SharePoint Sunday: A Calm Week
January 17, 2010
First, SharePoint excitement did not ruffle the feathers of the Beyond Search team this week. There were a few questions about my reference to the SharePoint Fast search tweaking white paper. These were mostly about the complexity of the settings and the possible interdependency. My response was, “You think Microsoft is going to recode Fast Search ESP?” The people with whom I spoke expressed surprise that a system built for Linux would not be rebuilt from the ground up for the SharePoint world. Not even Microsoft’s code wizards can perform this type of task in the time between April 2008 and today. If you missed the white paper, here’s a download link. You will need the Microsoft file viewer to see this document once you have downloaded the file, Optimize search relevance with Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint (Beta).
Second, we honked with glee when we learned that PMG.Net Inc. published a Service Catalog Suite. This product is compatible with MOSS. The catalog is:
most easy-to-use, easy-to-configure, and easy-to-deploy service catalog and portfolio management solution on the market today. PMG has been a pioneer with deep experience in e-Commerce, portal, and collaboration for almost 15 years. PMG SCS is the culmination and powerful combination of three of our flagship products:
PMG iRequest ~ e-Commerce online catalog and request system with over 500 built-in templates
PMG iDeliver ~ Business Process Management Suite (BPMS) providing powerful workflow design, integration, and automation capabilities
PMG iCollaborate ~ for exceptionally easy content management and collaboration.
You can find more information on the PMG Web site. Worth a look in our opinion.
Finally, we found “How to Use SharePoint Metadata to Improve Search and Control Content – Part 3: Classifying SharePoint Content to Improve Search and Control Content” interesting. We hear a lot about metadata and how it is the greatest thing since sliced bread was invented in the library in Ephesus several centuries ago. Yep, metadata is a big, new thing for some folks. This write up walks through the metadata components and concludes with this statement:
The need for a standardized content search and workflow dictate that metadata structures should be standardized and consistent across SharePoint environment in an organization. Different evolutionary approaches can be taken to design and maintain these structures. Coupled with multiple mechanisms for entering and updating metadata values for your SharePoint content will result in an effective, consistent and reliable search experience and an efficient automation of business processes through workflows.
We agree. Organizations may find it helpful to seek the support of a trained information professional with experience in the development of controlled term lists. The key idea is that lousy metadata almost guarantees lousy search results. Good metadata, on the other hand, can make even less than spectacular content processing systems work better.
Stephen E Arnold, January 17, 2010
A freebie. No one paid me to write about SharePoint, not even the Department of Defense which has quite a few SharePoint fans.
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2 Responses to “SharePoint Sunday: A Calm Week”
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Stephen,
Thanks for the confirmation of the concepts in Mark Klinchin’ sseries of articles on enterprise level metadata. It is a highly overlooked concept for beginning SharePoint site architects, along with how structured content becomes much more “findable” throughout the enterprise.
Regards,
Mark Miller, Founder and Editor
EndUserSharePoint.com
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