April 21, 2011
Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under business strategy, google, microsoft, mobile, news, rich media | Leave a Comment
April 20, 2011
Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under enterprise, enterprise search, microsoft, news, SharePoint, SurfRay, text processing | Leave a Comment
April 19, 2011
Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under enterprise search, microsoft, news, SharePoint, SurfRay, technology | Leave a Comment
April 15, 2011
Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under google, government, microsoft, news, security, technology | Leave a Comment
Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under microsoft, news, SharePoint, SurfRay, taxonomy | Leave a Comment
April 14, 2011
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April 13, 2011
Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under enterprise, enterprise search, microsoft, news, SharePoint, SurfRay, technology, tools | Leave a Comment
April 12, 2011
Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under microsoft, news, SharePoint, SurfRay | Leave a Comment
Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under enterprise, enterprise search, microsoft, news, online (general), semantic, SharePoint, social, technology, text processing | 1 Comment
April 11, 2011
Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under google, legal matters, microsoft, news, security | 1 Comment
Taking Pictures for Maps: Google and Microsoft Go Different Directions
We noticed that Microsoft is firing up a service that will take pictures of businesses. If this reminded you of Street View, the Google service, you are not alone. If you want more information on Microsoft’s emulation of this popular and controversial Google service, check out “Microsoft Taking Street Photos in the UK”, which provides the basics plus a link to Microsoft’s explanation of the service.
Source: The BBC.
“Google Has Stopped Street View Photography in Germany” reported that even though a German court ruled that Google may continue its street- level photography, the company has stopped with little explanation. The article asserted:
It’s easy to assume that the service’s difficult birth has factored into the decision. German officials raised objections almost as soon as Google announced plans to launch Street View there. After lengthy negotiations, Google eventually agreed to let German residents opt-out of having their buildings appear online, and nearly 250,000 German households and businesses took Google up on that offer. I’m not a programmer, but I can’t help wonder if the presence of so many blurred buildings — and the potential challenge of updating Street View while maintaining their privacy — is a factor in Google’s decision.
Google may also suspect, as we do, that Germany will begin behaving more like China and less like a puppy rolling over. Microsoft, though an old dog, may be learning some new tricks.
Cynthia Murrell April 21, 2011
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SharePoint Document Types: Some Tips
SharePoint has many in’s and out’s, all of which are not explained in the user’s manual. That is why we have the Internet, aggregators, and Beyond Search to help you locate the proper tools to aid you in improving your SharePoint experience. We found the following: “Creating New SharePoint 2010 Document Set Content Type.” It is a useful write-up that explains the method for creating a new SharePoint 2010 Document Set content type and gives a step-by-step guide to the procedure. This passage caught our attention:
One of the few benefits of using a document set in SharePoint – is the ability to create a set of documents with few initial files in it. In a way, you can have the document set containing an initial package of files which further can be modified.
While the instructions are published in basic layman’s terms for the most novice user, the illustrations prove to be a different story. While they are helpful in explaining the document set content type process, they’re hard to read. This is resolved by clicking on the image and it’s worth the effort.
You will find that Ontolica provides a number of useful functions to help SharePoint licensees maximize the return on their investment in Microsoft’s flagship enterprise software.
Torben Ellert, April 20, 2011
SurfRay
Extending SharePoint 2010 Via Rest
If you are planning to extend SharePoint via REST, you will want to make a note of the useful information in this write up: “SharePoint Foundation REST Interface.” The Representational State Transfer (REST) interface allows users to access lists and libraries as HTTP resources accessed by remote URLs.
As a relational data service REST has a standard set of operations that read, create, update, and delete items based on basic commands, eliminating the need for layers between client and server. It also makes interoperability easy, because it allows for applications from other platforms to connect with SharePoint. The REST interface is based on ADO.NET Data Services, which creates a better development experience through integration. The article asserted:
The REST interface uses flexible URL conventions for querying data, which enable you to filter, sort and select information from SharePoint Foundation lists directly from the browser. You can also retrieve information from SharePoint Foundation lists through multiple representations, including support for JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), Atom, and AtomPub standards. Standard representations for SharePoint Foundation lists makes list data available to standards-compliant clients, starting from simple Atom feed-readers, to more advanced clients that enable end users to analyze large quantities of data in Microsoft Excel. Advanced features of ADO.NET Data Services are also supported by the SharePoint Foundation REST interface, such as batching multiple operations into a single request, concurrency control through HTTP ETags, paging of large data sets, and access to document streams in SharePoint document libraries.
With the new features in SharePoint 2010, REST proves to enhance the user experience when combined with robust tools for accessing and viewing the content of these lists and libraries SurfRay specializes in bridging the gap between powerful infrastructure and intuitive access to the data in that infrastructure. Take a look at how the Ontolica product suite can turn the REST interface into a powerful advantage for the Enterprise. Have a look at how they help to unlock the full power of SharePoint Search 2010 by clicking here:
Torben Ellert, April 19, 2011
SurfRay
Google and Microsoft Security Poker: A New Round
I ignored the push backs, reinterpretations, and revelations about the murkiness of both Google’s and Microsoft’s security certifications. I was hoping the “security card” story would die a quiet death as the pundits chased the resurgence of RIM with its co-dependent tablet or the Google financial results.
No such luck.
Navigate to “Google Lashes Back at Microsoft over Accusations of Lying.” The story introduces for me a couple of interesting elements. First, this passage sets the tone of the “security card” discussion:
Google said Wednesday it does have FISMA certification from the General Services Administration. FISMA stands for Federal Information Security Management Act. Microsoft said Monday that certification for one agency, the GSA, does not automatically qualify software for another agency, the Department of the Interior. The Department of the Interior had earlier chosen Microsoft’s cloud software over Google. Google sued, claiming the department had not fairly considered its bid, and successfully forced the department to re-evaluate its purchase.
What’s nifty about this approach is that it puts the “debate” in the 10 point font used for government documents. Who really knows what’s inside these “rules of the road”. Agency policies, the role of the General Services Administration, and the notion of duplication of effort within the government may indicate that both Google and Microsoft are on a 50-50 basis.
The other point is the reminder that Google sued a Federal agency. Now, I don’t know about you, but that’s an opportunity for consultants to attend quite a few meetings.
Second, my view is that the “security card” is a potentially corrosive issue within the US government. Calling attention to the idiosyncrasies of how certain security certifications “work” is something that I would keep as part of specific project discussions and out of news releases, blog posts, and other modern conduits.
Stephen E Arnold, April 15,
Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010, 2011
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Wave a Taxonomy WAND for SharePoint Improvement
One of SharePoint 2010’s newest features is the Managed Metadata Service used to edit and create taxonomies for your business. “Taxonomy-The Challenge of Starting From Scratch” addresses how to start a corporate taxonomy within SharePoint and how to employ prebuilt vocabulary from expert taxonomists. Most companies have no idea where to start when they want to program SharePoint with corporate rich vocabulary to help improve their tagging and finding content. It takes much dedicated time and effort to even start creating taxonomy.
“You’ve probably even head someone say, “I’m sure someone has already solved this problem”, and if that’s the case, that someone was the smartest person in the room for two key reasons. The first is that there are professional taxonomists who have already modeled most business domains and the second is that the people responsible for creating content in your company have already developed a community vocabulary or folksonomy that they use extensively.”
SharePoint uses the professional taxonomy company WAND, which offers their General Business Taxonomy set for a free download. The General Business Taxonomy offers over five hundred terms related to common business practices and can easily be imported into SharePoint 2010’s Managed Metadata Service. Taxonomies are getting smarter, which improves a company’s work process. SurfRay focuses on software that will turn those taxonomies into easily leveraged refiners and filters. Find out how, here:
Torben Ellert April 15, 2011
How Time Flies
SharePoint corporate Vice President Jeff Teper sends his hearty good wishes on this week of the 10th anniversary of the first release of SharePoint Portal and Team Services. “Happy Birthday SharePoint!” gives a brief review of where we’ve been over the last decade and a glimpse at where we are headed now.
He relates that when they started out people thought they were taking a risk at best and were downright crazy at worst because they were challenging so many basically held assumptions. Today SharePoint is the industry leading collaboration platform used by tens of thousands of enterprises and growing by 20,000 users every day. On Amazon.com, there are over one thousand books about SharePoint. For the future, Office 365 will ease access to collaboration technologies, adding to the existing SharePoint Online cloud service. “Passionate” feedback from users is said to drive innovation:
“The most common theme of the feedback we hear is that SharePoint succeeded because we made many things easier than before and you want us to take the unique SharePoint balance of simplicity and flexibility to the next level.”
If you can’t wait for Microsoft to take simplicity and flexibility to the next level and instead need solutions now,
Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise, Surfray’s Ontolica SharePoint Search solutions provide that simplicity and flexibility right now. Read more here:
Torben Ellert April 14, 2011
Lost a View? Pentalogic to the Rescue
Microsoft has a tendency to move things around in programs and operating systems under the shielded guide of “user improvement.” Sometimes these improvements are beneficial or necessary; other times they make things more complicated. Cough…Windows Vista. The old adage don’t fix what’s not broke comes to mind. It came to our attention that SharePoint 2010 recently lost its view: “Pentalogic: View Rescue.”
In SharePoint 2010 the View Selector Menu has moved from the top right of the List View Web Part (LVWP) to the Title area breadcrumb. However as soon as you add any extra web part this View selector menu disappears, leaving you to perform ninja moves with the LVWP and ribbon in order to get it back.
You will want to check out the new version of View Rescue from Pentalogic to get your view horizon back in order. These small changes are really irritating. Do the Microsoft developers do these things on purpose as a power demonstration?
For more SharePoint tips visit Surfray.
Torben Ellert April 13,
Office 2010 Activation, 2011
The Answer to SharePoint Solutions: The Genesis Framework
If you use SharePoint it is a given fact you will need a structured solution from custom development. To resolve your problem, code needs to be packaged correctly with storage structures. A great write-up at how to obtain a SharePoint solution is, “SharePoint 2010 Genesis Framework – A framework that will help you create amazingly structured SharePoint solutions.”
Most developers run into problems when they create a solution package:
A lot of CAML/XML needs to be written
It’s difficult to handle additions and changes to content types already in use
No strongly typed access to SharePoint Data, unless you choose use LINQ-2-SharePoint
They usually combat these issues by managing the provision of content type with code and “ensure-style-features” to update the types piece by piece. This involves a lot of code and developers end up creating helper class mini-frameworks.
SharePoint 2010 Genesis Framework (SPGEN) was invented by Tony Restino to end the structured solution tedium. SPGEN allows you to create classes that represent the different elements in SharePoint (i.e. content type, site columns), set attributes to correspond to XML, helper methods for incremental updates, easily create Listltem, data access methods for CAML and LINQ, and LINQ implementation. SPGEN will save you a lot of work time!
To further enhance your SharePoint experience check out Surfray.
Torben Ellert April 12, 2011
SharePoint Semantics Now Available
Smartlogic Sponsors SharePoint Semantics Blog
A new publication provides an information service about one of the world’s most popular software platforms. The new information service is SharePointSemantics.com, and it focuses on the world’s fastest growing content and collaboration platform and how semantics and work flow can compound the SharePoint ROI for organizations.
Smartlogic, one of the world’s leading search and content processing semantic technology vendors, is underwriting SharePointSemantics.com, a news service that covers news and information about SharePoint content processing, semantic technology for Microsoft SharePoint, indexing, taxonomies, ontologies, metatagging and related content technologies.
Jeremy Bentley, CEO of Smartlogic said:
We have long needed an objective, candid news service for SharePoint semantics and related technology. When ArnoldIT showed us the trial issue, we saw the service as a way to fill the gap. We find the daily updates, Monday through Friday, a great way to keep up with the newest technology for SharePoint. Our own semantics offerings benefit from this information. We are able to spot trends and adapt our market leading work flow and semantic technologies to take advantage of new opportunities.
Bentley continued with, “We enjoyed working with the Arnoldit.com editor ,
Office 2007, a librarian trained in indexing and collection development, throughout the development process. At Smartlogic, we value useful information which SharePointSemantics provides year-round.”
Stephen E. Arnold, managing director of ArnoldIT, said:
SharePoint Semantics fills a gap in enterprise software coverage. The new information service features information from a wide range of sources. These include journal articles, stories from Web logs, presentations at conferences and on services such as Scribd.com,
Office 2010 Activation, and traditional print media. The goal is to make SharePointSemantics.com the place a professional can consult to find out ways to improve the user’s SharePoint experience, enhance findability, and boost the ROI for an investment in Microsoft’s state of the art technology.
The Web site (www.sharepointsemantics.com) will include articles, features, and links to important SharePoint resources. In addition, the SharePointSemantics.com editorial team will offer critical comments about products and services. As good as SharePoint is, the editors want to flag concerns and ways to deliver a satisfying user experience. Comments are permitted for every SharePointSemantics.com story. An About section sets forth the editorial policy for the Web log. Story ideas may be submitted to sharepointsemantics at yahoo dot com.
You can sign up to receive Twitter updates when new stories are posted. In addition, the content is made available via RSS. Stories may be republished as with other ArnoldIT.com blogs such as www.inteltrax.com. ArnoldIT.com does ask for a backline and a credit line. If you are unsure about how to credit a story in SharePoint Semantics, use the comments section of the blog to inquire about a reused opportunity.
The information is made available in order to assist those with an interest in enhancing the metatagging and semantic operations of SharePoint 2010, a product of Microsoft Corp. with more than 100 million licensees worldwide. SharePoint Semantics is not affiliated with Microsoft Corp. The word SharePoint is part of Microsoft’s line up of server products and is used in the title “SharePointSemantics” as a way to explain the contents of the open source information in this free news service based on open source information. No rights to the word “SharePoint” are attendant.
About Smartlogic
Smartlogic is a software company that specializes in semantics. Smartlogic’s Semaphore is an Enterprise Semantic Platform that augments traditional information management systems like search, content management and business workflow engines by adding advanced content classification, metadata and navigation capabilities to deliver a more complete enterprise information management experience. Smartlogic clients are organizations across the globe who value their information assets and Semaphore helps these organizations derive meaning and value from their information by adding a semantic layer to their existing systems as well as use Semaphore to mitigate the risks associated with those same information assets. Semaphore does this by capturing an organization’s subjects and topics into models, and then puts these models to work. More than 250 companies like NASA, Bank of America, UBS, AutoDesk, Oxy, Ford Foundation, Pitney Bowes, The National Health Service, Royal Bank of Scotland [ABN AMRO], The Office of Public Sector Information, Yell.com and others use Smartlogic today. For more information about Smartlogic, navigate to www.smartlogic.com.
About Stephen E. Arnold, ArnoldIT
Stephen E. Arnold is a technology and financial analyst with more than 30 years of experience. He is the recipient of the following awards: ASIS Eagleton Lectureship, 1986; Online Best Paper Award, 1989, the Malcolm Hill Award, 2003, the OSS Golden Candle Award in 2007. In addition to “Google: The Digital Gutenberg,” he is the author of more than 50 journal articles and a number of other books, including “Internet 2000” and the first three editions of the 600-page encyclopedia of search called “The Enterprise Search Report.” His new study of enterprise search will be published by Pandia in Oslo, Norway, in May 2011. The phrases “content with intent,” “SIMM,” or “variants” should be credited to ArnoldIT.com. If you want an information service that provides informative information and a boast to your firm’s professional reputation, write seaky2000 at yahoo dot com.
SharePoint Semantics is not affiliated with Microsoft Corp. The word SharePoint is part of Microsoft’s line up of server products and is used in the title “SharePointSemantics” as a way to explain the contents of the open source information in this free news service based on open source information. No rights to the word “SharePoint” are attendant.
Jessica Bratcher, April 12, 2011
Sponsored post
Google and Microsoft: The Security Card
The source is Microsoft. I don’t know if the information in “Google’s Misleading Security Claims to the Government Raise Serious Questions” is accurate. The tension between Microsoft and Google seems to be increasing. The allegation that Google is behaving like a combination of Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and Commodore Vanderbilt brightened my blog a few days ago. Now we get Microsoft’s playing the security card.
Powerful stuff and a maneuver that will have to be discussed by the various government decision makers as long as the budget keeps on paying them. Toss in a few assorted blue chip and azure chip consultants, and you have a recipe for investigations, depositions, study groups, and PR excitement. Good news for some I guess.
Here’s a passage I noted:
…Imagine my [Microsoft professional's] surprise on Friday afternoon when, after some delay, some of the court papers were unsealed, at least in part. There for all to see was a statement by the Department of Justice contradicting Google on one of its basic FISMA claims. The DOJ’s brief says (on page 13) “On December 16, 2010, counsel for the Government learned that, notwithstanding Google’s representations to the public at large, its counsel, the GAO and this Court, it appears that Google’s Google Apps for Government does not have FISMA certification. This revelation was apparently as striking to the lawyers at the Department of Justice as it was to me. The Justice Department brief states “We immediately contacted counsel for Google, shared this information and advised counsel that we would bring this to the Court’s attention.
My view on this matter is that until more information becomes available to me in Harrod’s Creek, the best I can do is assert, “Interesting.”
The impact of the security card is of interest to fewer people than own iPods but ultimately may be more important than some of the other hoo-hah about Google. The notion of stretching security like a rubber sheet may be one of those plays that persist through time. Like a clever chees move from a young Bobby Fischer, specialists may pick up the play and make it a model for young Microsoft emulators to absorb, modify, and use to devastating affect.
Best to be prepared for these sorts of things. Looking back won’t do the job. The security card is a big play.
Stephen E Arnold, April 11, 2011
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