Collaborpedia

Video of the Windows Phone 7 Series debuted at the Mobile World Congress

Written by: Shadeed Eleazer

If the mobile wars were not already at a white hot frenzy, Microsoft has definitely added a few coals to the inferno by overhauling its internal mobile strategy for and returning back to the drawing board to hammer out a new release of a new device that looks to aggressively compete with the innovations set forth by Apple’s iPhone and Google Droid SmartPhones.

The most refreshing news surrounding the release of Windows Phone 7 is that it does not resemble an iPhone, as many of the recent releases have seemingly set out to do. The competition is in its innovation. 

The Windows Phone 7 is a departure from the latest rounds of cell-phone interfaces. The user interface is based around information as opposed to applications. The user is greeted with “live tiles” labeled as:

Office, People, Pictures, Games, Marketplace, and Music and Video.

Music and video is handled by Zune, which the user interface mimics. X-Box Live integration is also a plus with this device. The real wonder of the phone is in the People hub, which features real-time updates of Windows Live and Facebook. At the Mobile World Congress, Twitter has not been announced as an integration partner with Windows Phone 7 but you can envision Twitter integration down the line, quite possibly  close to release.

Bing will handle the maps and search duties with Microsoft announcing that Windows Phone 7 devices will have a dedicated button on the keypad.

Expect the Windows Phone 7 device to hit retailers close to holiday season. Hardware partners have lined up to support this device including Dell, Toshiba, Samsung and HP.

Mobile carriers include Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, and T-Mobile amongst others.

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

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.

SharePoint Saturday Baltimore Twitter Directory:
Written by Shadeed Eleazer

SharePoint Saturday events are great in my opinion due to the amount of content being generated by the participants which include speakers, sponsors, and attendees.

For those of you not on Twitter or unable to make the event on 7/25,  here is a quick reference guide to access news and notes regarding Saturday’s event without needing Twitter access.
You don’t have to be a Twitter Evangelist to enjoy the benefits of real-time updates concerning your favorite event or trending news item.

Where to Search for Real Time Updates
Hashtag search for all SP Saturday Baltimore content, news, pics - #spsbmore
Where to Search http://search.twitter.com

Event Details - Change in Schedule, Lineup, Cancellations
@SPSBaltimore

Baltimore SharePoint User Group
@baltsharepoint

#SPSBMORE Organizers/Volunteers on Twitter
@ericharlan
@budweber
@deannie
@alduns
@mrshadeed
@don_zielke

Speakers/Ask The Experts
@meetdux
@usher
@SharePointPhily
@danlewisnet
@AvePoint_Inc
@joeloleson
@fabianwilliams
@EUSP
@cdonlan
@klopmp
@aemacaulay
@deannie
@susanlennon
@catpaint1
@DocPointMark
@errinoconnor
@johngerl
@michaeltnoel
@snahta
mikewat
@paulschaeflein

* If I left out anyone, all apologies in advance.
See you guys at SharePoint Saturday!

Mindsharp’s Bill English will be presenting in a MindSharp seminar. Details below.
Event Information
March 5, 2009 5:30pm – 7:30pm Sheraton Reston
11810 Sunrise Valley Drive
Reston, VA 20191

Findability Architecture in Microsoft Technologies:
The buzz around Google continues to grow, as does the need to understand Findability and what it means to your organization. Findability refers to the quality of being locatable. At the item level, it’s how easy it is to discover or locate an object. At the system level, it’s how well an environment supports navigation and retrieval. As the premier educator in Microsoft enterprise technologies, Mindsharp believes effective Findability is central to business efficiency, and Microsoft provides the real answers and proven methodologies to ensure you have a solid solution in place.

As Findability becomes increasingly important to your business, it’s more critical to understand:

· What Findability is, and why it’s so important
· The problems that companies are having with Findability
· How e-discovery will affect your Findability architecture
· How data leakage affects Findability designs
· An overview of the Findability tools in the Microsoft Ecosystem
· A proposal for creating a robust Findability architecture

To make this essential seminar an even
greater value, you’ll also receive:
4 Free Posters: SharePoint Search and Findablity Topology, SharePoint Topology, Governance and Taxonomy, Permissions Management.
Free Drinks and hors d’oeuvres

Located:
Sheraton Reston Hotel
11810 Sunrise Valley Drive
Reston, Virginia 20191
Register for this FREE EVENT!!

https://www.mindsharp.com/Default.aspx?page=Registration&id=990&days=1
Or call 952-230-6560 to register over the phone
Bill English
Bill is an author and educator specializing in SharePoint products and technologies. As an industry leader on this exciting topic, he has authored 13 books on Exchange and SharePoint products since 2000. Bill is the co-owner of Mindsharp…read more.

Event Information
March 5, 2009 5:30pm – 7:30pm Sheraton Reston
11810 Sunrise Valley Drive
Reston, VA 20191

Or call 952-230-6560 to register over the phone

We (co-founders Eric Harlan and myself) are in the homestretch in preparations for the Joel Oleson presentation on January 8th, 2009 @ 6pm. This is a great way to start the New Year for the Baltimore SharePoint User’s Group and I couldn’t be happier to host Joel and I’m glad he is making the trip.

Around the Web

The event has been mentioned on several blogs. Here’s a few links.

SharePoint Joel

http://www.sharepointjoel.com/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=157

Bamboo Nation

http://community.bamboosolutions.com/blogs/bambooteamblog/archive/2009/01/05/joel-oleson-to-present-in-baltimore-on-thursday-january-8th.aspx

Mann Software.com

http://www.mannsoftware.com/blog/archive/2008/12/31/joel-oleson-in-baltimore.aspx

Darrin Bishop.com

http://darrinbishop.com/blog/archive/2009/01/02/119.aspx

Official Presentation Overview

It’s been a great year here at BSPUG. We’ve turn 1 this year, had some Great
sessions and Great Speakers come through and our code camp was a huge hit.
Let’s all Cross our fingers that next fiscal year will be just such a
success.

Speaking of next year’s success, we’ve got some awesome news.  On January
8th (one week up from our normal date) we will be having Joel Oleson come
out to speak at BSPUG!

For our new members, we will be meeting at UMBC Tech Center, 1450 Rolling
Road, Halethorpe, MD. Doors open at 6pm for food and refreshments.

Joel will be giving a presentation on 10 Steps to Success, Avoiding Failed
SharePoint Deployments. Joel is a SharePoint evangelist. Joel’s well-read
blog, sharepointjoel.com is one of the top IT blogs and is the number one
SharePoint IT blog. It is consumed daily in over 102 countries.

At Quest Software he is guiding the strategy of the SharePoint group and is
working on new designs for tools to help IT administrators.

As most of you know, we strive to be as consistent as possible and we only
mess with our meeting dates if there is a very good reason, we understand
this is very close to the holiday season and a double whammy is it’s a week
ahead of our normal scheduled meet. However, if you can make it for this
special guest presentation please do, its going to be a good one!

Details

The session will be recorded and photos will be available on the BSPUG site as well as here on collaborpedia.com

6pm kicks off our food and beverages for the evening. Presentation will begin at 6:30pm

Location: 1450 South Rolling Road, Halethorpe, MD

Parking: Free (Directly to the Left of UMBC Tech Center)

Recent Updates

CommVault has graciously stepped up to be the Food Sponsor for the Event.

Bamboo Solutions will be sponsoring a $500 gift certificate to the Bamboo Online Store.

Photo Source: Joel on Twitter.com