Home - Michael Gannotti on SharePoint +

7/2/2008

Well we are getting set to hit the road on vacation. Looks like I will be offline pretty much as we head up to Michigan for 4th of July. Been a long and busy year (our fiscal year ended June 30th). I am looking forward to getting my batteries re-charged and taking some time with the family. This past year has given me much pause for thought. My cousin Michael passed away after a long struggle with kidney failure leaving behind a wife and two children. Another cousin tragically took his life also leaving behind a wife and two kids. A college classmate of mine has just been moved home with family for his last few days as he cancer consumes his body but his spirit remains undiminished. Yet another friend of our family has been hospitalized with tears of her heart valves, the result of a genetic disorder that slowly attacks the bodies connective tissues. Finally my niece is now getting brain surgery for cysts on the brain that have left her in pain and unable to function. With all that this last year really keeps making me take a step back and ponder what is important.

I love my job but in the end its not really the technology that love but people. We are what makes this whole merry go round keep turning and I have been lucky enough in my own life to be able to work with amazing folks who inspire me and more importantly to be surrounded by friends and family who I love dearly.

With that time for me to sign off and hit the road so I can spend some quality time with one of those people on a road trip, my son. See you all when I return with re-charged batteries.

Posted at 7:42 AM by Mike Gannotti | Category: Blogging | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

7/1/2008

Follow My Road Trip On BrightKite

I am taking off on a road trip to Michigan tomorrow and will be using the vacation time to shake the tires on BrightKite.BrightKite provide Geo-Location Micro Blogging capabilities and I am interested to see how well it works as well as areas of improvement. This is precisely the kind of activity, albeit in a business focused context, that I can see being utilized from within SharePoint and that I have blogged about in the past. You can follow along, or better yet sign up yourself and add me as a BrightKite friend.

Check out BrightKite here http://www.brightkite.com/

You can also watch a series of BrightKite screencasts here http://brightkite.com/help/screencasts

Technorati Tags: Geotag,blogging

Posted at 4:24 PM by Mike Gannotti | Category: Blogging; SharePoint Technologies; Social Networking | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (1)

Doh!.... Where's the Video?

Update: Got everything fixed and hunky dory. Time for vacation! Don't forget you can catch up with me on BrightKite and Facebook.

Doh!!! I turned on the Publishing features for my site and forgot to re-add my video code to the templates.. I should have that finished shortly and then its off to vacation.

Technorati Tags: Video

Posted at 3:22 PM by Mike Gannotti | Category: Blogging | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

Vacation, Tuesday Reading, Plans, and Learning Italian

Well as of tomorrow morning I will be hitting the road for a short vacation. This mornings coffee is not really helping me wake up and I have a packed day so its a sure sign it is time to turn off and tune out... out least till next week hen I am back. Today also marks day 1 of the new fiscal year for Microsoft. Traditionally these next two months are the lull time for us but working on SharePoint I haven't seen the lull happen the last few years and looks like this year the fast pace is continuing. It's exciting and a little crazy but SharePoint mania just seems to keep rolling along. Definitely a good thing for job security. smile_wink

This next year I do have a few goals I am looking to work on. In addition to the ad-hoc videos I have been doing here I am going to be working with some other folks to start bringing online a number of educational videos aimed at helping with SharePoint and Office deployment. I also have a number of solution videos lined up with provider. On a personal level I have ordered the Rosetta Stone learning series for Italian and am hoping to visit there mid-winter to practice my language, soak in the country, and more. Not sure how many updates, if any I will be doing here between now and Tuesday the 8th. If you want to see what I am up to I will be tracking my trip on BrightKite at Mike On BrightKite. You can also always see what I am up to on Facebook. With both these programs updating is a snap from my cell phone. I am really interested to see how well the whole BrightKite service works on a trip as much of what it purports to do fits in with some of my ideas around mobile knowledge capture.

Well I need to get to work. If time permits I might have some additional content to put up and I will definitively be doing some video on the go during my trip. For now though I do have some reading and viewing goodness that should keep you busy.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,SharePoint,Vacation,Office,Expression

Posted at 8:22 AM by Mike Gannotti | Category: Blogging; Office Desktop Applications; SharePoint Technologies | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (2)

6/30/2008

Video: Tom Brokaw Interview of Bill Gates

There has been a flurry of stories published with this past Friday being the last day of the Bill Gates era here at Microsoft. MSNBC has a great interview of Bill by Tom Brokaw that you can watch here.

Tom Brokaw Interviews Bill Gates

Technorati Tags: Microsoft. Bill Gates

Posted at 10:45 AM by Mike Gannotti | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

Video: Michael on the Go - Time Zones and SharePoint Outlook Integration

In this episode of Michael on the Go I discuss the manner in Which Outlook integration with SharePoint calendars helps overcome the regional time zone settings and issues that may occur with a virtual team spanning several time zones.

Please view this post on my website to display the video.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,SharePoint,MOSS 2007,Outlook

Posted at 8:23 AM by Mike Gannotti | Category: SharePoint Technologies | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (1)

Monday Morning SharePoint Reading Including: Speeding Up SharePoint, Data View Graph Creation, and More

Update: Wow, some people are feeling pretty chipper this morning. No sooner did I post this than I got a few emails pointing out some additional posts I should have mentioned. I have included them below the original set. Happy reading smile_regular

Only two more days and then this SharePoint cowboy is hitting the road with his son for a two day road-trip to Michigan where we will synch up with my wife and daughter for a short, and much needed, vacation. In the meantime though the world of SharePoint never seems to stand still and I have some Monday morning SharePoint reading that you will want to nibble on while sucking down that coffee.

Ian Morrish has a great site www.wssdemo.com that he runs, and is hosted, down in beautiful New Zealand. He has been teasing us about some new method of speeding SharePoint performance and it seems it is here. Check out his post “Using Runtime Page Optimizer (RPO) to improve SharePoint Performance”
Recently I have been getting a lot of questions about workflow created with SharePoint Designer. If you are looking for a good overview as to what it brings to the table check out “EndUserSharePoint.com: In Defense of SharePoint Designer - Workflow”
When putting together a SharePoint team lots of questions usually arise over who should participate? Is this just another developer project? What skills are needed? … and more. The following post does a nice job of taking the volumes of information out there and condensing it in to one palatable post. See “Building a SharePoint team”
As you walk through a SharePoint project it is always great to be able to learn from others who have been there and done that, especially to learn from and avoid their mistakes. With that in mind if you are starting up a MOSS publishing project you might want to check out “Common MOSS Publishing pitfalls”
The SharePoint Designer Team blog has been posting some pretty nifty pieces lately and this morning they had a new one that really caught my eye as it addressed part of a question I had just this past week from a client of mine. Check out “CSS Style Bar Graphs using Data Views”

Additional readings provided by blog readers.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,SharePoint,MOSS 2007,SharePoint Designer

Posted at 7:59 AM by Mike Gannotti | Category: SharePoint Technologies | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

6/27/2008

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Resources

Just sent off some information to a client about Windows SharePoint Services resources and guidance. With Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 being all the rage I rarely get requests for purely WSS content but it is an important area so below are some resources you may find helpful.

· TechNet Virtual Lab: Using Microsoft Windows PowerShell for Administration and Customization of Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

· TechNet Virtual Lab: Enterprise Search Protocol Handlers (Lab 8 of 8)

· TechNet Virtual Lab: Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Installation and Configuration

· TechNet Virtual Lab: Customizing Enterprise Search (Lab 3 of 8)

· TechNet Virtual Lab: Enterprise Search Security and Compliance (Lab 2 of 8)

· TechNet Virtual Lab: Creating Workflows for Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

· TechNet Virtual Lab: What's New in Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Feature Walkthrough

· TechNet Virtual Lab: Introducing Content Types for Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

· TechNet Virtual Lab: Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Installation and Configuration

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,SharePoint,WSS

Posted at 1:38 PM by Mike Gannotti | Category: SharePoint Technologies | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (1)

Video: Michael on the Go - Creating Departmental Training Quick and Easy

As many organizations roll out SharePoint, Office, and other applications, they sometimes struggle with delivering targeted internal training at a departmental and divisional level. In this episode of Michael on the Go I discuss how departments and divisions can use a freely available tool from Microsoft to create training content quickly and easily using Microsoft Community Clips from OfficeLabs.

Please view this post on my website to display the video.

Posted at 9:22 AM by Mike Gannotti | Category: Multimedia Applications; SharePoint Technologies; Technology | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (4)

Video: Michael on the Go - Updated Review of XV6900 after One Month

I have had my hands on my new XV6900 phone for a month now. Earlier when I first picked it up I did a preliminary review but after one month I have much more to say about the phone that replaced my Motorola Q phone.

Please view this post on my website to display the video.

Technorati Tags: Mobile,Phone,xv6900

Posted at 8:51 AM by Mike Gannotti | Category: Blogging; Digital eHome; Technology | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

6/26/2008

Book: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Best Practices

If you are looking for a good resource to help with your deployment questions around MOSS 2007 I highly suggest you take a look at the new offering from MSPress, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Best Practices. The books description reads:

"Get field-tested best practices and proven techniques for designing, deploying, operating, and optimizing Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. Part of the new Best Practices series for IT professionals from Microsoft Press, this guide is written by leading SharePoint MVPs and Microsoft SharePoint team members who have worked extensively with real-world deployments and customers. You'll find out how to deploy the software, design your environment, manage content, analyze and view data, perform disaster recovery, monitor performance, and more. You'll learn how to create SharePoint sites that help your organization collaborate, take advantage of business insights, and improve productivity with practical insights from the experts"

Check out Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Best Practices

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,SharePoint,MOSS 2007,Book

Posted at 5:26 PM by Mike Gannotti | Category: SharePoint Technologies | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (2)

Video: Michael on the Go - Extending Your SharePoint Wiki with Status

Recently I began a SharePoint wiki on my internal MySite where sales reps could post questions that I would answer. I wanted to be able to track my progress in answering the questions. In this video I discuss the steps I took.

Please view this post on my website to display the video.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,SharePoint,MOSS 2007,Wiki,KPI

Posted at 12:50 PM by Mike Gannotti | Category: SharePoint Technologies; Social Networking | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

Video: Michael on the Go Extending Windows Media Center to Other PCs in the Home and Beyond

In this episode of Michael on the Go I discuss a question from a friend of mine about how he could access his Media Center content while sitting by the pool with his laptop.

http://www.asciiexpress.com/webguide/

Please view this post on my website to display the video.

Posted at 12:37 PM by Mike Gannotti | Category: Digital eHome; Multimedia Applications | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

Grab Mikes Top 20 Videos Viewed Silverlight Web Part Created Using Popfly

Update: A couple of people have pinged me concerning the web part download. Seems they have mistakingly thought clicking would give them a preview of it running. I have extending the directions below to include "right click" and "save as"

Well today looks like I am NOT on the road and instead have catch-up/follow-up work as well as 4 new videos to upload. I did get a couple of emails asking why I used an RSS web part for my video web part yesterday and not Silverlight. So to make everyone happy who wants to suffer through my videos ;-) I have created another video web part. This one was created using the Microsoft Popfly mashup tool (free and online for all to use. Check it out here). It display the top 20 most viewed videos by me on Soapbox. It does require Silverlight to view but if you have it you can easily import it to any SharePoint dashboard page. The dimensions on it are 700X700 pixels. You can grab it below. If you are interested in creating your own Internet based mashups I highly encourage you sign up and try out Popfly. Its free and fun. Now time for me to get to work.

Michael Gannotti Top 20 Videos web part (Silverlight) **To download right click either the link or picture below then select "Save Target As" and then download the web part to an appropriate location. You can then import it on to your desired SharePoint page.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,SharePoint,Silverlight,Popfly,Mashup,Video,Soapbox

Posted at 7:54 AM by Mike Gannotti | Category: SharePoint Technologies; Silverlight; Social Networking | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (1)

6/25/2008

Grab Michael Gannotti on SharePoint + Videos for Use On Your Own MOSS 2007 Site

Hitting the road in a few minutes for all day sessions down in Charlotte again. Hopefully will be home by 8pm tonight as I have some work around the house I desperately need to get done.

In the meantime though I have gotten quite a few requests from people asking how they can grab my videos for their own Intranet usage. Well unfortunately until Soapbox facilitates downloads you cant actually grab them yet but I can help out another way. Below is a link to a pre-configured MOSS 2007 RSS webpart that pulls in a view to my latest 20 video postings. Additionally, you can also embed individual entries where desired using my directions I recently provided on Embedding Soapbox videos. Hope this helps for now. I am also trying out anew Windows Live Writer (tool I use for blogging) plug-in for Digg. Would love to know if it works so ping me if you try it.

Have a great day all.