See my notes below for an early take on new and updated SharePoint features. More important than the individual changes is the effect the release will have on the IT industry as a whole. With MOSS 2007 Microsoft pushed deep into the composition model (meaning the users build their own IT). To some extent they were successful as many adopters have grown their SharePoint intranets into large sprawling information-scapes. The downside is that the implementation methodologies across the plethora of site collections varies widely even among sites owned by the same corporate departments.
SharePoint 2010 provides the necessary infrastructure improvements to solve the issue of unbridled growth (nice to know where the horse is headed too). Properly implemented, SharePoint 2010 should allow large and small companies to create thousands of sites and collections that all share a consistent data model. What happens when products are capable of providing infrastructure and implementation frameworks for companywide IT? IT departments shrink as support and SME needs are consolidated around the new user driven technology. This phenomenon will hold true as long as the new implementations are capable of being centrally governed. Microsoft thinks so too and has included new central administration capabilities in the product. Hold on to your hats everyone, this is going to be an interesting ride that will move your business model whether you like it or not (and that’s a good thing).
My quick notes on new functionalityLists still rule the day, however many powerful feature updates will change the landscape of collaboration for knowledge workers. Three major categories of change are on the horizon:
General UsabilityLook and FeelUpdates are pervasive and include the notable addition of the same ribbon technology found in Office 2007. The context sensitive ribbon provides site owners a very easy (and now familiar) method to both understand what can be done and how to do it. I will leave the discussions of the ribbon to others. MysitesFacebook like “wall” called Noteboard. TaggingSocial: WordPress style tagging of content is now available (describes content… loose taxonomy). Expertise: Users can now tag themselves on their MySite to drive search results that ensure others can identify their capabilities and job functions. Expertise tagging is people related tagging (describe a person’s capabilities and traits). Team SitesTeam sites can now be edited much like editing in a wiki (SharePoint 2010 also adds the concept of Team Blogs). Business ModelingChanges are huge in 2010 as many model oriented configurations are not capable of persisting across all farms (and site collection) in the enterprise. This will have an effect on the level of staffing required for large implementations. Managed MetadataContent types (document types) and metadata definitions can now be made available across site collections and even disparate farms (if you choose)… Enter once, use all over the world. If a user adds a tag to a managed document, the tag is automatically rolled up to Central Admin. In essence Taxonomy/Folksonomy is now managed at the enterprise level as opposed to a site collection or farm. Advanced RoutingSite owners can now configure automatic document routing, both to users and specific lists and pages. In-place Records ManagementDocuments can now be declared “Official” and are treated as a corporate record. The document can live in any lists (not just records manager) and is unchangeable. All official documents are represented with a lock overlay on the icon. Workflows can be used to declare official documents (as records). Document SetsMany documents can now share metadata and be processed as a whole (check-out, check-in, download, workflow routing, etc…) Validation CapabilitiesSimple list and library level metadata validation have been added (unique fields, etc) Systems IntegrationChanges bring functionality that implementers have been begging for. Datasets defined in the business data catalog are no longer restricted to read-only. In fact SharePoint 2010 allows for automatic generation of CRUD routines (SharePoint can automatically provide buttons and logic to Create, Read, Update and Delete records in the catalog!). This new feature is called “Business Connectivity Services”. Oh and basic Digital Asset Management is being thrown in for fun. For more information see the newly released technical center for SharePoint products here. Microsoft lists the following as new functionality topics here:
|
1 comment
Ed Alexander says:
November 8, 2009 at 10:47 PM (UTC -5 )
I cross posted a related question in the LinkedIn Sharepoint 2010 group and the discussion regarding the effect on IT staffing levels that resulted can be found at
http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&gid=1926983&discussionID=8784270&sik=1257737710158&trk=ug_qa_q&goback=%2Eana_1926983_1257737710158_3_1