Interesting video presentation from TED talks about how our Internet searching is not really as ‘unencumbered’ as we believe. Sites like Google, Facebook and Yahoo are all making decision about THEY THINK we should see. The problem with that is we all become more insular and not as exposed to new and alternate ideas.
I was altered to this via:
http://www.brucebnews.com/2011/05/not-all-google-search-results-are-equal/
which also has some great examples of how searches vary. Try it yourself, even with something sitting next to you and I’ll bet you see something different.
See? you aren’t as anonymous on the Internet as you thought you were.
Office and SharePoint 2010 Service Pack 1
Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 are about to receive their first Service Pack (so those that always wait until Service Pack 1 becomes available can finally start using SharePoint 2010!). Details about what is included can be found here:
My understanding is that it will also include a feature to determine where space is being utilized in SharePoint sites. This was a very handy feature of the previous version of SharePoint that mysteriously removed from SharePoint 2010. We will have to wait and see what it actually is when the service pack is released but if it is included then it will certainly be a major benefit to SharePoint 2010 admins of all shapes and sizes.
Erky Perky
Just saw this post:
You Must Manually Run PSCONFIG after Installing SharePoint 2010 Patches
SharePoint Foundation 2010 changes the method in which patches are installed. PSconfig no longer runs automatically after an update is installed. The SharePoint binary files are updated with the patch but the databases are not automatically upgraded.
This means that you are going to have to go in after installing SharePoint Foundation 2010 patches and run:
PSConfig.exe -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -force -cmd applicationcontent -install -cmd installfeatures
from the command line. Fun eh? according to the article you’ll see a error in the event logs indicating that the PSCONFIG command needs to be run. Gotta say this isn’t going to make supporting SharePoint 2010 Foundation (especially on SBS 2011) any easier!
Thinking about Office365 – Part 1
As the public release of Office365 draws closer I’m going to start doing more posts on Office365 and the impact for small to medium businesses. I’ll try and provide a balanced view, the good and the bad as I see it. However, remember at this stage please remember that Office365 is still in beta and the things can change. Caveat emptor.
So let’s start off with the proposed subscription plans. The major two SKU’s for SMB will be the P and E plans (the K is for Education) as shown below.
From (http://360on365.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/e-family-plans.jpg?w=450&h=342)
Now the P plan is aimed squarely at the SMB market and contains a number of points to note. The most important as far I can see:
– No advanced SharePoint features such as Visio, Forms and Excel services. However Access services is included.
– Doesn’t include the ability to sync Active Directory via ADFS. This leads to another observation I have around SBS 2011 Essentials in a forthcoming post.
– A single SharePoint site to which you can’t add additional space, aside from what you get with user licenses. It does have a number of templates and quick design features not available in other plans.
– No Office Professional Plus subscription. Thus, people on these plans will need to furnish their own version of Office on the desktop typically. It does however come with Office Web Apps allowing you do some work with Office documents in a web browser.
– No advanced Exchange options such as archiving and legal hold.
– Limit of 50 users.
– ‘Community support’. That seems to indicate help is only available via forums and blogs. That is probably a very good things for resellers as it provides a real opportunity for them to step in and handle support for a customer.
– However, most importantly, it is my understanding that you can’t easily upgrade from P to E plans.
The apparent redeeming feature of P plans will be they are cheap (apparently around $6 a license). Looking at what you get for that amount of money it certainly represents value to many smaller businesses.
However, to my of thinking the E plans are a much better bet as you can not only easily upgrade as required but you can also mix and match. Thus, power users can get E3 plans (including Office Professional Plus) while road warriors can have the E1 plans. The E plans also allow customers to integrate their Active Directory via ADFS if they want (although I wouldn’t be recommending that in the SMB space for reasons I’ll make clear in a future post).
Even if the E3 plans are around the $25 mark per user I feel they represent better value and flexibility to most progressive small to medium businesses looking to take maximum advantage of all the features Office365 can provide.
For this reason, I’ll be focused on selling E plans (especially E3 with Office Professional Plus) across every business I deal with. P plans certainly have their place but I don’t like the fact that they appear to lock you into a solution that won’t allow more options.
Watch out for more posts on Office365 coming soon.
Melbourne bootcamp complete
I am happy to say that the inaugural CIAOPS SharePoint bootcamp in Melbourne this week was well received by those that attended. Some feedback already in includes:
“I can thoroughly recommend Robert’s SharePoint Bootcamp sessions as highly informative and delivered with great candour. Robert has put together a package that provides an excellent introduction to the possibilities of SharePoint in the small-to-medium business sector.” – Jason Thomas
and
“Thanks for a great day today. It was very well run and organized. The SharePoint training is a great intro into getting SharePoint up and running, it reinforced my prior knowledge and filled in some gaps. The discussion on SharePoint’s business applications will provide a solid framework for presenting SharePoint solutions to clients. The learning materials provided are fantastic and will be a valued resource.” – Alex Moodie
This week the show rolls into Sydney on 2 days. There are still a few places if you are want to attend. To sign up visit http://www.ciaops.com/bootcamp.
After Sydney, I’ll be running my bootcamp in San Francisco on Tuesday the 14th of June as I return from SMB Nation Spring 2011 in Toronto. If you are interested in attending on this date visit http://www.ciaops.com/bootcampsf to register.
I’ve also had some interest shown in bootcamps in other locations and I’ll keep you posted on these locations as they become available.
Beyond these SharePoint bootcamps I’m now starting to consider what to offer next. I’ve had interest shown in training around advanced SharePoint, Office365 and social media. If you are interested in any of these or have some suggestions of your own that you’d like to see please feel free to let me know (director@ciaops.com).
I must also thank all those who attended the sessions in Melbourne and I really hope you got value from not only the money that you spent but also the times invested. I certainly hope you can see the potential SharePoint offers not only as a business solution but also a potential grow area for your business.
CIAOPS May newsletter
The May 2011 email newsletter has been released to subscribers inboxes. If you are interested you’ll find the edition here:
In there you’ll find information about integrating OneNote an iPads, Windows Mobile 7 and Office365.
Here’s the video newsletter as well that is part of each edition.
Remember to be in the running for some free $15 gift vouchers from Amazon you need to sign up to the newsletter and send me some feedback. See this previous blog post for more information. To sign up for the newsletter and view previous editions visit:
http://us1.campaign-archive.com/home/?u=e641b9327b1cf4c45ad4e593f&id=c851ddf6cf
Remember you can always send feedback to me directly via director@ciaops.com and I encourage you to do so.
Locked SharePoint site
Suppose that you go to your SharePoint site and you no longer see the link to Upload documents to a document library. What the hell? You think. Next you open the ribbon bar, as shown above, and you see that a lot of the buttons are greyed out. All this prevents users from entering information into your site. How can you fix this?
Chances are the site has become ‘locked’. To unlock it, open SharePoint Central Administration and select Application Management from the menu on the left hand side.
Next select Configure quotas and locks from the Site Collection section.
As you will probably see in the Site Lock Information section, the site is set to Read-Only. Change this to Not locked and you site should once again be free for editing and uploading.
Why does it happen? It typically happens after a SharePoint backup failure. Processes like stsadm –o backup lock the site prior to a backup. If that backup fails to complete for some reason the site remains locked and thus read only for users.
Monthly Amazon gift cards on offer
I’m now offering two free $15 Amazon gift cards per month to people. The first thing you need to do is either be a SharePoint Operations Guide subscriber, which you can do at www.wssops.com or you need to be a subscriber to the CIAOPS email newsletter, which you can do at:
http://ciaops.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=e641b9327b1cf4c45ad4e593f&id=c851ddf6cf
Once you are on at least one of these lists, then all you need to do is send me information on either technology (i.e. cloud computing, social networking, smart phones, etc), productivity tips or SharePoint. Information could be cool sites, tips and tricks, technical articles, ‘how to’ documents, links, etc. Once a month I’ll select the two best (one for SharePoint and one for everything else) and those people will receive a free $15 Amazon gift card.
That means you have the chance of earning a $15 Amazon gift card every month simply by signing up to a CIAOPS newsletter and sending me some ‘stuff’ (via email director@ciaops.com) . Couldn’t be easier right? I’ll be picking the winners at the end of every month so hop to it if you want to be in running by 1 June 2011.
CIAOPS 
