Ok now that Joel has tagged me to this I have to write about the stuff... My little boy Tristen.. he makes all the difference.. he's 5 now  (see photo below) My laptop.. and my Dakine satchel it's part of me goes almost everywhere with me apart from when I am running or mountain biking. Looking to replace this currently with a decent Core 2 Duo and 4GB. mmm toys.. External HDD(s), I have 2. 1 320GB and 1 160GB. Both full of VPC's and demo and development related to SharePoint of course. My digital camera Canon IXUS 750, I bought this last year (2006) just before going to Mix 06 and so far it has traveled with me to USA, Vietnam, China, Singapore, Australia and done a whole lotta trips around New Zealand. All photos on my Flickr is from this puppy. Just can't do without it! Sony NWH-D 20GB MP3 player bought in 2005.. NO I do not ...[Read More]

No it's an equation but something that seem to confuse a lot organisations. Reading this article from AIIM it shows why you should look at your organisations deployment of MOSS (SharePoint) before considering going all out on an RFP to get an ECM platform. Topics from the article below: ECM OnlyThe first option is to continue with the traditional ECM vendors, such as EMC, OpenText, and IBM (including FileNet). These vendors are proven, scalable, and widely implemented. Most organizations have at least one ECM vendor implemented and many have selected an overall ECM standard. The ECM vendors have traditionally been implemented departmentally, and have frequently been difficult and expensive to implement on an enterprisewide basis. Additionally, it is not clear that they solve all of the ECM requirements of many organizations. In an ...[Read More]

Zac from my team is doing a session on "Developing with Windows SharePoint Services v3.0" at the Wellington .Net user group on Wednesday 1st of August at 6.00 PM. Session details are available at http://www.dot.net.nz/wellington, and below: Developing with Windows SharePoint Services v3.0 With Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, IT professionals can tailor or extend the Windows SharePoint Services foundation to create new, efficient, Web-based tools and services specific to the organization,department, business process, or industry vertical. Through a highly customizable and extensible platform, companies can tie these new tools and services to existing line-of-business applications, capitalizing on existing IT investments and valuable information stored in back-end systems.WSS is often thought of as just a document collabor ...[Read More]

Yes, the SharePoint User Group which started officially at last year's TechEd has now expanded to Christchurch. In Wellington we have regular events every last Wednesday of the month. We have over 120 members and have an average turn out of 40 people to our events in Wellington. So if you are in Christchurch and want to see what events are coming up go to the UG web site here and subscribe to the respective locations user groups! Next up Auckland! Gooo SharePoint! http://www.sharepointusergroup.net.nz/default.aspx Thanks to Matt from Knowledgebase for taking the ownership of the UG. Technorati Tags: SharePoint, User Group, WLGSPUG, MOSS, WSS ...[Read More]

This year NZ TechEd 2007 is sold out once again! This year there are 11 tracks and I will be presenting 3 sessions on the "Office System" track. SharePoint falls under the Office System tracks. So if you are coming to TechEd and want to learn more about SharePoint then mark these sessions in your calendar. OFC304 - Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Upgrade and Migration (Level 300) Do you want to learn about upgrading from Windows SharePoint Services version 2 to version 3, and SharePoint Portal Server 2003 to Office SharePoint Server 2007? In this session you will learn the different upgrade options, as well as how to prepare your SharePoint deployment today for upgrade. 13th August Monday 2.15PM to 3.30PM OFC418 - Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies 2007: De ...[Read More]

I am talking about Joel Oleson who else... Yes he is.. not because he can stack red bull cans, but because he knows what he is talking about.. I am referring to his recent blog post where he talks about the "Depth and Breadth in a SharePoint Architect Skillset"   Basically there is a "high demand" currently for SharePoint architects. And lot of people perceive that SharePoint is something that you can pick up and learn in a course. Well you can but to be an "Architect" you need a much more broader background. For example people ask me how I know so much about how to configure SharePoint.. well the answer is I know because I have worked with a range of different technologies and have fought in the trenches. Stuff like Apache, Tom Cat, WebSphere, J2EE, Linux, Oracle, Aptrix, Lotus, Site Server, Index Ser ...[Read More]

Microsoft has launched a new web site targeting customers who are looking for a Search solution. See how your users can look for "Structured" and "Unstructured" information anywhere in your organisation. "Unstructured information includes content on file shares, your Internet & intranet web sites, Microsoft Exchange public folders, IBM Lotus Notes repositories, and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server or Windows SharePoint Services sites" "Structured information includes information in database and line of business systems (ERP, CRM, etc.)" Go to: http://www.microsoft.com/enterprisesearch White Paper: Enterprise Search from Microsoft describes Enterprise Search drivers and challenges, keys to a successful solution, and how to build a great solution using Enterprise Search technology from ...[Read More]

For those of you who are in the know a team of "best of the best" in New Zealand web monkies are off to Sydney to take on an all OZ challenge in building a web site in a day! The rules are simple: "On Saturday 18 August 2007, teams from Australia and New Zealand will compete to build a fully-operational website for a non-profit organisation in 24 hours. No excuses, no extensions, no budget overruns." Boring rules are here! The teams are ready The NZ Team: Peter Johnston (Sorted) - Writer Jeffrey Wegesin (Xero) - HTML/CSS [and ex-Provoker whizzkid and good mate!] Mark Rickerby (Coretxt) - Programmer Zef Fugaz (Provoke) - UX/IA [hey its that guy Zef from Provoke!  - UX extraodinaire and all around good guy!] Steve Dennis (Enlighten) - Designer Thomas Scovell (Shift) - Project Manager The Austr ...[Read More]