Social Computing with Microsoft Sharepoint 2007: Implementing Applications for Sharepoint to Enable Collaboration and Interaction in the Enterprise

by Brendon Schwartz and Matt Ranlett

Social computing is a fast-moving technology, and many of the concepts grow or change every year. Use this book as part of your research for how you will implement any of the social computing applications, but also use online research for keeping updated on new changes to this exciting area of software today. Although social computing applications can be written on any framework or even on their own, we have taken a unique approach to help you understand the landscape of social computing as it relates to SharePoint 2007. Each chapter introduces you to the concept of the chapter, for example, the RSS chapter gives a brief overview of what RSS is and the history behind it. Then the chapter provides a section of how this is possible with SharePoint 2007. Finally, if there are any extensions that would make it easier to work with social computing and SharePoint, such as open source code or products you can buy, we briefly discuss these options so you are aware of them for your organization. This book was written for anyone who is approaching social computing applications for an enterprise. This would include developers, managers, directors, and even C-level executives. This book is designed to help decision makers learn about the concepts and understand how they might implement them in their own company. Although this book does reach out to developers, most of the chapters give examples with either built-in options and configuration or show how to use code already installed on SharePoint. Anyone interested in social computing and the topics covered in each chapter could read this book to get an understanding of what each concept has. The You Try It sections do require having SharePoint 2007 and some of the features installed to actually attempt them. If you are not an IT professional or developer, this is the perfect opportunity for you to start a discussion with your technology group to try out some of these wonderful tools. The book is designed to allow the reader to start from not knowing about social computing to being able to have an understanding of the concepts and how he or she would use them in his or her company. To accomplish this, you can read the book from front cover to back, or you can pick the specific chapter that your organization is interested in. Because so many people want to know exactly what the topics are and what they are about, we have organized the book into chapters that work together, but stand alone and provide complete coverage of a topic. We have also used a very simple and direct naming of each chapter so you can quickly recognize what the chapter is about and what it covers. This book covers the major concepts, applications, and implementations of social computing and shows how they are built with SharePoint 2007 today. As you noticed earlier, this is a fast-moving area of computing. Where SharePoint 2007 does not have the capability today, we made sure and explained how you could extend SharePoint 2007 with open source or products you can purchase. We did not cover every product on the market, but we gave you any idea of what you can look for when you are trying to extend SharePoint. The first two chapters provide the introduction for people new to social computing and how people will have to manage a social computing project. The following chapters break out each concept into a chapter to make it easy to get up to speed and understand what the topic is about. Chapter 1 provides the introduction to what social computing is and the concepts behind social computing applications and discusses some of the technologies your organization might use to implement these concepts. Chapter 2 describes how to build a successful project around social computing. This chapter takes you through steps that can make your team more successful, discusses the adoption of the application, and points out pitfalls that may get in your way to

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 047042138X
• ISBN13: 9780470421383
• Release Date: February 2009
• Publisher: Wrox Press
• Length: 377 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 7.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Excellent intro to overlooked SharePoint capabilities

This is an excellent introduction to often overlooked capabilities of SharePoint Server 2007. SharePoint is one of Microsoft's fastest growing enterprise platforms. It is a very cool, very capable environment. Social computing brings to mind Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and a host of other services that are almost immediately perceived by many as the realm of kids, adolescents and young adults. In fact, the 35 and older demographic is the fastest growing segment of the social computing audience. Thus, this book has at least two objectives: first to explain social computing to people who may not yet grasp its implications within the enterprise itself and, second to show how social networking technologies can be implemented within SharePoint. In 12 chapters, the authors walk the reader through the underlying concepts of social computing and then the details of the mechanisms like content tagging, wikis, blogs, RSS, how social networking and SharePoint 2007 can be brought together, podcasting, mashups before moving into broader areas of the technology now and in the future. The authors write in a down-to-earth, conversational tone which aids comprehension. They speak of the technology without making it confusing or incomprehensible. But the reader must bear in mind that this book is intended to be an overview, not a highly detailed technical treatise. Many subjects (i.e., AJAX) receive only a light dusting. Close attention is paid to introducing the concept within the enterprise where there will undoubtedly be many nay-sayers who have to be overcome. It is wise advice. Overall, the authors are to be commended on their novel thinking with regard to social computing in the enterprise environment. Choosing SharePoint as a platform is also a great idea - it is far better than trying to describe separate platforms and technologies to implement each concept. Throughout, the authors keep the focus on the enterprise, pointing out the benefits: a smart move on their part, One of the chapters that particularly impressed me was on podcasting in the enterprise: many large businesses have slashed their spending on distribution of training through the use of podcasts, both audio and audio/video. Some big outfits have purchased thousands of players for their employees because it is less expensive than pulling employees together for classes. In all, this book may strike some business network administrators as being off the beaten path and it is. But it covers some very important territory and may spark some equally important creative thinking about social computing in the enterprise. Jerry

Great Book

This book deals with the emerging world of enterprise social computing using Microsoft SharePoint 2007 out-of-the-box capabilities and custom solutions. Many organizations have invested in the SharePoint platform for ECM and collaboration. SharePoint 2007 offers many out-of-the-box tools that enable social computing, but in order to provide real value it is important to understand the basics of business information architecture and how these tools fit into the overall strategy of your company. This book does a fantastic job of addressing the importance of aligning business goals with technology in order to roll out successful, effective, social computing applications. It is not a technology for the sake of technology type of book, and provides some great real-world business cases for implementing some of these social computing pieces of SharePoint. The goal of enterprise social computing is to help the business achieve its goals and the authors have done a fantastic job of breaking it down into relevant topics that you can apply in your environment.

Excellent book

This is an awesome book that deals with, among other topics, the much overlooked topic of social computing *within the enterprise*. For organizations that have invested in the SharePoint platform for ECM and collaboration it's a must read. SharePoint 2007 offers a lot of out-of-the-box tools that enable social computing, but in order to provide real value it's important to understand the basics of business information architecture and how these tools fit into the overall collaborative strategy of your company. This is the essence of enterprise social computing and the authors have done an incredible job of breaking it down into clear and relevant topics that you can immediately apply in your own environment.