SharePoint 4 SMBs

SharePoint Foundation 2010 for Test environment

If you are thinking on learning about SharePoint 2010 you probably wish to have a Test environment. For that you will need to define your requirements but so far I understand that for learning purposes the following would sufice:

• Single Server installation (DB and SharePoint in the same server)
• SharePoint Foundation2010 (replaces Windows SharePoint Services 3.0)

SharePoint comes with it own DB, it is called Embedded SQL Server 2008 Express. But that DB is limited to 4GB per database. You can also download the SQL Server 2008 Express (notice: without the Embedded), it is also free and has no storage limit.

Important: you need to install the SQL Server 2008 Express before installing SharePoint Foundation.

If you would like to setup your test environment on a virtual machine you will need a 64-bit version of VMware Workstation running on a 64-bit Windows 7.

Important: After installing the SQL Server 2008 Express check for updates and install them. After that proceed with setting up SharePoint Foundation.

SharePoint Conference in Peru and what’s ahead

Sharing the past few days with people that “play” SharePoint in the world league was a great experience. Even better because that time was shared in the country I was born.

I would like to sincerely thank all the conference’s speakers and mention specially: Agnes Molnar, Joel Oleson, Michael Noel and Toni Frankola. They had to get on planes and travel for long hours just to share their knowledge! Big thanks to Daniel McPherson for making his presentation from India and to keep awake until passed 3am in the morning!

One of the great experiences was the SharePoncho idea. Each one of the speakers including myself got a great Alpaca Poncho and that became the official outfit for the team, not only during the conference but throughout the trips and visits we made! 

Thanks to my mom and sis for their help making the SharePoncho real.

Check some SharePoncho pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/b4contact/tags/shareponcho/

Why SharePoncho? well because I think we had to experience something new and out of the traditional t-shirt. The past year in Slovenia we tried with Medica (honey based liquor) and some organic tea made by locals. This time I liked the poncho because it has a peruvian connotation, it was invented by Andean people. The Alpaca poncho proved to help us to keep dry during the rain, cool and protected from the sun rays and warm when needed. More than one loved it!

Do you think other SPC in different countries would get the same initiative? I hope so, would be great to see a ShareSombrero from our Mexican friends.

The SharePoint Conference in Peru showed that a SP community exists. We received around 200 participants and the feedback was so overwhelming that we believe we could double that number for the next year. I would love to think in a LATAM conference in order to unify the SP community in Central and South America.

I like to think that the conferences are in second place, where first place is the opportunity for networking. Because of that we organized the SharePint event and also a great but short trip to Cusco where we reached the goal to visit Machu Picchu.

That leads me to thank all the team at G&S, a peruvian company and Microsoft partner that made more than agreed to co-organize the event and definitively played a main role on making all possible. From them a big “gracias” to Cynthia and Francis for their commitment and enthusiasm. G&S showed their leadership in SP community building! http://gestionysistemas.com/

I’m a strong believer that traveling brings new friends. I personally enjoyed many times wonderful discussions and the wisdom from my travel companions. Time will tell some day how important the conference was. I’m looking forward for that.

Now I can count 3 SP conferences in my history, two in Slovenia and one in Peru. Will I try to participate in the organization of conferences in other countries? I hope so. At this moment we will start planning the 3rd Slovenian Conference (spcslo 2010). After that I believe a second version of the Peruvian conference will happen somewhere during the next year.

Apart of the SharePoint Conferences, B4Contact organizes as well the SharePoint Days. For this year we are planning a set of 3 different workshops that will take place in Slovenia during the month of July. More details on www.sharepointdays.com 

Part of the experience I enjoyed as well was the support from AvePoint. They sponsored the 3 events B4Contact organized and their trust is something difficult to see with many others. So far they win the number 1 position in my list of SP community support. 

Somewhere I read that the most successful people are in most cases the ones that care more about building social networks. Each new person you know will transform in one more opportunity now or later. If you can identify yourself as a “sharepointer” then you have a great chance of success; the most beautiful part of SharePoint is the community around it.

The future of the browser

If I’m right this post holds between its lines what could be terrible news for companies as Microsoft and Google.

The Web browser and the email client where the king applications we used to experience the Internet and Web. That increased the importance of Web developers and Web designers.

So far the big majority of Company Web sites aren’t valuable et all. Companies are not receiving a return on their investment because making a profitable Web site might mean to create a new business model and that can be risky and expensive. Now we know that beautiful Web sites are only beautiful and that doesn’t necessarily mean success. Is that an opportunity?

I’m not telling that the Web is bad for companies. I’m saying that a big number of organizations can’t find value on investing on the Web.

Are companies responsible for their short visionand lack of success online? Absolutely not! The industry is responsible for not communicating real value for that segment of the market.

Adobe made a good point when they said that the future of the Web is not on the browser but it is on local applications that would run on the PC and feed from the Internet. But the company that is really getting advantage of that vision is Apple. The iPhone is a great sample of a platform that uses downloadable applications (apps) that replace the Web Browser: The New your Times, FaceBook, The Weather Channel, Yahoo, and thousands more.

It is interesting to notice that the trend is not the same in case of Desktop or Notebook computers. It is more than anything a development for mobile devices. Do you get the message of the iPad? Powerful as a traditional computer but with the Operating System optimized for downloading apps.

Now I see clear that we will have 2 different kinds of devices: Devices that are designed for consuming information and devices designed to author and develop. Before we had only one: the PC.