Check out this postby Lee Dallason why he thinks Microsoft has been so successful in redefining ECM around the capabilities of the SharePoint platform.  To put it simply, it's because of a brilliant marketing strategy and not because of SharePoint itself.

Dallas boils it down to three key points:

1. Microsoft focused on solving the most pervasive problem first: self-management of workgroup file sharing (off-loading the burden from IT).
2. Microsoft setoff a viral promotion campaign by letting end-users believe they could control their own data.
3. Microsoft marketed the product through IT operations channels.

Dallas observes that because SharePoint deployments are so pervasive and are expanding so rapidly, the entire ECM food chain has been thrown out of balance to the point that traditional ECM vendors must now justify their products against mundane collaboration features instead of the more specialized features they tend to promote.  But perhaps the most interesting observation is revealed by the following statement:

"There is no single department in any IT organization with greater potential reach than those that manage access and identity (i.e. Active Directory)."

Dallas argues that by marketing and promoting SharePoint through IT operations channels, Microsoft essentially achieved preferential status for SharePoint, even though the technical challenges in infrastructure and security were no less prevalent than with other products. In other words, the people evaluating SharePoint and who would ultimately bless its deployment had already invested their time and energy learning how to resolve the problems they would face after the product was put into production.  Brilliant!

All in all, a good read for anyone interested in ECM.

Microsoft today released a set of videos on Channel 9that showcase the new features of SharePoint 2010 from a developer perspective.  Here are some of the topics that caught my eye:

• SharePoint 2010 Developer Roadmap
• Visual Studio 2010 Tools for SharePoint 2010
• Services Architecture
• Enterprise Content Management
• Accessing External Data
• SharePoint 2010 Security

There are 15 units so far.  Each one consists of a series of videos, so there’s a lot of material already available for viewing.  I expect there will be much more coming in the weeks and months ahead.  Microsoft appears to be determined to avoid the problem we experienced with SharePoint 2007 where there was so much technology, but too little documentation for developers.

Now to find the time to go through them all.

Exciting times, eh?

Ok, I know it’s been pretty darn quiet around here for awhile.  Well, you know life has a way of grabbin’ you by the whatzits and turnin’ you every which way but loose.  It certainly has been a wild ride for yours truly these past few months.  But fear not SharePoint junkies!  I’m heading to Vegas!  Twice! 

First for the Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2009 in October (can you say SharePoint 2010?) and then again for the SharePoint Connections 2009 Conference in November.

I’ll be giving four presentations at SharePoint Connections the week of November 9th.

HDV309: Build Better Records Management Solutions Using Dynamic File Plans
HDV310: Building Custom Routers for SharePoint Records Management
HDV311: Building Information Policy Features in SharePoint Server 2007
HDV312: Office Document Assembly Made Easy with OpenXML and XSLT

Luckily, I’m just an observer for the SPC 2009 conference that starts in a couple of weeks, and you can believe I’ll be soaking it all in.  I’ll also be joining a bunch of other SharePoint bloggers and twitterers in the Live Blogging event setup by Mark Miller at EndUserSharePoint.com.  He already has about 150 people signed up to send little tidbits from the conference to a live stream on his site.  This should make for lots of interesting reading for those who can’t make it to Sin City themselves.

This is going to be a fun couple of months, and I hope to see you there!

Ever try to rename a server with Exchange 2007 installed?  Don't even think about it!

After spending the good part of a day setting up a nice clean MOSS development VM (W2K3x64/VS2008/Office), I decided to add Exchange Server 2007 to the mix just to play with managed folders and the most excellent Messaging Records Management (MRM) support layer.  

Got everything installed and configured.  So far so good. Then got around to configuring email in MOSS and decided the server name needed to be changed because of a conflict with another server that I'll typically have running all the time.  Shouldn't be so bad, right? 

• WRONG!  Renaming the server breaks Exchange monkey-bad.  Ok, so I should've seen that one coming.  No problem, I'll just uninstall and reinstall Exchange, right?
  
  
• WRONG! Exchange can't be uninstalled after a rename because the setup program is also dependent on the name that was used when it was first installed.  Arrrrrgh!  Ok, no problem. I'll just rename the server back to the original name, uninstall and reinstall Exchange, then rename it again, right?
  
  
• WRONG!  The temporary rename hosed the setup PREREQUISITES configuration, which the setup program uses during the uninstallation process.  If the prerequisites fail for any reason, then it CANCELS the uninstall of any remaining components, including the Mailbox Server Role, which is the main one that has to be removed!  

Like I said - monkey bad! Can't recover.  Can't uninstall.  Can't rename even to the original name.  Can't use MOSS, because it's now hosed as well.  

Nothing good can come of this, so I'm starting over again from scratch. This time, with Exchange Server 2007 in its own private cage since it can't seem to play nice with the other primates.

Call me silly, but was this really necessary?  

Fool me once, shame on me, right?  

Wrong!  It shouldn't be this hard.

You've probably heard by now that the next version of SharePoint will drop the "Office" moniker in favor of the more direct and easily understandable "Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010"  (read the Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog Post).  I agree with my colleague Bil Simser that it sounds like something from a science fiction novel (2010 The Year We Make Contact).  On the other hand, I see the logic.  It's just like all the other software titles from Microsoft that continually evolve to meet the changing needs of users.  Office 2003.  Exchange Server 2007.  SharePoint Server 2010.  Join the club, eh?

Sure there's the implied shift away from the whole "Office Business Applications" (OBA) theme, where the line between client and server components was blurred in favor of the more holistic "Office System" approach.  I can live with that.  I'm not sure it's taking hold anyway - at least not for the developers I've talked to.  Most of the SharePoint developers I know who come from an ASP.NET background seem to have trouble thinking of themselves as Office developers.

And sure, there's the potential confusion between Windows SharePoint Services (now "Microsoft SharePoint 2010") and the new server version of the product.  But maybe that's a good thing.  According to Tom Rizzo, we should just refer to it as "SharePoint" and stop stressing over the licensing model anyway.

And what about the "12 Hive"?  Will there be a "2010" folder to contend with now?  Will it change to "14" maybe?  And how about the namespaces, like "Microsoft.Office.RecordsManagement.InformationPolicy"?  Will they change?  I doubt it.  Something to think about, though, as you plan your next SharePoint project.

I dunno.  I'm with Rizzo.  I don't think the name really matters that much.  After all, we are in the middle of a content explosion.  The paradigm IS continually shifting.  Maybe we need a more generic name so we can focus more on the solutions we build and less on the particular features of a particular product version.

Oh, wait!  "Feature".  My bad.  We were talking about SharePoint features, not SharePoint Features.

This is soooo much fun!

In case you haven't heard, Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 is now available as a FREE download.  This is an exciting development, because it means that a lot more developers will now be able to customize their SharePoint deployments to include all the functionality they need.

Fellow SharePoint MVP Asif Rehmani has written a thorough analysis of this change in direction by Microsoft and it's impact on the SharePoint community, particularly for design professionals.  Check it out.

SharePoint training provider Combined Knowledge will host the first European SharePoint Best Practices conference in London April 6-8, 2009.  Microsoft veteran Joel Oleson will deliver the keynote and the speakers list reads like a "who's who" of the top SharePoint experts, MVPs and Microsoft product team members. 

I'll be presenting a session on designing and building records repositories using the powerful records management features provided by Office SharePoint Server.  I'm pretty excited about it, since this will be my first trip to London.  The conference will be held at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, which is right in the middle of all the London sights, so I'll be sure to stay busy before and after my talk! :)

Hope to see you there.

The thing about working with a team is that sense of being part of something greater than we are.  With the current state of the economy, and with so many people and companies shifting into survival mode, it's really encouraging to see a large company taking on a greater responsibility to the community. 

Today I learned that Microsoft is joining forces with state and local governments to attack the problem of technical education by providing up to 2 million workers with access to free and low cost training resources to help them prepare for jobs in the global market.  The "Elevate America" program is apparently not new - just new to me.  There are already lots of non-profits that have received grants to help them deliver the training.  It seems like a great idea, and I'm looking forward to finding out more about how effective it is.

Mark you calendars!  Microsoft has announced the SharePoint Conference 2009, which is scheduled for October 19-22 in Las Vegas.  This promises to be a very exciting conference because it will be packed with information about the next version of SharePoint, codenamed SharePoint "14", while at the same time including real-world guidance for the current version. 

This is one conference that is not to be missed - so you'll definitely see me there.  (BTW, this will be my first time in Vegas, so any tips you have for what to do (and what NOT to do) will be most welcome!)

Early bird registration is available here. 

Back in the day, I would never miss a PDC.  It was always a great experience, and I'm sure this year will not disappoint.  Unfortunately, I won't be able to attend this time and I'm kind of bummed about it.  If you're planning to be there, then be sure to check out the following SharePoint sessions. 

Also, I just learned that everyone will get their own PDC 2008 hard drive loaded with software that will include a pre-configured VPC with 10 hands-on SharePoint developer labs! 

Now I'm really bummed. :(

Here is a list of the SharePoint sessions I'll be missing...

• SharePoint 2007: Creating SharePoint Applications with Visual Studio 2008

Chris Johnson will be talking about how to use Microsoft Silverlight and SharePoint together.

• SharePoint Online: Extending your Service

Troy Hopwood will discuss ways to access and manipulate SharePoint files and data remotely with Web Services along with other extensibility points for SharePoint Online.

• SharePoint 2007: Advanced Asynchronous Workflow Messaging

Alex Malek will build an employee on-boarding application that depends on a server located inside another company by constructing a document workflow and have it asynchronously message a business service hosted behind another company's firewall.

• FAST: Building Search-Driven Portals with MOSS and Silverlight

Jan Helge Sageflåt, and Stein Danielsen will do a deep dive into FAST search and the FAST ESP Search Web Parts, including the use of Silverlight to deliver unique search experiences.

So, if you're gonna be there and you don't really need that extra hard drive...

Oh, nevermind!