Arno Nel 2.0

The Competition - Alfresco

Over the next few weeks im going to look at some of the other players in the Enterprise Content Management space, starting with "Alfresco - The open source alternative for Enterprise Content Management".

About:

According to their site : "Alfresco was founded in 2005 by John Newton, co-founder of Documentum® and John Powell, former COO of Business Objects®." Whats interesting, is that on their about page they say : "Our goal is to not only provide an open source offering but to surpass commercial offerings such as Documentum or Microsoft® SharePoint in terms of features, functionality and benefits to the user community."

"Alfresco is built by a team of leading members from Documentum® and Interwoven® with 15 years experience in Enterprise Content Management (ECM), including the co-founder of Documentum.

• Enterprise Content Management (ECM)
• Document Management
• Collaboration
• Records Management
• Knowledge Management
• Web Content Management
• Imaging "

In a press release today, they launched Enterprise Class Open Source Web Content Management. According to the press release:

"The Alfresco Web Content Management Preview release is an advanced WCM platform that includes features such as:

• Virtualization Server
• Multi-Site Transactional Publishing
• Web Content Compliance Server
• 100% Standards Based
• High-Availability, Highly Scalable Platform

• Standards-Based Forms to Create Pages - Chiba XForms
• Simple Multi-Channel XML Publishing
• Email-Based Production Workflow
• In-Context Review
• Integrated Support for Content Managers, Contributors, Reviewers, Web  Designers and Application Developers in one repository
• Parallel Branching and Merging
• Dependency Management
• Pre-Built Templates and Website Components"

Here are some screenshots:

Integration with the Briefcase for Offline Synchronization

Aspect-Oriented Rules in the Server

Powerful Search with Taxonomies

Collaboration on Documents or Folders

a 1 for the webcast, a 2 for the show

There seems to be alot of great content coming out of MS. Here are some upcoming Webinars.

MSDN Webinar:
Build Serious Applications Using SharePoint Server 2007

There are many advances in each of the products in the 2007 Microsoft Office system that make it an awesome platform on which to build applications and products. Enhancements in Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services, Office SharePoint Portal Server, and Office Project Server in particular have made this a compelling platform for faster application development. This webcast explains these changes and details how they can be used with examples.

October 3rd, 2006 @ 9am PST

MSDN Webinar:
Managing a Project Management Office with SharePoint Products and Technologies

Learn how to use the SharePoint 2003 and 2007 Products and Technologies environment to deliver a PMO – a Project Management Office.

Much project work in organizations is monitored in various scheduling tools - but these tools do not allow for the management of the most common IT project deliverables such as project plans, phases, roles, specifications, requirements, etc.. SharePoint is of course the perfect place to manage these items. This web cast will show the possibilities of the SharePoint 203 and 2007 Products and Technologies to allow for IT Project Management of one or a portfolio of multiple projects – and will show how organizations can start with a PMO on SharePoint and up-scale to Project Server 2007, when they are ready.

October 5th, 2006 @ 9am PST

Information Worker Links: 4

• "Hold Orders" - the guys at the Records Management Team Blogg have done it again, this time addressing "Hold Orders". Not sure what Records Management is? Wikipedia says "Records Management is the practice of identifying, classifying, archiving, preserving, and sometimes destroying records." Check out the following related links
• Sharepoint 2007: Document/Records Management resource list V0.1 - Arno Nel
• Records Management on Wikipedia
• Other Products
• Meridio
• Open Text
• Vignette
• Hummingbird
• Glossary of Records Management Terms

Getting things Done

Well, ive decided to make the Jump and enter the world of "Getting Things Done". For those that don't know, "Getting Things Done" is a book written by David Allen that's helps unorganised procrastinators like me achieve stress free productivity. To get you started on the productivity path, check out these links for now:

• Lifehack.org The community blog on GTD and Productivity
• 43 Folders, a wiki devoted to GTD-related tips and tricks
• Lunch & Learn: Getting Things Done

Im trying to implement GTD using Outlook 2007 and my JasJar, how you implement it is up to you. Check out this list of resources.

Lastly, check out http://monkeygtd.tiddlyspot.com/ its a TiddlyWiki implementation of the GTD system. BRILLANT!!!

Cross Posted from ArnoNel.com

Webcasts Webcast Everywhere

TechNet Webcast: Infrastructure Topics in SharePoint Products and Technologies: Administrative Architecture and Planning for Deployment (Level 300) - "In this webcast, we describe the new deployment and administration architecture for Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. Learn about logical and physical design architectures, planning and deployment considerations, and inter-farm and intra-farm Shared Services capabilities. We also cover the administration components and security features in Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007."

TechNet Webcast: Planning and Deploying Systems Management Server 2003 (Level 200) - "To ensure a successful installation of your Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 environment, established planning and deployment strategies should be followed. In this webcast, we provide the recommended best practices you need to prepare for and  deploy SMS 2003. We also give you an overview of the various tools that are available to assist with your SMS 2003 installation."

Information Worker Links : 3

• kbalertz: Description of the SharePoint Portal Server 2003 post-Service Pack 2 hotfix package: September 1, 2006
• SharePoint Server 2007: Software Development Kit
• Windows SharePoint Services 3.0: Software Development Kit
• How To: Apply Style on Item Level for SharePoint List
• Shane Perran’s SharePoint Customization Blog - SharePoint 2007 Features, FREE Appliation: Feature Explorer
• VSTO 2005 SE Beta (a.k.a. “Cypress”) is now available!!
• The XSDs for the Office Open XML formats working draft 1.4 are now available : Brian Jones
• r.a.d.controls Q2 2006 SharePoint™ Edition public beta

2007 Microsoft Office Add-in: Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS

"This download allows you to export and save to the PDF and XPS formats in eight 2007 Microsoft Office programs. It also allows you to send as e-mail attachment in the PDF and XPS formats in a subset of these programs."

Get it here

Information Worker Links : 2

Sharepoint

• Master Pages and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 - Rangan Parthasarathy
• Visio template and stencil for designing SharePoint 2003 portals and sites (update) - Ferry
• Application Development on MOSS 2007 & WSS V3 - Chris Johnson
• How to rebrand the WSS 3.0 / MOSS Navigation with only CSS Baby! - Angus Logan's Portals Blog
• Quest Ships SharePoint Admin Tool

Office

• Welcome to ODF Converter Team Blog
• 2007 Microsoft Office - Learning Portal

Official Seal Generator

Generate your own here and submit in my comments

Sharepoint Links 1

• SharePoint Videos and Articles
• Betting the Business on Beta Technology - Case Study
• Shane Perran’s SharePoint Customization Blog -WSS v3 CSS Desktop Reference v1 (Coming Soon)
• Microsoft Knowledge Network Team Blog - KN Channel 9 Interview is Live
• Creating connectable web parts with the Son Of SmartPart
• Web 2.0 Perpetual Beta VS. Monolithic IT Department Policies
• Sharepoint 2003 Change machine name does not change server name in Sharepoint
• Vista and Office will start 2007 collaboration wave

XML Notepad 2006

You can download from here: XML Notepad 2006

They Say: "

Handy features include:

• Tree View synchronized with Node Text View for quick editing of node names and values.
• Incremental search (Ctrl+I) in both tree and text views, so as you type it navigates to matching nodes.
• Cut/copy/paste with full namespace support.
• Drag/drop support for easy manipulation of the tree, even across different instances of XML Notepad and from the file system.
• Infinite undo/redo for all edit operations.
• In place popup multi-line editing of large text node values.
• Configurable fonts and colors via the options dialog.
• Full find/replace dialog with support for regex and XPath.
• Good performance on large XML documents, loading a 3mb document in about one second.
• Instant XML schema validation while you edit with errors and warnings shown in the task list window.
• Intellisense based on expected elements and attributes and enumerated simple type values.
• Support for custom editors for date, dateTime and time datatypes and other types like color.
• Handy nudge tool bar buttons for quick movement of nodes up and down the tree.
• Inplace HTML viewer for processing xml-stylesheet processing instructions.
• Built-in XML Diff tool.

"

Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 Beta

You can get all the bits at https://connect.microsoft.com

What’s new in R2 SP1 Beta 2

• AMD Virtualization Technology (AVT) compatibility*
• Volume Shadow Service Support**
• Offline VHD Mounting**
• Active Directory integration and management features
• Hardware-assisted virtualization
• Virtual Server host clustering step-by-step Guide

Something that makes me laugh is "R2 SP1 Beta 2". This is getting ridiculous.