How to Manage and Create Team Sites with SharePoint Governance
July 6, 2011
Are you about to deploy SharePoint into your workplace, but unsure of how to set up rules and regulations for the software? “Governance 101: Best Practices for Creating and Managing Team Sites” is an article that comes directly from Microsoft. The article explains the basic methods you can use to establish governance on SharePoint for yourself and co-workers. What is governance? It is a model that has a set of policies and processes established to determine how people in your group use SharePoint. A governance model makes it easier to:
- Let site users know when they should create a new sub-site, as opposed to creating a list or other site content.
- Make sure sub-sites and content are retired when they’re obsolete, rather than using up your storage space and diluting your search results.
- Ensure that the right people have access to the right content.
- Let sub-site owners know what templates and themes they can use.
- Smoothly transition ownership of a site from one person to another.
When you make your personal governance model it needs to address many key issues, including: navigation, search, customization, storage limits, data protection, etc. The article gives a run down on each issue explaining them in detail and offering examples of how they should be implemented. We can offer you a helpful tip on the search part of your governance model: use SurfRay Ontolica.
Torben Ellert, July 6, 2011
SurfRay
Perceptive Software, Brainware Inc. Team-Up
July 5, 2011
Perceptive Software has partnered the Brainware, Inc. to embed its flagship product, Brainware Distiller into Perceptive’s image capture and intelligent OCR products like ImageNow . Brainware Distiller increases the speed and accuracy at which companies can access and process information in paper and electronic documents. As described in Image and Data Manager article “ECM Market gets Perceptive”:
The Perceptive ECM platform is designed to manage content in context, not just handle ingest and routing’ said Giagnacovo (the GM for Perceptive Software International). ImageNow incorporates the Brainware Distiller engine for OCR and data capture.
This is a smart marriage between technologies. By combining Brainware’s intelligent data capture and enterprise search solutions with the Perceptive’s enterprise content management (ECM) platform, the real winner becomes customer. They will not only benefit from top-class business intelligence, but their operational efficiency should greatly increase as well. It sure seems like a winner to us.
What’s interesting is that Brainware’s sales are not coming from its search technology. The firm is finding traction in the somewhat less glamorous but still important back office of organizations. Brainware is moving away from search just as MarkLogic is moving into enterprise search. Which firm is making the “right” choice? Maybe both? Maybe neither? Search seems to be more and more a problemantic enterprise function. Just our view from Harrod’s Creek, Kentucky.
Jennifer Wensink, July 5, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of the New Landscape of Enterprise Search
MarkLogic, FAST, Categorical Affirmatives, and a Direction Change
July 5, 2011
I weakened this morning (July 4, 2011) with a marketing Fourth of July boom. I received one of those ever present LinkedIn updates putting a comment from the Enterprise Search Engine Professionals Group in front of me.
The MarkLogic positioning exploded on my awareness like a Fourth of July skyrocket’s burst.
Most of the comments on the LinkedIn group are ho hum. One hot topic has been Microsoft’s failure to put much effort in its blogs about Fast Search & Transfer’s technology. Snore. Microsoft put down $1.2 billion for Fast, made some marketing noises, and had a fellow named Mr. Treo-something talk to me about the “new” Fast Search system. Then search turned out to be more like a snap in but without the simplicity of a Web part. Microsoft moved on and search is there, but like Google’s shift to Android, search is not where the action is. I am not sure who “runs” the enterprise search unit at Microsoft. Lots of revolving door action is my impression of Microsoft’s management approach in the last year.
The noise died down and Fast has become another component in the sprawling Shanghai of code known as SharePoint 2010. Making Fast “fast” and tuning it to return results that don’t vary with each update has created a significant amount of business for Microsoft partners “certified” to work on Fast Search. Licensees of the Linux/Unix version of ESP are now like birds pushed from the next by an impatient mother.
New MarkLogic Market Positioning?
Set Microsoft aside for a moment and look at this post from a MarkLogic professional who once worked at Fast Search and subsequently at Microsoft. I am not sure how to hyperlink to LinkedIn posts without generating a flood of blue and white screens begging for log in, sign up, and money. I will include a link, but you are on your own.
Here’s the alleged MarkLogic professional’s comment:
Many organizations are replacing FAST with MarkLogic. MarkLogic offers a scalable enterprise search engine with all the features of FAST plus more…
Wow.
An XML engine with wrappers is now capable of “all” the Fast features. In my new monograph “The New Landscape of Enterprise Search”, I took some care to review information presented by Fast at CERN, the wizard lair in Europe, about Fast Search’s effort to rewrite Fast ESP, which was originally a Web search engine. The core was wrapped to convert Web search into enterprise search. This was neither quick nor particularly successful. Fast Search & Transfer ran into some tough financial waters, ended up the focus of a government investigation, and was quickly sold for a price that surprised me and the goslings in Harrod’s Creek.
You can get the details of the focus of the planned reinvention of the Fast system and the link to the source document at CERN which I reference in my Landscape study. A rewrite indicates that some functions were not in 2007 and 2008 performing in a manner that was acceptable to someone in Fast Search’s management. Then the acquisition took place. The Linux/Unix support was nuked. Fast under Microsoft’s wing has become a utility in the incredible assemblage of components that comprises SharePoint 2010. I track the SharePoint ecosystem in my information service SharePointSemantics.com. If you haven’t seen the content, you might want to check it out.
Are Webinars the Backbone of Concept Searching Marketing?
July 5, 2011
On the surface, Concept Searching looks like some of the other analytics company that asserts steady growth. What is interesting is that when some value adding software co9mpanies market, webinars or online lectures and demos are a component of a broader marketing program, Concept Search seems to rely heavily on webinars. We find this interesting.
We looked into one search company which was using Twitter to make the text processing service a hot trend. From our vantage point, it seems that Concept Searching is using social media in a more modest way.
Though it sounds like Spiderman should be involved, a webinar is simply an online seminar or workshop. The great thing about a webinar is that it is usually interactive and allows all participates to give, receive and discuss the topics at hand. Additionally, geographical boundaries are not an issue and these presentations are very low in cost.
When perusing Concept Searching’s Web site, you will find an entire events page dedicated to their upcoming exhibitions and a list and description of their current webinars. Some titles include: “Designing Information Architecture for SharePoint: Making Sense in a World of SharePoint Architecture” and “De-mystifying Content Types: Four Key Content Types of Leverage.” You simply register and voilà, you join in on all the fun. They also have a page dedicated to previously recorded webinars that you can access at your leisure.
I moderate webinars for a couple of outfits, and these are often expensive programs. There is time, often lots of time, required to prepare the text, create the graphics and demos, and then build an audience. I participate in webinars when I am paid to do so. However, I do not participate in webinars. The reason is that I am receiving inputs, experiencing interruptions even when the door is closed, and working to respond to ad hoc requests from clients.
I do think that webinars are somewhat more useful than attending certain conferences. Over the last couple of years, conferences are more like fraternity and sorority parties. But that perception may be a function of my age and distaste for rock and roll, mixed media events with lots of 20 somethings opining about social media and organic search. Yikes, digital bonsai.
This leads me to the question, “Who has time to participate in webinars?” If these are buyers of high end solutions, great. However, if I were the boss of a company where webinars consumed staff time, I would be asking some questions about the efficacy of the method.
I find reading a Web page and using an online demo or downloading code useful. Webinars may be too zippy for an old goose like me. One thing for sure: lots of companies are using webinars to hold down the cost of on site sales calls and getting individuals “interested” in a product or service to cough up an email address.
Stephen E Arnold, July 5, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of the New Landscape of Enterprise Search
Security and Open Source: A Delicate Mix Requires a Deft Hand
July 5, 2011
I recall reading a very unusual write up with a “learning” hook. The story was “The 10 Worst Cloud Outages (and What We can Learn from Them).” The article makes lemonade from the Amazon faults, which is a combination of home grown, open source, and commercial software. The lemonade bucket is full because the same recipe is used for cloud outages at Microsoft Sidekick, Google’s Gmail (with no reference to the Blogger.com crash during this year’s Inside Search conference which focused on cloud stuff), Microsoft’s Hotmail issues, Intuit’s flubs, Microsoft’s business productivity online standard suite stumbles, Saleforce.com’s outage, Terremark’s troubles, PayPal’s hiccups, and Rackspace’s wobblies.
What the article taught me was that this cloud stuff is pretty difficult even for folks with deep pockets, lots of engineers, and oodles of customers who swallow the pitch hook, line, and sinker.
My hope is that US government funding of research into the use of open source software for security applications can route around cloud dependencies. “DHS, Georgia Tech Seek to Improve Security with Open Source Tools.” The article said:
Although parts of the government, such as the Defense Department, have embraced open-source software for a variety of applications, many agencies still view it as suspect. As a resource, Davis hopes HOST will help to dispel the “hippie in the basement” view of open-source programs — that it’s cobbled together by enthusiasts rather than teams of professional programmers. The advantage of open-source software is that users can vet the source code themselves to make an application more secure. “Having something in a cellophane wrapped box doesn’t make it safer,” he said.
A combination of cloud technology and open source might prove the undoing of a well conceived program based on open source technology. Intertwining the cloud and open source tools for security might create a interesting and difficult to troubleshoot situation. Let’s hope the approach delivers lemonade with just the right amount of sugar, not a sour concoction.
Stephen E Arnold, July 5, 2011
From the leader in next-generation analysis of search and content processing, Beyond Search.
How Universities Use SharePoint for Their Web Sites
July 5, 2011
Universities are the gateway to higher education and to attract potential students they must have a professional and informative web site. Would you believe that many top universities use SharePoint to design their web sites? “50 Inspiring SharePoint Based University Sites” has the best of the best and demonstrates all the creative applications that you can use.
“Microsoft SharePoint is the fastest growing product in the history of Microsoft! SharePoint’s features includes managing and provisioning of intranet portals, extranets and websites, document management and file management, collaboration spaces, social networking tools, enterprise search, business intelligence tooling, process integration and third-party developed solutions.”
When you glimpse the list you will see that universities all over the world are implementing SharePoint in their web site projects. Some of them are: The American University in Cairo, Utrecht University, University of Sharjah, Nanyang Technological University, and King Saud University. Browse through all the web sites and inspire yourself with ideas for your own SharePoint web site. The possibilities are endless for the creative web site designer! While you’re building your web site, use SurfRay’s products to power your search.
Torben Ellert, July 5, 2011
SurfRay
Kapow and Clarabridge: Sentiment and UK Elections
July 4, 2011
There’s a new duo in town. Kapow and Clarabridge created a buzz with their text and social media mining skills in the Election Buzz UK Project.
According to “Media Alert: Kapow Technologies using Clarabridge Text and Sentiment Analytics in Election Buzz UK Project,” political junkies can gather real-time election insights.
Using Kapow Technologies to gather real-time web data from sources such as Twitter, Facebook and the main political blog sites, in combination with Clarabridge for text analytics and sentiment analysis, political commentators and followers alike will be able to track the sentiment and real-time insights that come from the rich and diverse social media sites across the Web.
Clarabridge is a provider of sentiment and text analytics software which gives companies a “universal view of their customer feedback by transforming text-based customer feedback into valuable insight.”
Kapow Technologies provides companies access to public Web data, making it easy to integrate and migrate the data from its source. In fact, transformation of content is part of the Kapow capabilities.
So what’s this relationship mean?
Tech-savvy companies are sucking in a Twitter feed and turning the drivel and gems into actionable data. Political commentators and followers benefited here but surely the partnership will catch the eye of business intelligence vendors looking to improve marketing abilities, product offerings, and customer service. Sentiment, I believe, is the new black for fall 2011.
Philip West, July 4, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search
MeauxSoft: Free Search Tool for Your Hard Drive
July 4, 2011
“Mo-Search Puts Your Computer’s Data at Your Fingertips,” offers MeauxSoft. Version 4.0.4 of Mo-Search was just released. It and earlier versions can be downloaded from this page. Though the downloads are free, MeauxSoft suggests a donation if you find the tool useful.
Regarding the new version, the write-up lists the advances:
Supports Windows XP and later. Changes include: low overhead AutoIndex, AutoUpdate, new database engine (SQLCE), faster indexing and searching, plus many other bug fixes, optimizations and improvements.
The company boasts that Mo-Search is free of spyware and adware. That’s not a given?
It’s easy to use, providing results that are ranked and sorted. Unlike competitors’ free products, this application allows searching networked drives. Important, that.
Ease of use is enhanced with a file viewer that highlights matches without launching a separate app. Other features such as quick viewing of a file within the application, a find duplicates function, and a point and click interface are useful touches.
Stephen E Arnold, July 4, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search
Going Fast and Cheap Online for Information
July 4, 2011
“The Web: Fast, Cheap, and Getting Worse by the Minute,” declares InfoWorld. Writer Robert X. Cringely begins with the old adage, “cheap, fast, or good. Pick two.” Mr. Cringely believes that “good” has been left on the table in today’s Web-based journalism.
Fast and good requires a significant financial investment, he insists, like the huge staffs papers used to have but can no longer afford. Good and cheap requires more time, he states, and belongs to the realm of monthly magazine, not daily news sites. Can Internet journalism do anything right?
The author does site his employer as an example of fast and good, but seems concerned that InfoWorld quality may soon fall victim to the specter of budget cuts.
In summary, Cringely asserts,
Web publications are under tremendous pressure to crank out as much material as they can as quickly as possible. More stories equals greater Google juice and more traffic; more traffic equals more ad impressions and clicks, and thus more revenue. That’s the formula. And it’s getting worse.
Is Mr. Cringely throwing some in the writing profession under a bus? I think the columnist has a point, but we have to work with what we’re given. This is just another call to change the world. Not likely to happen.
As the piece acknowledges, the world of journalism has changed dramatically and it won’t be going back to the print model any time soon. Papers that are transitioning online are indeed cutting staff and other expenses. This means less research, less editing, and less fact-checking. I suggest that this puts the onus back on the reader—don’t believe everything you read, and do your own fact checking. Nowadays that doesn’t even require a trip to the library. Just open a new tab and check FactCheck.org, PolitiFact.com, or even Snopes.com. Right there on the Web.
Maybe neither traditional nor the new media is perfect? I just know there’s no use griping about the current state of affairs. We must adapt, writers and readers alike, for there’s no going back. Consumers should take responsibility for their own intellectual explorations, and confirm with a variety of sources before spreading information. It’s common knowledge, or should be, that you can’t just accept anything you read on the Internet.
Perhaps, in the long run, worrying about the quality of reading material will prove to be a moot point anyway. “Snap in another video, mom. I have to learn how to perform a physics experiment and the book is just too much work.”
Cynthia Murrell July 4, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search
How to Incorporate Sharepoint into Microsoft Office
July 4, 2011
Microsoft Office is the most widely used tool in businesses, schools, and households. When users make the transition to SharePoint they want the same ease and familiarity they get with Microsoft Office. “Get to SharePoint from an Office Application” was written by the Get The Point Blog to help users configure these two programs to work together harmoniously. It provides a seamless explanation on how to accomplish this goal with step-by-step instructions that are easy for any user to follow.
“In either case, if you enjoy the familiarity of your Office apps and prefer not to log on to a SharePoint site every time you want to upload a document to or retrieve a document from a SharePoint library, you’ll be glad to learn of this convenient way to tap-in to your team’s SharePoint site libraries, without leaving the Office application.”
There are a number of different guides in this article that include: how to sync Microsoft Office and SharePoint, edit a SharePoint library in an Office application, create a document in an Office application and upload it to SharePoint, insert images/video from the SharePoint Asset Library into an Office document, find a connect SharePoint library document in the file system, and a few more beneficial tips. Any user will want to implement these steps into their daily routine to make their SharePoint experience easier. For easier SharePoint search, try SurfRay Ontolica.
Torben Ellert, July 4, 2011
SurfRay
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