Special CIAOPS Academy Bitcoin discount

So it is coming up to the end of the year and I started to think about some special deals to get you all in the holiday spirit.

I am offering a 50% discount (save US$300) on the first year’s subscription to my CIAOPS Academy Complete Course Catalogue:

https://www.ciaopsacademy.com.au/p/complete-catalogue

(that’s every course I have now and will have into the future), including free CIAOPS Gold Enterprise Patron Access (valued at US$250 per month) for an initial payment of only US$299. After this initial period the normal subscription rate applies.

This offer is ONLY available if you make payment of US$299 via Bitcoin for the initial period. My Bitcoin address is on the side of this blog or here:

1Q48VMiR152XNuDEkfV3khFdiYoBPGH4V4

once you have made payment, please contact me directly (director@ciaops.com) with verification of payment to receive your discount code for the first annual subscription (you’ll still to register with a traditional credit card until the payment people start accepting Bitcoin).

This offer expires on the 1st of January 2018 so hurry to take advantage of it.

In summary, if you pay me US$299 via Bitcoin then you’ll receive a full subscription to my complete online training course catalogue for 12 months. After that the subscription will revert to its normal levels. You’ll also get free access to the CIAOPS Patron Gold Enterprise plan as well for free going forward. This offer is good until the 1st of January 2018.

I hope you’ll take advantage of this never to be repeated offer!

Scratch your own itch

The length and breadth of cloud services like Azure and Office 365 continue to grow. This size can be very intimidating for those starting their journey with these tools. A very common question I get is, “where do I start?”.

Many people’s first attempt at learning these technologies is simply too general. Just wanting to “learn Office 365” for example has too many entry points. I would suggest that your best option is to bring a specific project or need to your learning process.

For me, this was the need to create a process for migrating SharePoint on premises to Office 365 which I detailed here:

I finally get Microsoft Azure

I’ve seen others do things like move their accounting system into Azure or a third party service running on Windows or Linux. What about using Microsoft Flow to automate a manual process in your business? Even if the project you want to tackle has nothing to actually do with something in your business, bringing a very specific challenge to cloud services that you need to solve will accelerate your learning.

Of course, this learning process is going to result in many failures and frustrations. I can’t tell you the number of times that I’ve had to redo something because I ‘stuffed up’ or the amount of time I have invested in solving something that in fact, turned out to have a very simple resolution. All of that is simply part of the learning process and something you’ll need to accept will happen.

As they say, in the process of learning there is never really any failures. It is all simply knowledge accumulation and if nothing else it shows you want not to do next time. Once you embrace this, wrong steps remain frustrating but actually give you a renewed energy to find the right solution.

However, it is too easy to become dishearten if you don’t have a specific goal you want to achieve. Having no or ill defined goals doesn’t provide the focus when you want to give up as it gets ‘tough’ in my experience. So, from the start, set out to solve something specific and I thing you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the result.

Need to Know podcast–Episode 169

I’m joined by newly minted MVP Kirsty McGrath to talk about Office 365 adoption. We talk about the Office 365 product wheel Kirsty created and how it helps users understand the full breadth of what Office 365 has to offer. We also cover off the importance of implementing an adoption strategy and having a long term vision when it comes to getting the most from Office 365 in any business.

There is of course the usual cloud updates on Office 365 and Azure from Marc and myself as well as reflection on the recent Microsoft Summit in Sydney.

Take a listen and let us know what you think –feedback@needtoknow.cloud

You can listen directly to this episode at:

https://ciaops.podbean.com/e/episode-169-kirsty-mcgrath/

Resources

Kirsty McGarth on Linked in

Kirsty’s Office 365 product wheel

Sydney Office 365 Business User Group

Azure new from Marc

Microsoft 365 Business now available worldwide

Write your best resume in Word with help from Linkedin

Microsoft Flow integration with OneDrive for Business

Planner Ignite review and roadmap

Compliance Manager Preview

The history of BItcoin

I recently posted that CIAOPS was now accepting Bitcoin. The reasons behind this are to help better understand the blockchain technology on which Bitcoin is built. The best way to learn about something is to get involved, and that’s what I’ve done.

In that post I asked people to make a small bitcoin transfer to me to get things rolling. I am happy to say that I did receive one small payment, which is an indication that the underlying technology does work as expected. I’ll detail how all the transfer technology works and how to actually do it soon. If what I write here does provide you some value I’d appreciate a small donation via bitcoin. My bitcoin information appears on the right.

I am not expecting to be flooded with bitcoin transfers (although that would be nice) and the main reason for that is a lack of knowledge about what bitcoin is and how it works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlvFg4NQYEQ

One of the places that you can start to learn more about bitcoin is to study it’s history. A great place to start this is the video Banking on Bitcoin (above). It doesn’t take you into the actual blockchain technology behind bitcoin, it looks at where the bitcoin currency came from, the main players and their involvement and how we got to where we are today.

I think that it is important here to understand that at it’s most basic bitcoin is a system of value transfer (i.e. currency) that is implemented using blockchain technology. I’ll get more into the actual blockchain technology down the track, as it is really the more interesting aspect of the story but think of blockchain as a open and distributed way to verify transactions. At the moment, most people use a credit card to transfer value. One of major differences between say a credit card and bitcoin is that all credit card transactions go through multiple agencies but are typically overseen by banks. The blockchain is effectively peer to peer with no one in the middle and done in such a way that all transactions are verified using cryptography. So extremely strong and secure cryptography takes the place of banks and intermediates when it comes to transferring value.

So bitcoin is a currency that is build on top of blockchain technology. It was one of the first to do this (now there are many) and this is why is probably has grabbed the majority of the mindset out there. Bitcoin has also been something that proves that the concept of blockchain technology does actually work. It shows that people can transfer real money between each other seamlessly.

However, as with any innovative technology, there is still a long for way to come, and many hurdles for it jump before it becomes mainstream. The documentary helps you understand this and shows you how bitcoin became linked to major crimes thanks to its involvement as a preferred payment method for the Silk Road (an illicit and obscure market place for contraband).

The financing of illegal activities has been part of humanity before bitcoin and will continue long after as well. Bitcoin was simply a method, a good method without doubt, for keeping payments secretive but this shouldn’t mean that it should be banned or even demonised. Unfortunately, today’s mainstream media did exactly this and tainted a lot of people’s concept of what bitcoin is all about. This may ultimately limit its growth but the more you understand about bitcoin the more you appreciate that much of the negative press it is receiving in the media is largely unjustified and misdirected.

Another negative challenge bitcoin has encountered over its history is the collapse of the Mt Gox exchange. You need someone to transfer bitcoin to and from dollar currency and this is the tasks of bitcoin exchanges. The Mt Gox collapse was a situation where the exchange itself either was hacked or failed due to poor business decision. It was not, as has been sensationalised a failure or vulnerability in the bitcoin and blockchain technology. However, because of its close association with bitcoin, the Mt Gox failure once again provided mainstream media an opportunity to sensationalise and misdirect people from what actually transpired.

So bitcoin has had a tumultuous history which is really worth understanding if you are at all interested in its potential. It also leaves some interesting questions unanswered. The major one is who was Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of bitcoin? No one really knows for sure but the consensus is that was a group of people working together to give birth to the blockchain technology.

Another interesting fact is that bitcoin was released within a few weeks of the Lehman Brothers collapse, an event that accelerated the GFC. At a point at which the world had almost completely lost faith in the global banking and monetary system a potentially new a revolutionary system arose. One that was very akin to the distributed technology we see with the Internet. One that moved the control away from centralised institutions and into the control of individuals. Co-incidence?

From these early days, bitcoin has been adopted by the technology savvy who sees its potential to the point now where it is beginning to break into the mainstream consciousness and also coming onto the radar of governments and regulators.

I could go on for much longer but recommend you take a look at the documentary and form your own opinions. Let me know what you think in the comments as I’ll be posting up more information and opinions on bitcoin and blockchain as time goes along. I don’t claim to be an expert in these technologies at all, I am in the process of learning and understand the ramifications to economic and technology, so please share your thoughts and any resources you have found worthwhile as I am also doing.

Look out for more information on bitcoin and blockchain coming soon and of course, don’t forget to throw some bitcoin my way if you like what you read.

CIAOPS now accepts Bitcoin

For some time now I’ve been looking into cryptocurrency and can report that I have learned much. I am vey excited about the potential that the underlying technology they are built on, known as blockchain.

I hope to soon start publishing some insights and opinions about this brave new world of payments and currencies but to the best way to get the ball rolling is to dive in head first. I therefore went ahead and set myself up with a bitcoin wallet which is here:

1Q48VMiR152XNuDEkfV3khFdiYoBPGH4V4

I have also added that information to my blog with the idea that if something I publish there is of benefit to someone they can ‘almost’ immediately make a small donation directly using bitcoin. This maybe one of the ways that things like bitcoins function well at in the future economy, via micro payments. That is, to make say a $1 donation is simply uneconomic given normal transfer and other fees if you chose to use a normal forms of payment. However, with bitcoin it is simple and easy to do exactly that. Just whip out your device, scan the QR code and make a small donation as way of appreciation.

Now to grease the wheels of commerce here a little I’m going to offer an incentive to be the first person to send me some bitcoin. So, if you are indeed the first person to send me some bitcoin (over say $1) I’ll send you free one of my publications Getting Started with Skype for Business Online or Beyond the Basics with SharePoint Online in PDF format.

So once you have sent me some coin, send me an email (director@ciaops.com) and tell me exactly how many bitcoin you sent to verify it was you, as well as which publication you’d like to receive in exchange. The best way to ensure someone else doesn’t guess the amount is to send me a random amount of bitcoin (say $1.27 or the like). Once I’ve verified your transfer, I’ll send you a PDF copy of the choice of your publication.

The offer is now out there and the clock is ticking. Let’s see how long it takes for someone to win the prize.

More benefits added to CIAOPS Patron program

I am happy to announce that now Microsoft Teams is available to external users, so too is access to CIAOPS Patrons external Team from my own Office 365 tenant.

This means that all levels of CIAOPS Patrons now get access to an external Microsoft Teams resource that includes chat, SharePoint Team Site, Planner and more.

Not only will give you an better idea of what Microsoft Teams is all about, including how external access works, you’ll also get access to the variety of content that I’m adding into this Team.

The new external Microsoft Teams benefits is on top of all existing resources including a private Facebook community, webinar recording, access and more.

Visit www.ciaopspatron.com for more details of the program and watch out for further additions to the program.