Migrating SharePoint Databases from one service pack to another

By Eric Harlan
Published: June 25, 2009
Updated: June 25, 2009

Writing this up as we speak,, err... type?.... as we read.. yeah!

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SharePoint Saturday Charlotte Recap

By Eric Harlan
Published: June 25, 2009
Updated: June 25, 2009

SharePoint Saturday Charlotte was a huge success. Not that we had any doubts. The trip did start off kind of rocky, some unexpected last min changes that left me and my right hand man @mrshadeed scrambling for alternate plans. I'd like to thanks @michaellotter @nassharepoint and @mosslover for ever so graciously sharing their cramped ride with us from Raleigh that took a lot of weight off my mind for sure.

The fun and games started off pretty quickly. @danlewisnet rolled into the speaker mixer and pulled out the speaker shirts. Amidst a lot of confusion and mystery about an email regarding the requirement of a white t-shirt. They speaker shirts, ended up being speaker jerseys. There were a lot of laughs but in the end, the jersey's actually looked pretty good with all the speakers wearing them. And to Dan's defense, he did send me the picture of the "shirts" prior to ordering them, and there was no thought that they could be jerseys. Either way, it all worked out in the end, as it usually does.

I have a bit of a confession to make. I find that with more and more of these events and #SharePoint events as a whole I realize that just as important of the fact that I'm speaking at these, I am just as stoked to see old friends, meet some twitter faces and make new friends. The comradery that comes along with speaking at an event is really second to none. I thoroughly enjoy it. BEAR!. I'll make sure I really do it up for #spsbmore and have a lot of perks for the speakers.

I got a chance to sit in on a lot more sessions this time around (no reason sitting in the speaker lounge all day). I wanted to get out and show some support to the other folks that made the trip out. I didn't get a chance to sit in and listen to @mikewat and @susanlennon because we had the same time slot. Sorry guys for taking all the guest for my session hahaha (47 baby, plus the handful online)

I think I've mastered the streaming/recording of sessions I sit in on. I got a chance to sit in and record a few which I have embedded below. I really enjoyed all the sessions I sat in on. I learned something in each one believe it or not. I really enjoyed @jdattis and @michaellotter's presentations (see below). I recorded mine as well but I only got 2/3's of it (forgot to hit record) and I had a pretty decent snaffu in choice of words when describing cutting off the end of an XPath string. If you were in my session, sorry. It wasn't intentional but Im glad we all got a good laugh out of it. Like I said in my opening remarks, I'll be laughing, so if you dont laugh with me...I'll just look crazy.

Linked below is my presentation as well as a bunch of videos taken from that day. I really hope I get to meet a lot of the guests again, I know I'll be making the trip down to Charlotte/Raleigh to hit up the Users Groups so I think we'll get that chance soon. Otherwise, consider making the drive up to SharePoint Saturday Baltimore. I assure you, it will be totally worth it!

InfoPath Best Bets and Tips & Tricks (Link to BSPUG) *will be uploaded tonight*

Here are the prerecorded demos I gave:

InfoPath Sum Total X Is Used In a Dropdown

InfoPath 2007 Form in WebPart

Five Conditional Fomatting Limitation

(more photos coming soon)

Dan Attis @jdattis talk on Making SharePoint into a Datastore

Heather Waterman @hwaterman talking SharePoint Disaster Designer

Michael Lotter @michaellotter talking SharePoint Security (part 1)

Michael Lotter @michaellotter talking SharePoint Security (part 2)

Michael Lotter @michaellotter talking SharePoint Security (part 3)

Michael Lotter @michaellotter talking SharePoint Security (part 4)

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Google Wave, The Microsoft SharePoint Killer?

By Eric Harlan
Published: June 1, 2009
Updated: June 1, 2009

So Google Wave keynote hit the streets last week at Googles I/O, and there�s been a lot of buzz about the product. In this post I�d like to make some parallel connections to SharePoint and the new Google Wave.

What is I.T. like some sort of boring scary movie? Why is every product that comes out that does something similar as another labeled an �{Application name here} Killer�?� Let�s be honest, it�s been on both sides of the road here. Ipod has its Zune, SharePoint had its Documentum, Iphone had its Android and WinMo 6.5, Google Search has Microsoft�s BING. Really the �killer� thing has to stop; nothing ends up being a killer anything.� Each product has its specific audience, and those folks will always be loyal to that product. The folks on the fence are the ones that are easiest influenced.

That said, in this nerds opinion, Google has only come up with a handful of �killer� apps and services. The first killer app of course being Google Search. They have had the market on search for years, when your product becomes a verb you know you hit the big time (�go Google it�), now that Microsoft has �BING� will that take hold of some of that space, probably.� It is a good search engine and as the algorithms grow and mature the searches will be 10 fold better. I just don�t see myself saying �Go Bing that�.�� The second killer app, in my opinion was Google Maps.� It far and wide replaced any usage of MapQuest for me and it seems MapQuest has been unable to keep up ever since.� Street view was the clincher for me, even though I have been using it long before street view.

Now onto the meat of the blog post. A fellow twitter�r (@mrackley) said so eloquently in a twitter post. �Anyone who thinks Google Wave is a SharePoint killer does not understand SharePoint or Large organizations for that matter�. I couldn�t agree more Google Wave (as it sits right now because it�s open source) is not a SharePoint killer. I think it�s a very cool tool to use in small organizations (like windows live office) or in a design firm or something but there is no context to compare the two applications.

Now I�m not saying that Google Wave isn�t really cool, I love the seamless integration of the user experience.� But as it�s been said, it seems to gear more towards a match up against WSS than it does MOSS as a whole.� It has to be recognized that it doesn�t look like Google isn�t aiming this thing at the corporate level intranet space (yet anyway), this is like an ad hock workspace collaboration tool.� Again, right now. Who is to say that in 3 years when this gains steam and moves forward with user participation it won�t be awesome, right now it�s just in its infancy. See the theme on that disclaimer?

A few feature comparisons between SharePoint and Google Wave. If you don�t care about this feel free to skim or skip it all together and go to the summary.

Hosted conversation

Google Wave: The ability to pick a spot in a conversation and reply to that specific line of text, almost like commenting to a sentence or paragraph in a larger bulletin board entry.� The typing and injection of that reply is shown in real time for whoever is sharing that wave. Pretty cool

The SharePoint Response: Other than a very few instances where I could see this being useful in a corporate enterprise, I can�t think of only a few instances to use something like this. Real time communication in different geographical locations, or just working on a project together in different cubes.� So SharePoint doesn�t really do this; however it can keep track of specific comments made on either a collaboration workspace document or a bulletin board style setup. Would this be cool to have? Of course but I think we can expect to see some really neat things come out of Groove (SharePoint WorkSpace) 2010. So stay tuned to that portion of things.

Uploading Images into a Wave by drag and dropping

Google Wave: Uploading pictures by drag and drop right into a works space that�s neat.�� The ability to drag photos right into a �Wave� and have them viewable in real time (while the actual photo is being uploaded)

The SharePoint Response: �Again the context doesn�t really apply; I don�t know why you�d really want to do this in the enterprise. Maybe if you are part of the design portion of a company and you�re collaborating on a project in real time.

I think this would be a great addition to MySites. There are a good bit of changes coming to Mysites in 2010 as well.� I don�t have that much information on it but, I still don�t see a real need for this functionality in the workplace outside of the novelty of having it.� Currently you can already upload multiple images by drag and drop or by multiple checkbox selection.

I would like to see the SharePoint image area�s cleaned up a little, maybe injected into a silverlight album or something.

Embedding API

Google Wave: Being able to drop Waves, search boxes etc onto existing web sites.� Cool idea but �Simpsons did it� I mean �SharePoint did it�.

The SharePoint Response: The use of dragging and dropping or importing web parts onto pages has been one of SharePoints biggest features. Granted this doesn�t apply outside of the farm. So you can�t just have a snippit of code that you can drop onto an existing web page (for example, I can�t go into the Sogeti internal SharePoint farm and push a contacts web part onto this blog site). But that�s probably good you can�t do this there is a huge security issue with being able to do this.

Besides that, you can always expose areas of your SharePoint environment external and push content via standard XML/RSS to your existing sites.

Playback Editing Content

Google Wave: Ok I have to admit the merged like play back of all edits made to a �Wave� is really cool. To my knowledge SharePoint or Word doesn�t really do this haha, I guess we have �comments�. I don�t know how viable this would be to a large document, wiki or blog. I guess the screen would have to jump around to show that area of change.

The SharePoint Response: �Bupkis well, granted you can see merged versions of a doc but its kind of hard to follow. �

Collaborative Editing

Google Wave: Again a cool feature that isn�t native to SharePoint. I can see it very useful for meetings or like a client proposal everyone on the proposing team to be able to keep fast paced collective notes.

The SharePoint Response: This can be done currently in Groove (Workspace 2010) as well as keeping blogs or wiki�s, however it wouldn�t� be real time, needing a check in and check out. However placing something like live blog on a SharePoint page, (something like Cover it live) would cover the same functionality. Is it exactly built in? No, but give it time.

Spell Checking

Google Wave: Context spell correction in the browser. Pretty cool. However I�m not sure I dig the auto correction of context words, that could be bad when you mean to say a word that Google Wave wants to correct.

The SharePoint Response: Most if not all of Microsoft Office application has context spell checking. Word 2007 has gotten very good with it (I am a perfect bad spelling example). I haven�t used IE 8 too much but I'm pretty sure they have built in spell checking in the browser fields (like firefox) does.

Extensions (just web parts renamed)

Google Wave: Spellie, Linkie, Searchie, Bugie, Twaves lot of funny names but do they do the job. Of course, but SharePoint has already been to this point. Nothing really new or �killer�

The SharePoint Response: With the community outreach of CodePlex in place and a lot of free third party web parts available on top of the modular model of features and solutions SharePoint is extremely extendable and adaptable. No upper hand gained here

Workflow

Google Wave: Very infant workflow (bug tracking workflow). Granted this is all that was demonstrated in the keynote but it doesn�t seem like workflow more than task management and tagging

The SharePoint Response: If you don�t know what SharePoint can do in the workflow space by now feel free to dive into the hundreds of thousands of write ups and descriptions of what can be done in the out of the box workflows, SharePoint Designer workflows, Windows workflow foundations, and all the third party providers of workflow.

Rosy

Google Wave: Freaking. Cool! Translating in 40+ languages on the fly.

The SharePoint Response: Yes SharePoint KIND OF does this with its language packs and different versions of the same site in different languages that are updatable by pushing through a single change. Again the context of the feature is real time communication. This would be a area for Live communication server to look at, as are most of the real flashy feature sets we�ve seen in their initial demo of Google Wave.

Summary

Google Wave is cool, no doubt about that. I would certainly install it/sign up for it and give it a try, I could see this being very useful for small startup companies that want to keep costs low, but still want to be able to collaborate possibly over distance and time differences.� But this is Ad Hoc style collaboration, this isn�t structured content, this isn�t Enterprise level Intranet material.� There is no front facing web site applications, there is not publishing and management of content and text.

Really what I get from the product (and Michael Lotter would agree) is that it�s twitter, email, IM etc mashed together to streamline the collaboration space in real time.� That�s not to be taken lightly, that�s a cool toolset, however it�s just not the same as SharePoint, you can�t make the correlation.� Google Wave is really cluttered in my opinion, very busy and has a lot of stuff going on without a real clean line of distinction between areas and content. �That�s a hard sell to get past business folks that have a linear frame of mind and a linear way of providing content.

In fact Lars says specifically and I quote �We�re building this thing with live concurrent editing, and chatting and instant messaging and email and pictures and all that stuff�� that just goes to the point of where the scope and context of this application is at. It is real time conversation and collaboration, not enterprise level content management, archiving, workflow, forms etc etc etc. It also makes me understand why Google was shopping for Twitter for a while there.

They only displayed search briefly, they showed it being very powerful but no real information behind it. And what about all those Waves they were creating, where are all those stored, how are they managed. How does search work across those Waves.� I think there is a lot to be figured out and explored on this side of the Wave, I would think a search company would have talked more about this.

So again, the �Killer� apps references hardly ever hold water, have you ever looked at Google�s tools? There are like 43 tools, I use 4 and think only half a dozen are even worth having (btw hey Google can you increase the Picasa web limit to higher than a gig? Seriously). I think Google has been stretching itself thin for sure, I just can�t see where some of these apps are going to produce revenue. Maybe there just going for the claim that you can do just about anything with Google regardless if you need to or not.

Lastly, I think it�s important to note that this is a beta product just announced, as we see more user interaction and development this will grow (think Apples App Store, there�s a freakin app to do everything).� I�ll be watching to see if this takes the place of my Microsoft Office Live Small Business instance for sure. But will it replace SharePoint? I doubt it, maybe if I �BING it� I can find a more definitive answer.

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Andy Burns - June 4, 2009
Couldn't agree more! Not a 'killer' - but interesting. And for a different market.

TechEd South Africa

By Eric Harlan
Published: May 30, 2009
Updated: May 30, 2009

Well I have some exciting news. I've been invited out to speak at TechEd South Africa August 2nd-5th. I can't say I'm not excited and a bit nervous.� Like to throw a quick shout to Joel (@JoelOleson) and Micheal O'Donovan from Microsoft South Africa, and Sogeti for giving me the time, and my lovely wife for being so cool with dipping into vacation funds to pay for this plane ticket haha and making this happen.� I struggled for a bit in writing this blog entry only because I didn't want it to come off like it was no big deal. It's a HUGE deal for me, but at the same time I didn't want it to come off as too much of a big deal. I like to think of myself as a pretty modest guy, hopefully thats well founded.� There's going to a be a bunch of SharePoint talks sessions in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town (Information Worker Users Group).

I'll be giving these sessions in TechEd South Africa (Durban):

InfoPath and InfoPath Forms Services tip and tricks

"InfoPath forms can automate your entire back office. The 80/20 rule certainly applies in the enterprise however.� With these tips and tricks for using and implementing InfoPath in your organization, you can help close that acceptance gap.� From injecting InfoPath forms into web parts on branded pages to compiling totals in repeating fields. These hints will will save you time and headaches!

SharePoint List Mashup's using SharePoint Designer

Mashups can cover just about any combination of data or design elements with in SharePoint specifically.� In this session we will go over how to mashup DHTML, XSLT and SharePoint lists into clean news rotation web parts.� This method will allow administrators to make simple changes in a list view that they are already comfortable with to make a news rotation change.� This session will also focus on the infamous DataView web part and some of the cool data presentation and integration tips used to show your users different editable views of list data.

SharePoint's Federated Search and Social Networking

With so much focus on SharePoint 2010 and some of the new search aspects related to the new release, its important to understand some of the features that got us to this point. This session will include a very quick overview on upgrading SharePoint to Server Pack 1 and upgrading with the infrastructure update. Then a main focus on incorporating the web parts and pulling structured data into SharePoint search results from various internal and external sources. Then taking it a step further, how to use those incoming data sources from social networking and Web 2.0 sites to� integrate data into SharePoint.

SharePoint Architecture Panel Discussion with Joel, Eric and Zlatan

Hilton Giesenow will facilitate the a panel based discussion with Joel Oleson, Eric Harlan and Zlatan Dzinic around SharePoint Architecture best practises and real world scenarios. Got questions or issues around governance, planning, physical architecture or information architecture? If so, bring them along with your open mind.

Twitter and the SharePoint Community-TechEd Online Video Joel Oleson & Eric Harlan

Twitter is changing our community SharePoint dynamics!� In this discussion we�ll talk about the path of social software and twitter�s influence on the SharePoint community.

Pretty cool screen shot. ;)

I'll post these recordings when the time comes around in the mean time, a few links.

Michael O'Donovan blog post

Joel Oleson's blog post

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Lei Zhong - June 18, 2009
Good job, Eric!

Hilton Giesenow - June 15, 2009
It's going to be great having you join us, it's an _awesome_ crowd. Make sure to spend some time touring as well, S.A. is a very special and unique place to visit (particularly here in Cape Town! Zlatan and I will make sure you're sorted out :->)

Al Dunsmore - June 1, 2009
That's cool and very excellent. Those are sessions I'd like to see myself.
Do we have a BSPUG shirt?? If not, take a couple of Sharepoint Saturday shirts.

Shadeed Eleazer, MCTS - June 1, 2009
This is great news, the Baltimore SharePoint banner will be flying high in South Africa and it will be beneficial both for your career and your journey as a presenter.

Take many pictures and video as well.

SharePoint Saturday DC

By Eric Harlan
Published: May 3, 2009
Updated: May 8, 2009

Well the photos are in, unusually I didn't take too many pictures of the SPSDc event. I think I was too busy twittering and streaming the live webcast. Sorry, it wont happen again.� So now that Mark Miller over at EndUserSharePoint.com finally got off his tail and went to get a new cable for this camera (haha) I can post up some of the great shots he took.

Of course you can always go to www.sharepointsaturday.org/dc and see most of the pictures already along with some webcast's that were done prior� to the event as well as some of the twitter feeds that were going on.

Overall the event was just great. Bunch of great speakers and a bunch of lively people.� It was a stacked event, with sessions through lunch, so everyone got their money's worth (the event is free). The thing I like most about these events is that they are FREE.� Training companies should charge for training, but you shouldn't charge for community events.� In a way I hope that SharePoint Saturdays, will start to weed out some of the more minor paid events. Granted I still there is a place for the larger conventions and such but the mere fact that some org's charge for discussing a product that is in it self collaboration and has "SHARE" as the root word always urks me.

Ok I'll get off my soap box now. I sat in on quite a few sessions this time around and in some cases jumped from session to session to aborb as much as humanly possible. I still missed 2-3 sessions that i REALLY wanted to sit in on. For example John Stovers (@stovereffect) session on JQuery I heard was just awesome. As well as @Michaellotter 's session.

Sessions I sat in on:

1) Federated Search given by Eric Harlan @ericharlan ... well i guess i had to be there for that one (download the deck below)

2)� Mark Millers @eusp discussion on Mind manager and resources for site/taxonomy planning. Really cool presentation, i'll have to figure out a way to utilize his templates. Maybe Sogeti has mind manager licenses.

3) Becky Isserman's @mosslover session on Visually developing custom web parts. I was streaming this event so when it came time for the demo, being as though I was in the back of a PACKED room, I migrated over to

4) Shadeed Eleazer's @mrshadeed session on redefining SharePoint administration. It was a good perspect that I never really viewed things as. Shadeed did a great job delivering!

5) NS Rana's session on Fast search. The demo was light because of some of the NDA's that are still in place but Fast is looking to be pretty powerful, can't wait to work with it more.

6) Joel Oleson's @joeloleson� Session on Twitter and SharePoint Admin fundamentals. It was a lot of fun watching this session from the back of the room. Half of the room said they use twitter the other half said they didn't. Well almost right away the half that did, pulled out the phones and were live twittering the event along with Joel. If you go back and look at the #spsdc stream you can see a flurry of tweets during that session. It was a lot of fun. Btw what is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

7) Dan Usher "user" @usher and Joel Ward @joelsef session on SmartCard authentication. Lot of fun to finally catch up to one of Usher's sessions. I'm looking forward to him speaking at BSPUG this month!

So here are a few photos of the event, some of the little moments that you had to be there to really experience. You know like Dan lewis @danlewisnet almost getting arrested. Or the somber strolls through the Korean War memorial. Long gazes over the Gettesburg address at the Linchon Memorial, picture ninja behind @ricknology and @gbglass , Random Iphone light saber fights with strangers and fake 20 dollar scavenger hunts lol. Its those times that make the lasting memories that and the rain holding off until we're 40 yards from the cars. I'm glad you talked me into going @danlewis and @joeloleson.

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Deanna McNeil - May 17, 2009
You like how I managed to stay OUT of these pics? *sigh* Next time...

SharePoint Saturday Atlanta

By Eric Harlan
Published: April 19, 2009
Updated: April 21, 2009

I just got back from SharePoint Saturday (Atlanta), had a great time at a great event. @JDAttis, @michaellotter and company did a fanstastic job making sure it ran smoothly (though ice was scarce haha).� It was great to see some of the old faces and catch up, it was also awesome to finally put a flesh and blood to some of the "TwitterTars" I see all day long and make new friends at that.�

I spoke on Federated Search in one of the first sessions of the day. After coming back from a great speakers dinner I figured i'd do the responsible thing and go over my demo and slide deck. I then realized that I deleted the Web App that contained my Shared Service Provider and my Federated Search. I got the VPC up and running again with a new SSP but I couldn't get my Federated Search Web Parts to see any of the results I was calling. So in haste and up until 4:30am, I rebuild and re-patched a back up vpc (that for some reason I knew i should bring). Later the next day after a flawless presentation, and pointed out by an attendee Terry Patterson, I wasn't sharing out my Hosts Connection. Terry I still owe you that beer my friend!

With that said, May 2nd, and the SharePoint Saturday (DC) event is coming quickly and I need to finalize my plans for that events presentation. I have three possibilities but I have to narrow it down.� If you haven't got a chance to get out to an event, they are a great resource to get out and get some knowledge, totally free mind you. You can check it out at SharePointSaturday.org.

Here are some photos from the Atlanta event http://www.flickr.com/photos/spsatl/

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How to start and run a successful SharePoint Users Group (Part 5 Synopsis and Checklist)

By Eric Harlan
Published: April 2, 2009
Updated: April 2, 2009

Synopsis (Be a good Steward. Summary and Checklist)

Now that you�ve read the ups and the downs, the cost and the rewards and you�re still ready to jump in, let�s go over a few of the major points we talked about.� Note:� do yourself a favor, if you skipped down to this portion of the paper, go back and read it from start to finish, yes I know it�s a bit long winded but I assure you I�ve added some funny antics to make the reading easier.� On top of that its instrumental in the overall process to understand what you�re getting into.�� The purpose of this article was simply to fill in the gaps of the few articles available through other avenues currently. In my opinion this has been a fairly detailed and extensive write up on your upcoming adventure.

Important Items

�� Hammer down your intensions

Make sure you�re getting involved in this community for the right reasons. It�s a support and service role. There should only be passive self advancement.�

�� Understand the pros and cons

Know what you�re getting into, the time commitments, issues you�ll have to deal with how to deal with the wolves and how to be the viper. The money it might cost you and the personal satisfaction you�ll get out of the endeavor.

�� Get the location nailed down

The most important part of the deal, get a stable suitable location to help the grow the group as much as possible

�� Sponsors

Try to nail down as many full time sponsors as possible. It�s really hard but will make your life easier in the long run. No more worrying about food, swag etc.� Watch out for the hard sell and the takeover plots (seriously).

�� Make sure folks want to attend

Try to anticipate your audience, what they will like and what they won�t. Once you�re in the door, keep a finger on the pulse of what the users want to see/hear. Anonymous polls work great.

�� Support

A good support system is great to have a place. A number two, or a informal board of trustees to get advice from could come in helpful when in a bind.

I�ve enclosed a checklist that might help in getting the group started. � It shouldn�t be a supplement for experience or at very least reading this full paper but it will offer some guidance.

Thank you for reading, GOOD LUCK and special thanks to Todd Baginski (MVP), Joel Oleson, and Jason Medero (MVP)

Download the white paper here:

Reason for starting
� I understand this is not MY users group	� I�m interested in this technology
� I understand this will not always be easy	� I don�t want to do this solely for self advancement
� I fully understand the potential and unseen Pros and Cons	� I want to be a steward to help others
First Steps
� Research the local area, and know the existing groups	� Understand the local market for that technology
� Researched the International SharePoint Pro�s	� masking tape or sewing tape (for last-minute ripped hems)
Location
� Found a Consistent location	� Located at a suitable middle ground
� Has potential for growth
Sponsors
� Food	� Location
� Swag	� Financial
� Speakers	� Hosting
Personality/Services
� Knowledgebase	� Newsletter
� Jobs	� Website
� Events Calendar	� Tutorials
� Resource links	� SharePoint Saturdays
� SharePointSki Events	� Partnership with other Users Groups
� Surveys and Polls

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How to start and run a successful SharePoint Users Group (Part 4 Personality)

By Eric Harlan
Published: March 21, 2009
Updated: April 2, 2009

A SPUG�s Personality (Would you date her?)

Every SPUG has its own personality it seems. Some are strictly run (maybe too much), others extremely loose and all of the things that come along with those states, and everything between.� You as the founder/organizer are the front lines in mapping how the users group will feel to new and long term users.

There are a few things specific things that set the stage for a warm, welcoming and ultimately strong user base. Here are a few:

Website and its features

In the end a users group is there for the sole purpose to assists the users in as much in the technology you focus on AND normal everyday life perks.� At BSPUG we have a few heavily utilized portions of our website. Prior to getting on that topic a few more words about your website overall, just to reiterate the point made above. The site should be easy to navigate, FRESH, and welcoming. Those are the top priorities; it doesn�t have to be a SharePoint site at all, just K.I.S.S.� If you go to http://www.BaltimoreSug.org you�ll see hopefully what I see, a well thought out organized vibrant site with options.

KnowledgeBase

The BSPUG knowledge base is essentially a SharePoint discussion board. It allows users to have access to the breadth of knowledge in the group in a simple post.� If you decide to sign up for membership on our site, you are given the choice to be on this forum, which sends an alert email to you when a new item is posted. This gives users and readers an opportunity to have another layer of help when trying to work through a technical issue.� Remember to extend rights to the user allowing them to manage their own alerts, 15 emails in quick succession could be a bit annoying if they don�t have a chance to ignore them and ultimately will just get blocked as spam.

Job Listings

Admittedly our job board has not lived up to my expectations, but we�re working on that. We have in place something similar to the knowledgebase but for job openings from our sponsors.� There are many ways you can handle this but let me put a few ideas in your head.� Keep in mind that every recruiter in the nation will be emailing you asking to post their job on your site, RESIST! My advice is to only allow sponsors of the group to put their jobs on the site. This does a few things, first allow you to manage the flood if you are clear on this page that you only allow sponsors. Next it�s a resource you trust and feel confident in extending to the users (trust is the key word there), and lastly it helps build relationships with the group and sponsors who can help you along the journey.

Event Calendar

This doesn�t mean just the SPUGS events but conferences, best practices conferences, SharePoint Saturdays, SharePointSki events, and OTHER SPUG events.� Keep this fresh and up to date and it will promote to the users there are other events out there to participate in and ultimately the strength of the community will grow.� Try to be the first person to pony up and declare you are attending this event, that confidence moving forward will hopefully drive other users to do the same.

Tutorials

Again, admittedly we don�t do a great job with this at BSPUG but we�re trying.� Video tutorials are a great idea to help spread a technology. There are a ton of tutorials out there both on YouTube and other video sharing sites. If you do nothing more than compile and embed some of the great ones out there on the users group site, you�re ahead of the curve.� If you can go the extra mile and create and publish tutorials by you and the other users you�re that much further ahead.

Links

The good ole link section has been around on the web since its creation. There is a reason for that; it�s an effective way to share other sites and resources to your reader base.� On the BSPUG site we have broken down almost every aspect of SharePoint into categories such as design, web parts, architecture etc and posted links to articles we find as we do our day to day jobs. It makes for a great resource section, spreads the words and gives an index of easy to find issues.

SPUG sponsored events

Keep in mind that an air of confidence and consistency will transfer to the users.� When you promote SPUG events, promote them as though it�s a common practice and you just got to be there. This will plant a desire in the users in a way that being timid and pleading with them to attend cannot.

Code Camps

If you can pull off such an event try to have 2-3 per year. A code camp is essentially what the title suggests, one or two days, usually on the weekend to have a machine in front of each user and physically walk through technical AND non technical practices.� There are logistical stipulations to this obviously but if the resources are available please take advantage of this. It will help build your local community, gives users the access to a more hands on environment and most importantly should be FREE.

Special Events

Try to be the host of special events outside of your typical session. For example, host a SharePoint Saturday (BSPUG�s is July 25^th 2009), have happy hours (free if possible), Skiing events or any other group building event. Be prepared these won�t always attract a full house but the simple fact that you�re out there every month or two trying speaks volumes to the dedication you have for the group.� Don�t assume doing these things will be easy all the time, finding a sponsor to pony up a few hundred dollars so you and some friends can enjoy a few drafts gets difficult. We usually hold our free happy hour every year (BSPUG�s is June 18^th 2009) we can wrap the celebration of another year around the event.

Don�t be afraid to shake things up, host the event even if two people show up. It�s not everyone�s idea of a good time to have fifty caliber sized paintballs hurling at them at 120 feet per second, but if you can just get them out there you might be able to wrangle in a user for life.

Special Speakers

In the right circles the SharePoint community specifically is very giving. There are a lot of MVP�s and profile speakers that are willing to drive many hours or buy expensive plane tickets for the sole reason to come to an event, find those circles and start to mingle, interact with other users groups, if they�ll have you (unfortunately not all of them are willing) and be flexible with people and their time to have them out.� A great way to make some connections is directly on twitter, filter on #SharePoint and you�d be surprised how deep the community goes.

Survey�s

Ping the users semi often to get their take on how things are being run. What they would like to see and what they would like to hear about.� You are just a means to serve and to fully serve means to be ready to hear what is not being done correctly, making changes and pushing forward.� Keep them anonymous sometimes you take to heart negative criticism, putting things in place to make sure you don�t know who says what will help everyone in the end.� We�ve done these two ways in the past, both online and paper form at the sessions themselves.

Plan

Have monthly meetings with the folks in the group responsible for things in the group.� Talk about concerns and issues you might have both with each other and with how to implement events and survey results.� Use �Committees� sparingly, nothing tears down a Republic faster than people who hold priority over others. However it might be wise to use the �regulars� as trusted advisors to the group.� These folks are devoting their time almost as much as you are to attend the events, see what they think directly. A word of caution though, never address this committee as anything more than a loose set of advisors and never publically to the group overall.

Would you date her?

Overall that�s the question that you need to answer, will the users consistently take time out of their months to come out and hear someone talk. The points above will help guide you through ideas and what to expect moving forward. Keep it inviting and warm and you�d be surprised the turn outs you will get.

Please stay tuned for the next segment of this 5 part write up: �Synopsis (Be a good Steward. Summary and Checklist)� the final wrap up in this series.

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Sponsors (When to say NO!)

This will be my most delicately addressed portion of this write up. There will be times where I seem a little tough, but that�s through experience I assure you.

What types of sponsors do you need?

Well that�s a great question really; it all depends on how you and the members want to run the group. Here are ones I can think of off the top of my head. �They are in order by priority:

Location

Basically what it says. The location sponsor, talked about previously, is your bread and butter sponsor and often the most overlooked.� You really need to get a good report with your location sponsor, and you need to be choosy when you pick them.� Give your location a lot of thought; it will save you a lot of hassle in the long term. Please read the piece on Locations above.

Food

Food sponsors can be a bit tricky, here�s the kicker with that. See the object of a food sponsor is to obviously feed the group.� Over the course of 2 years of the Baltimore SharePoint Users Group, we�ve had everything from pizza to seriously high end catered food.�� But the problem with food sponsorship is that it�s VERY hard to get a sponsor to put money into the group each month for food (sometimes totaling up to 300 bucks), when they don�t always see any ROI.

As we said in the Locations portion, ROI is everything in the business game.� It will be very rare that you will be able to find a long term food sponsor that is willing to stick with you and shake it up a bit with regards to what gets ordered for each month�s events. If you do by chance find one HOLD ON TIGHT! This will be one of the group�s biggest assets outside of a location to meet obviously.� (Shameless plug, we�re currently looking for one for the BSPUG).

Financial Surplus

Let�s face it, money talks.� I�ll be the first to tell you that you CAN run a SPUG on bare bones funding.� To qualm the bellies of the educated, it takes a simple few slices of pizza, which I'm sure a lot of us could probably swing, hey maybe even a coke or two.� However that�s just simply not the best way.

If you can nail down a solid Location sponsor, you�ve got a great food sponsor and you still have more coming in, take the financial sponsorship. But don�t frivolously blow the cash on happy hour drinks. Save it, yes, be responsible and save it.� Because as I spoke on above, there will be times where there is no sponsor at all, or you have to front some cash for an event or something of that nature. It happens more than you think.

Hosting

For a while in the beginning we started with our site hosted on my personal Linux server. We used a free PHP CMS believe it or not.� We came to the conclusion that this method was free; it enabled us to keep our information fresh, a clean modern look and ability to change features quickly.� One day I received an email from FPweb.net offering to sponsor the users group with a publicly facing WSS 3.0 site.� Well at that point we had no excuse not to �eat our own dog food.�� So we rebuilt the site and skinning around SharePoint and re launched it. FPWeb has been great to us to date.� Try solidifying a hosting sponsor would be a good way to get off on the right foot and be able to get the information about the group out quickly.� But if you cannot score a SharePoint sponsor, make sure whatever you present to the world is easy to read, fresh and has correct information about your locations and sessions.

Swag

This one you can probably go without, but it�s worth mentioning. The swag sponsor usually comes in handy if you have a specific special event or an abundance of regular sponsors at your monthly event. My suggestion here is to harness your marketing skills to put off that sponsor until the next event an allow them to sponsor food which always seems to be the hardest part to come by, if you haven�t picked that up yet.

What makes the perfect sponsor?

The first attribute that I would say makes a great sponsor is that they get what the group is about. They understand it�s a community thing BEFORE it is a business opportunity.� That�s a hard pill for a lot of sponsors to grasp. In a day in age where ROI is everything, it�s often that agendas get wrapped up into something so simple as a food sponsor.

Another attribute of a good sponsor is they have their stuff together. We�ve had sponsors come through that are ordering food last minute or are trying to throw together a presentation.� If they don�t have their stuff together, in the end it�s just going to affect the cohesiveness of the group.

Remember to remain agile in dealing with sponsors, they do bail out, they get other commitments and a lot of the times you just need to fend for yourself. That�s where you�re role comes in, make it happen in adversity.� Plus it will keep you on your toes

Things to look out for

The hard sell

Inevitably you will have a sponsor approach you or has already solidified a speaking engagement at the users group, which would like to present their product.� �Like I said before, unless it is someone in the community whose sole intent is to come and spread the gospel, and there are quite a few, company based speakers are coming for the purpose of selling.� Regardless of how they choose to pitch it to the group, they want to sell their product.� There is nothing wrong with this, in fact it helps the community overall HOWEVER, you need to go about it a specific way.

How we go about it at the Baltimore SharePoint Users Group is like so.� When we have vendors come in to present their products we have two options available. A 10-15 minute full on sales demo, they can pitch it as hard as they want but for a short time so it doesn�t get too old and it gives the users of the group something to look for (the end of the presentation) if the pitch is just too over the top.

The other method is to allow a vendor to have the entire session. GASP! What�s that you say? That�s insane?� Well maybe not, what if you required the vendor to demonstrate what their product does but without actually using their product at all.� We�ve had CorasWorks come out a few times and they�re great at this.

As I said in some of my Cons above, the hard sell downright sucks.�� No one, including myself, wants to give up their weeknight just to hear how awesome a product that cost a lot of green is.� That gets really old after the first twenty minutes.� But what if a vendor, in order to show how awesome their product was had to demonstrate how you do something in SharePoint (any technology) without using the product, if it can even be done?� They can give the users some good knowledge on how to solve a real world issue without the use of their product walk through the entire process. �And then at the end come in with the �oh by the way, our product does all of this, like so�.�

It always seems to go over well because you�re not wasting the users� time. You�re teaching them how to do something regardless if they buy the product.� Now you will need to discuss this approach with the vendor before hand and make them aware of your expectations and make sure you are all on the same page.� This can be hard to understand for some vendors because they are usually used to a possible buyer wanting them to come in and pitch their product. Make sure you also reiterate this before the session starts.

The assuming

Hopefully you and your partners have worked hard to make the group about the technology community you serve, unbiased and totally neutral.� The scariest thing you can come up against is an overzealous sponsor that literally tries to infiltrate the inner functions of the group.� Imposing its will and in some cases try to even take it over.� Crazy you say? Well think twice because it does happen.� Be aware of this; don�t misunderstand the desire to help with the desire to overtake.�

Don�t be paranoid! �This pushes people away, granted paranoia seems to set in easier when you have one person putting the time into planning and pulling off each session. Having another person there to pick up the baton when you need a break, sound board off of and keep you on track will always help when the crazy invades. �It�s ok just stay established and stick to your guns.

Notice throughout this entire write up so far, and to come you have never seen me describe the BSPUG as �My group.� You shouldn�t do this and neither should your sponsor. If that mentality shows its face, address it quickly and make sure everyone�s place is understand in the grand scheme of doing the right things for the group.

Company run users groups

Let me preface this section by saying that there are a lot of users groups out there that are put on directly through an established company.� Please understand that this is not bad, this can be the best thing that ever happened to that area�s tech community.� However it does take the neutrality out of the equation, so it is important to for the folks that run the sessions to keep themselves and the group as a whole in context.

There might come days when a competitor company has a staff member that although is part of the group, but is also an employee of that company.� You will need to make the right decision for the group and be ok with potentially losing business that day.� You will need to �not be so seriously about yourself.�� Remember the context of the organization and roll with the collaboration, because at the end of the day that�s where it�s at.

Like I said above, being put on by a company could be the best thing that�s happened to the group.� It will give you more leverage and funding to do some of the things you want group to be able to experience.� If you are part of a group that is run by a company, make sure you remind them to keep the propaganda to a minimum and focus on the group as a whole.� If all that is taking place, it could be a great ride.

Aim high, but don�t forget the little guy!

We�ve had sponsors from Microsoft to very small organizations up and coming.� Keep in mind, it�s not always about the big names, it�s about the companies that �get it� and are willing to further the cause.� Some of the easiest sponsors we�ve had to work within the past, have been the easiest to work with.� Keep an open mind about your sponsors and treat them all the exact same, no special treatment for any of them (outside of packages you might sell) but maintain an even keel for all.

Having a good understanding of the potential pitfalls and the ways around them can dramatically help you to make the right decisions when the chips are down.

�Users Group Location (Location, Location, Damnation)

One of the most critical aspects of the users group you�ll have to overcome is a CONSISTENT SUSTAINABLE location.� The users will need to know where the sessions are every month. A consistent place (and consistent area at that place) is so very important.

I�ve know of nightmares where users groups who will bounce from library to library, conference room to conference room, and move every time another venue has priority. This could be a huge deal breaker of a problem if the area that you have these sessions at are a major metro area. A location that in the matter of 10 miles will mean rush hour gridlock or smooth sailing drive times, not to mention the overall hassle of it constantly telling users a new place to go, breaking that comfort level you once had.

We in Baltimore are dealing with a situation somewhat in the middle. We have a consistent location, but the rooms change frequently because of other events that are planned there that earn the company revenue.� We stay �because the sponsor is great, gives us whatever we need if they can and have a great lab facility at our disposal, so there are pros and cons that are weighed out on this matter (starting to catch that pattern?).

Centralization

Last year when we had our sponsor debacle and chose to move, we did a survey of all our regular members. In the survey we asked what town they lived in, and where they worked. Why ask such personal information you ask?� Well there was a very good reason! We had the option of 3-4 different locations at our disposal, but we wanted to choose the location that had the most to offer and was in the most centralized location. We found that everyone was almost equal distance from proposed new spot.� The only exception we had was one lady who it actually made the drive a longer one, however easier (more freeways) at the same time. So it seemed to all fall into place for us.

You obviously will not have this luxury just starting out, because you won�t really know who the users are until you actually start the group.� In this case the best thing to do is just keep in mind how traffic patterns are, where your tech communities are and try to pick a spot that is convenient to most people and will add to the users wanting to come out each month.

Isolation

The next thing I would address, as I said in my initial overview, is identifying if there are any other users groups in your area.� This doesn�t mean the same technology as the one you are starting, but any that may interfere or challenge the user to make a choice between the group you are trying to get going and an already established group that may deal in the same line of technology (example: dot net group vs. a SharePoint group).� In the spirit of the users group, you don�t really want to try to steal members away, that�s not the way to go about it. The way to approach it is to offer something that the other group doesn�t, make a time that doesn�t conflict and give the user the choice to go to one or the other OR BOTH!

Growth

Another important aspect of picking a location is going to be the ability for that facility to cater to your growth.� The Users group you start will inevitably be small, that�s the nature of the beast, you�ll have to get the word out there and until you do be prepared to start off small. �There will be a balance you�ll need to weigh between logical space now (something small) and a larger space to grow into.

There is a certain lack of appeal to walk into a huge room and yet only have 8 people sitting in there. It honestly is a little depressing. But I will tell you this; there is a lot of motivation to pack out that room every month. It will make you work harder to get more people in the room.� The more you can stay motivated to get people in the door and spread the good word, the better.

As I mentioned above, the current location of the Baltimore SPUG has labs. UMBC Training centers is essentially that, a training center. They have a great program in place to image hard drives and get things on them that you need to do real time full group demos. I don�t bring this up to specifically pitch UMBC Training (even though they have SharePoint training as well), but I bring it up to point out that when choosing your location look past your current need.�� We wanted to hold code camps or hands on �SharePoint Saturdays.� We leveraged this location sponsor to help us get to the point of logical expansion, so should you.

Accessibility

I can tell you that a place that�s hard to find and harder to find a parking spot will turn the Users off very quickly.� The first location we had was tucked back in a business park. For first time people coming to the group, it was tricky to find it.� Even today our location is just a bit tricky to find, its back off the beaten path as a result we have had a few occasions where users will tell me they looked and looked but couldn�t find the meeting place.�

Consider a slew of LARGE signs. 8x10 pieces of paper just don�t cut it when you�re doing 40mph down the road.� Once at the correct place, smaller signs guiding the user to the correct session space.�� A great idea is those �house burglar alarm warning signs�. You know the ones like ADT or Brinks or any other alarm company? Well I don�t mean the sign itself because that might be much too small however, those little yard signs sometimes come with solar powered led lights that charge a small battery and at night turn on. These are great to put on your road side signs to shed a little light on dark nights (usually winter time).� I�m sure you can find lighting solutions very cheaply online.

Hey their a sponsor right?

Keep in mind a location is essentially a sponsor.� You should remember to extend the same perks to your location sponsor as the sponsor that feeds you.� But you should also remember that a location sponsor has a lot more leverage in the users group.�

When to bail? Let's hope with the group you help establish you never have to address when to leave a location. Ideally you should make this choice once. But as I said in the last part of this write up, you have to be agile, and in being agile that might mean you need to cut your losses and pack up shop for another location. There are a few warning signs you might want to keep an ear to the ground for. First like I said above, you have to remember that a location sponsor holds the most active sponsorship in the SPUG. They have the power to close their doors, impose themselves more than the rest and align themselves over time because they could be the only long term sponsor you have.� Be careful when you start hearing "User group brought to you by "X" ", or something to the effect of "we put on the Users group" etc. These could all be very innocent and just another part of the game you'll need to play, but in our case they were indicators to something much more devious at hand.

ALWAYS have a back up plan. Always have a ace up your sleeve incase you need to move quickly. Have everything in order to pass that information onto the users and minimize the time down as much as possible. Be aware of this, I�ll cover this more in �Sponsors�.

What Makes a good SharePoint Users Group Location checklist:

Please stay tuned for the next segment of this 5 part write up: �Sponsors (When to say NO!)� this will be an important one.