

Speaker Bio: For a number of years Tom has been working exclusively with enterprise-level data protection and management software deployments for Microsoft SharePoint Technologies. Tom’s extensive experience with SharePoint custom backup and recovery applications has earned him multiple speaking opportunities within SharePoint communities and at technical events.

Suggested audience:all

Audience experience level: any

—–

Topic #2: CRM integration

Speaker: Nelson Johnson

Nelson will discuss some of the features of Microsoft CRM and how it makes an excellent enhancement for a true database tool in the SharePoint environment. See how it works hand-in-hand with SharePoint as a tool that supports data integrity using the relational database model.

Suggested audience:Developer

Audience experience level: All

Food Sponsor: Surfray, Pioneers in Enterprise Search and Behavior Analytics, Contact Alan Anderson at aan@surfray.com.

Room Sponsor: Hire Strategy, a full-service professional staffing firm providing consulting services, permanent placement and executive search solutions for companies and career management in the technology, sales, finance & account, and administrative & HR professions.

Written by: Mr. Shadeed Eleazer

DimDim has announced the release of its new Webinar offering. Leveraging DimDim Webinar enables conference organizers to host sessions of up to 1,000 participants and monetize the experience.

How Does DimDim Webinar Differ from Competing Web Conferencing Apps?
DimDim Webinar allows 1,000 users to attend scheduled webinars through browser based accessibility.
Citrix’ GotoMeeting and WebEx require a software installation on each workstation that is accessing the web conference. DimDim Webinar promises an increase in speed and performance as opposed to its competitors by leveraging browser based conferencing.

Monetize Your Time Online
In a strategic coup, DimDim webinar has partenered with event ticketing service Eventbrite to enable Webinar users to sell tickets and track attendees.

Additional Promo Widget
DimDim Webinar is packaged with a widget that allows conference organizers to embed within any webpage and social networking profile. The widget now allows attendees to sign-up for webinars from locations that organizers specify.

For more information on DimDim web conferencing, log-on to DimDim.com

Written by: Shadeed Eleazer
In the ongoing marketing campaign being waged by Box.net entitled Box.net vs. SharePoint challenge, a video has emerged produced by Box.net which highlights the “ease of use” of Box.net and the various errors that average users encounter when attempting to utilize SharePoint such as authentication, complexity of simple tasks etc.

Box.net has enacted a viral strategy by establishing a Twitter Hashtag known as #sharepointblues to encourage SharePoint users to vent their frustrations and ultimately give the trial version of Box.net a test run. Box.net has offered to pay for a specified length of SharePoint if users are not satisfied with the trial offering.

What are your thoughts on Box.net’s strategy and taking on the Enterprise collaboration Goliath known as SharePoint?

Written by: Shadeed Eleazer

In today’s economy, deployments of all sizes ranging from single user to enterprise require justification before purchasing power is leveraged. Pennsylvania based RJB Tech is presenting a FREE in-person presentation on September 9th that will address those needs and provide consultants with strategies to deliver to key decision makers within their respective companies.

The official event writeup is below:

Business Justification of SharePoint
September 9th, 2009 (9:00 AM—12:00 PM)

In the current economy new initiatives require sound business justification. It is more important than ever to have a clear understanding of what total investment is necessary to achieve specific results. In this seminar, you will receive practical advice and actual tools to help develop a solid business case for implementing SharePoint and related Business Intelligence tools. We will work through an interactive example to help attendees understand how best to get their SharePoint project off the ground. Following the seminar, RJB staff will be available to discuss specifics around your company’s needs and how RJB can help. RJB Technical Consulting will lead participants in this highly valuable interactive session.
- Creating a business case using vision and strategy focused on results
- Techniques and tools for analyzing business needs and requirements
- How SharePoint makes businesses more efficient
- Different ways to calculate return on investment
- Determining resource requirements
- Making better decisions though Business Intelligence tools
- Limiting scope creep
- Ways to manage the internal decision process
- Developing the exact solution to meet your needs

Please join RJB Technical Consulting for this FREE Executive Seminar on the Business Justification of Implementing Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.

Register Now!

https://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=140340
Who Should Attend
This FREE Executive Seminar is recommended for anyone considering deploying the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 should attend this event.

Agenda

8:30                Introductions / Session Overview
9:00                Why develop a Business Case?
9:30                Gathering and Justifying Requirements
10:00             Pitching the project
10:30             Managing the decision making process
11:00             The SharePoint value proposition
11:45             Questions, Answers, Break out discussions on your specific needs and LUNCH

Registration is FREE, but space is limited. Register now to reserve your seat!

Register Now!

When:
September 9th, 2009
9:00 AM—12:00 PM

Location:
Microsoft Mid-Atlantic Office
45 Liberty Blvd.
Great Valley Corporate Center, Suite 210
Malvern, PA 19355

Written by: Shadeed Eleazer

Animoto has announced the addition to video clips to Animoto videos.

The process is broken down into 3 steps:

1. Upload clips from your camera or phone  or leverage Animoto’s collection consisting of iStockphoto and Getty Images
2. Choose your highlights. You can choose highlights of up to 10 seconds each
3. Create the rest of your video as normal, and you’re done.

Sample videos can be found here: http://animoto.com/video

Written by: Shadeed Eleazer

GigaTribe has announced the rollout of new features designated for the upcoming school year. The ability to share class documents and share course materials is a major improvement from previous releases.
GigaTribe has also enhanced video streaming by integrating DivX. Students can now instantly stream DivX videos. GigaTribe features a secure “Private Area” that enables students to remotely access entire personal video libraries from their apartment, dorm, Starbucks etc leveraging a web browser.

Excitement is high within the GigaTribe corporate offices. “GigaTribe is clearly the best solution to share private files safely. It helps schools save precious time and money,” said Alexis Leseigneur, Gigatribe CTO and co-founder. “GigaTribe is already a must-have software for teachers and students alike, especially during the ‘Back to School’ period.”
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Cost
GigaTribe is very inexpensive, which benefits the ever shrinking educational budgets facing most counties and school districts across the US. GigaTribe “Ultimate” is priced at only $4.99/month or $29.95 a year, GigaTribe Basic is available for free.
 

 
The “Back to School” suite of features include the following enhancements:
• Training Videos: Educational institutions now have the ability to post private teacher training videos complete with real children in a classroom setting, without having to spend the time and money to blur children’s faces, as needed with other un-secure networks.
• Teachers Collaboration: Teachers can share courses materials with other teachers.
• Remote Access: Students can remotely access their computers while on campus, at the library, café, or other location with WiFi.
• Student Collaboration: Students can share study materials, videos, and photos with classmates online.
• DivX video: Video can be streamed for instant viewing.

To get the full impression of GigaTribe log-on to: http://www.gigatribe.com

Community event serving as informal kick-off to SharePoint Best Practices Conference
written by: Shadeed Eleazer

The SharePoint Best Practices Conference attracts professionals from all over the world on August 24-26th that will converge upon Northern Virginia to learn from the best technical expertise available today.

Dux Raymond Sy sent out an invite for a Pre-Best Practices Conference #sharefood BBQ event to be held at his home. A menu consisting of grilled meat, seafood, veggies, salad, drinks, and a roasted pig was served to attendees, some of which were meeting for the first time or re-uniting after previously speaking or attending other SharePoint events.

(Photos Courtesy of @meetdux)

Dux mentioned that he had a surprise for attendees of his session at Best Practices Conference.
You don’t want to miss this one. He posted a sample of his surprise on Twitter this evening.

Twitter Directory of #ShareFood attendees:
@meetdux
@scottsingleton
@catpaint1
@sharepointsara
@WonderLaura
@usher
@AndrewWoody
@budweber
@ruveng
@lorigowin
@paulculmsee
@mikecferrara
@gdegregori
@sharepointlinc
ZlatanDzinic
@EUSP
@IECmike
@mattgowin
@mrshadeed

The SharePoint Best Practices Conference will be event to remember on the eve of the 2010 release. The ShareFood event was very instrumental in allowing SharePoint professionals to gather and discuss outside of the hectic event day schedules.

About Dux Raymond Sy:
With over 15 years of experience in Information Technology and Project Management, Dux (you’re right, it’s pronounced as “ducks”) has earned a reputation as among the leading experts in leveraging technology to enhance project management. A certified Project Management Professional (PMP), he is currently a managing partner and the chief evangelist of Innovative-e, Inc., a Microsoft-certified, business technology consulting and services company that serves startups to Global 50 clients.

View his presentation on Best Practices in Gathering Requirements for SharePoint Projects:
Dux’s Presentation HERE