Collaborpedia

Outlook Social Connector Brings Your Networks to the Enterprise

Written by: Shadeed Eleazer

The trend of enhancing the user experience from inside his/her inbox continues as Microsoft has announced the BETA release of the Outlook Social Connector. The timing of its release comes at a perfect time for the software giant, as the tech industry is buzzing over the announcement of the Windows Phone 7 at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain this week.

For a corporation that many viewed as ‘behind-the-times’ in comparison with rival Apple, the recent announcements have many wondering with enthusiasm how the combination of Windows Phone 7, Outlook Social Connector, and the enhancements of the 2010 Suite of Office Applications will shake up the marketplace.

OSC connects the user to the social experience via a provider that connect the social and business networks that you utilize. The surprise in this initial offering is that it has partnered with LinkedIn amongst the other networks introduced which are: Facebook, MySpace.

Impact on Productivity
How will information workers be impacted by the increase in “social media noise” within their respective inboxes? Many organizations have completely blocked social media within corporate settings and have been either reluctant or dismissive about creating a solid Social Media policy that addresses the upcoming changes in the workplace. Is there a business reason for employees to use Facebook or MySpace? Time will reveal these answers as decisions will need to be made.

Particularly (but not only) in the German speaking world (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) Xing is much more popular than LinkedIn for professional social networking. Any chance to get a connector for Xing? And what about Facebook? I have over 200 friends there, at least half of them I know professionally…

Microsoft announced the Outlook Social Connector as early as Nov 2009 but additional testing has lead to the integration of Facebook amongst additional new features.

Features Include:

• The People Pane - This includes a profile appearance of your friends/colleagues when you receive a message from them.
• Rich history - Instant access to a history of recent message traffic and attachments from each incoming/outgoing message.
• Activities Real-time updates from social networks
• SharePoint 2010 Integrate your Social networks right into the revamped MySite. I believe that Windows Phone 7, SharePoint 2010, and Outlook 2010 will be a killer trio. Joel Oleson put together a great post on Win Phone 7 and SharePoint 2010 capabilities
• Extend A The OSC Software Development Kit will enable developers to integrate a variety of social networks. The possibilities to build a true Social Media Center are becoming apparent.

From the Microsoft Outlook site regarding compatibility:

“NOTE: The Outlook Social Connector included in the Office 2010 Beta is not compatible with the beta providers currently available online. Office 2010 Beta users must install the Outlook Social Connector 32-bit Beta in order to successfully use the social network providers currently available. Also, you cannot install the 32-bit OSC Beta on Outlook 2010 Beta 64-bit.”

Download the 32 bit connector here.

Corasworks will be the special guest presentation for the March meetup for the Baltimore SharePoint User Group
The buzz is in the air in reference to Corasworks’ new release of Workplace Suite V10.
Corasworks delivers outstanding technical presentations and tonight will be no different.

Baltimore SharePoint User’s Group Members and New Attendees,
Meetup Info
The Baltimore SharePoint User Group meets every third Thursday of the month unless specifically
noted. If you have any questions about our meeting dates and times, www.baltimoresug.org is the most accurate source of info regarding the group.

Thursday March 19th, 2009 will be a special presentation as the CorasWorks Technical Team, leading provider of modular application development software for Microsoft SharePoint, will be delivering a technical presentation on the new release of the Workplace Suite v10.

What is the Workplace Suite v10?

Workplace Suite v10 allows today’s SharePoint information worker the ability to extend the capabilities of SharePoint. Many common tasks normally outsourced to a developer are included within this release which enables organizations to lower in-house development costs and enhance productivity with this product.

Capabilities include but are not limited to:

• End-user Forms to add, view and edit information

• Business Process for automating and adding workflow to defined processes

• Displays, Dashboards and Reporting for instant access to real-time data and information

• Design Tools to optimize your solutions and overall environment

• One-Touch Management System for centralizing management/maintenance and admin control

This presentation will be delivered in a format that shows the limitations of SharePoint and how Workplace V10 fills those gaps. This will not be a sales overview, the Corasworks Technical Team
will answer all questions from developer, admin, and project manager standpoints alike.

For our new members, we will be meeting at UMBC Tech Center, 1450 Rolling Road, Halethorpe, MD 21228. Doors open at 6pm for food and refreshments.
As always please go to www.baltimoresug.org/events and respond to the RSVP survey to RSVP your spot.

Saturday Mar 14th, 2009 kicks off SharePoint Saturday Boston to be held at the Microsoft Office on Jones Rd in Waltham, Mass.
Expect multiple sessions on various tracks ranging from developer, administrator, end user, project management and more from respected SharePoint professionals and MVPs.

Topics Include (but certaintly not limited to)
Best Practices for Configuring your SharePoint – Site Hierarchy and Features, Security and Configurations, and Performance Guidance

Administration - SharePoint Administration with PowerShell 2.0

Dazzling SharePoint with Silverlight

Mapping Mashups with SharePoint Designer

Building the Perfect SharePoint Farm - A Walkthrough of Best Practices from the Field

Speakers Include:
Michael Cummings
Dan Usher
Eric Kraus
Geoff Varosky
John Stover
Becky Isserman
Joel Oleson
Michael Lotter
Sean Bordner
David McWee
Tom Resing

Today’s Webcast, hosted by SharePointJoel.com author and SharePoint Evangelist Joel Oleson, is a topic that many organizations need to take more time to figure out a strategy for, backup and recovery procedures. My golden rule that applies to most organizations that have implemented SharePoint is: “If the right person, loses the wrong document, then it is cause for trouble”
- Mr.Shadeed

Webcast: Effective Backup and Restore Strategies for Your SharePoint Service

Date: Thursday, February 19, 2009
Time: 8 a.m. Pacific / 11 a.m. Eastern / 4 p.m. United Kingdom / 5 p.m. Central Europe

Chaos in SharePoint backup and recovery arises when you’re not sure where your data is or when to back it up. When this occurs, users have to wait weeks for IT to retrieve their lost data. Join SharePoint expert Joel Oleson to learn how following a consistent backup and recovery governance plan can streamline processes, help you meet SLAs, and keep users productive. He and other special guests will review goals for developing the plan, provide you with prescriptive guidance to achieve them, and describe native and third-party tools that can help along the way.

Register HERE

Webcast Recap

Brent Ozar provided a good perspective from the DBA side of the house while Joel delivered the presentation on various strategies and considerations for SharePoint backup.
Many were probably expecting 10 minutes of strategy and 50 minutes of sales demo for this webcast, but the majority of the presentation was strategy and there was mention of other leading vendors as well in the SharePoint space.
Overall, I thought the webcast was put together well, time ran short at the end so Joel offered to answer all questions directly on his blog. www.sharepointjoel.com

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