Collaborative Thinking

OCS 2007 Information

Helpful for those in the middle of OCS planning activities:

Diagnostics

There has been more than a 1 million downloads of the popular Exchange Best Practice Analyser (ExBPA) tool - OCS now has one.

OCS BPA is now live on Microsoft.com in the download center at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=1B90993C-072A-4C84-B385-B76D23B2F27C&displaylang=en

What is the OCS BPA? It is a diagnostic tool that gathers configuration information from an Office Communications Server 2007 environment and determines whether the configuration is set according to Microsoft best practices.

Brettjo :: Microsoft Exchange Messaging

Training

Module 1: OCS Architecture details the system architecture that is used by OCS 2007, OCS fundamentals, server roles, component dependencies, planning and deployment scenarios.

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7202605

Module 2: OCS IM Presence Clients describes the rich presence advancement that Office Communications Server is delivering as well as Office Communicator clients, and deployment scenarios.

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7202606

Module 3: OCS Conferencing illustrates the new on-premise conferencing capability within OCS 2007 and the differences between LiveMeeting Service and on-premise capability. This module also differentiates conferencing clients and requirements

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7202607

Module 4: OCS Management and Troubleshooting articulates the new management tools and techniques for troubleshooting OCS 2007, and for identifying any deployment problems.

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7202608

Module 5: OCS Compliance details the features that OCS 2007 provides to help deliver compliance scenarios, as well as tools and techniques for reporting information.

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7202609

Module 6: OCS and Exchange UM explains the interaction of OCS 2007 and Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging, details the environment, dial-plan integration, and steps required to add OCS 2007 to Exchange UM infrastructure.

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7202610

Brettjo :: Microsoft Exchange Messaging : OCS 2007 Learning Series (#4)

Wikipedia's Awkward Adolescence - CIO.com

Interesting insight that outlines some of the complex relationship dynamics that often occur "behind the scenes". These dynamics are especially relevant to enterprise strategists that might try to duplicate Wikipedia's success internally within corporate intranets.

Like a startup maturing into a real business, Wikipedia's corporate culture seems, at times, conflicted between its role as a harmless nouveau-digital experiment and its broader ambitions. The "power and prestige" to which Carr refers results from management practices that were less noticeable when Wikipedia was smaller and its editorial community newer and less formal. However, these practices were noticeable enough that Wikipedia cofounder Larry Sanger departed in 2002, later citing issues with the project's "antielitism." The issues have become more visible since Wikipedia has grown.

Wikipedia claims anyone can edit an entry and, superficially, that is true for most pages (due to edit wars, administrators can now lock pages). Popular culture even identifies Wikipedia's loose access as its primary weakness. Stephen Colbert mocked Wikipedia on The Colbert Report, editing an entry while on live television, and CalTech graduate student Virgil Griffith embarrassed thousands of companies, organizations and individuals with Wikiscan, an interactive website that can "list anonymous Wikipedia edits from interesting organizations," revealing self-serving edits from organizations as diverse as Diebold, Bob Jones University, and the Republican and Democratic parties. What is not explained is that edits made by those outside the informal circle of leadership may not stick very long. The quieter rumblings about Wikipedia have less to do with vanity edits or poor maintenance of content than they do with the organization's increasingly arbitrary editorial overrides and deletions and rapidly thickening in-group culture.

Wikipedia's Awkward Adolescence - CIO.com - Business Technology Leadership

Social Computing: Connecting The Enterprise To The Real World

(Originally posted on the Collaboration & Content Strategies team blog)

I understand Joe's skepticism with all-things-labeled "2.0". We are suffering from some degree of "irrational exuberance" when it comes to some of the market hype around topics like social networking. However, there are significant transitions happening that will affect virtually all enterprise organizations. A confluence of societal, market, economic, business and technology trends are altering the way an organization perceives itself in relation to "the outside world". There was a time where the a person's computing experience was provided almost exclusively by their employer. That is no longer the case. People are increasingly coming to the workplace with expectations that their digital work environment will be just one aspect of their overall digital life. That implies that similar computing models will be available. In some situations this might mean continued use of consumer-oriented tools (natively or federated to enterprise systems in an acceptable manner). 

Many of the more forward-thinking executive and management teams that I talk to realize that significant transformation is necessary to support innovation programs and other strategies to "grow the business" (e.g., reach new customers, sell more to existing customers, increase market share, move into adjacent markets). From an organizational perspective, becoming much more externalized and inter-connected to the world around them is fundamental to achieving many of these strategic goals. In many cases, organizations also need to be better connected internally as well so they can catalyze and leverage their own resources more effectively.

Almost everywhere I go, management teams are talking about "Facebook for the enterprise". In many cases, the term is used a catch-phrase to describe a variety of areas where social computing solutions can be beneficial. Social networking happens to be just one example. And while there are benefits from applications within the enterprise, there value is even more compelling when social networking platforms connect the enterprise to external audiences (e.g., customers, partners, suppliers, alumni, retirees, hiring prospects, and many other constituencies). Some of the solution areas that I've come across include (in no specific order):

• Strategic talent management (recruitment, retain workers)
• Innovation programs
• Process-specific applications
• Knowledge Management (yes, it's back...)
• Customer / partner / supplier relationships
• Corporate social responsibility programs
• General productivity and collaboration
• Community-building (including brand value)
• Expertise location and "who know's who" contact networks
• Multi-generational workforce

I hope this helps Joe (and other "cranky old Luddites" out there)... if not, give me a call.

Application Platform Strategies Blog: I've been thinking this all along...

Yes, I sound like a cranky old Luddite - and this area is outside my team and responsibilities at Burton Group - but I'm trying to understand the phenomenon, to make sure I'm not missing something. My question is serious. What's the value of social networking tools inside the enterprise firewall?

Application Platform Strategies Blog: I've been thinking this all along...

'Wiki City Rome' to draw a map like no other - MIT News Office

Interesting application - food for thought: something similar could be done for a variety of events (such as large conferences). While this system is designed around real-time movements of people (a "where are they" pulse) - similar pulses could be derived around "what are they reading", "what are people talking about" - we see evidence of these signal correlations, or pulses, in XML syndication and social filtering platforms. As I've posted about before, "social analytics" is perhaps the most compelling aspect of the entire Web 2.0 / Enterprise 2.0 meme. 

'Wiki City Rome' to draw a map like no other

Residents of Italy's capital will glimpse the future of urban mapmaking next month with the launch of "Wiki City Rome," a project developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that uses data from cellphones and other wireless technology to illustrate the city's pulse in real time.

The project will debut Sept. 8 during Rome's "Notte Bianca" or white night, an all-night festival of events across the capital city. During that night, anyone with an Internet connection will be able to see a unique map of the Italian capital that shows the movements of crowds, event locations, the whereabouts of well-known Roman personalities, and the real-time position of city buses and trains.

The map will also be broadcast on a big-screen display in one of Rome's main squares in the city center, giving Romans real-time feedback on the human dynamics in their immediate surroundings.

...

By looking at a city using a "real-time control system" as a working analogy, the Wiki City project studies tools that enable people to become prime actors themselves in improving the efficiency of urban systems. In coming years, the Wiki City project will develop as an open platform where anybody can download and upload data that are location and time sensitive.

'Wiki City Rome' to draw a map like no other - MIT News Office

OCS and Communicator 2007 vs. Windows Live Messenger

Interesting comparison but it raises as many questions as it answers. As "digital life" and "digital work" converge - why are there such artificial separations between Windows Live Messenger and Office Communicator? OK, the quick response would be "well - enterprises are different". And while that might be true - it doesn't address why there are completely different products (you should be able to compose the necessary "enterprise-level" components and services into a client as needed. Some of these capabilities are actually ones I would want in my "life" experience as well as my "work experience". And as software becomes converged with life/work - the less hard-wiring vendors will be able to defend (e.g., integration with only certain directories, certain e-mail or collaboration platforms). And I'm not sure the last point on the Communicator client being upgraded only once in three years is a valid point at all.

Communicator 2007 with OCS is better than using WLM because:

Its integrated with the AD, Exchange and SharePoint

• Looks up all the numbers for you, mobile, landline, home etc from contacts or the GAL
• Uses your calendar to auto set your presence state
• Takes you to their mysite on right click
• Presence globes throughout MS Office system, including SharePoint, AD, Outlook, Word, other apps etc.

Security

• Anyone can sign up for your Windows Live ID and thus pretend to be you (all it says is 'email address not verified'
• In WLM you can change your name to someone else. All too easy to change your name and impersonate someone else.
• When you leave an organisation, your communicator buddy list stays with the company. With WLM you take that list with you
• Communicator is possible to log conversation centrally, not possible with WLM
• Because it encrypts the traffic so people can't intercept your messages as they travel outside the firewall

Higher fidelity presence

• You can see at a glance if they are OOF before you email them or IM them
• With Communicator you have advanced presence such as 'in call' and 'in a meeting' which are set automatically
• You can tag a contact if you are looking for them
• With Communicator you can also see the presence of those that are NOT on buddy list.  This is a big one - its people you don't know that well that you need the most presence assistance with.  I'd have to put the whole company on my buddy list to use WLM for this.

Phone integration

• Communicator integrates with your phone
• Can divert calls to the device you choose even mid call
• Communicator lets you answer the phone on your pc if you like because the two are integrated
• You can have your phone do simultaneous ring like your desk and mobile
• Via remote call control, you can see your phone calls come in even when you are not near your phone or mobile and can choose to take them via the pc or send to vmail
• Is integrated with your voicemail letting you talk to your voicemail inbox from the client
• With Communicator you can make outgoing and incoming calls from your PC. WLM only does outgoing - and its nowhere near as good quality (IMHO)
• You can click on a phone number in a document and it will phone it, you can cut and paste numbers and edit them before dialling

Enterprise management

• Communicator client is updated once every 3 or so years. WLM has a shorter refresh cycle so requires more effort to maintain in an enterprise
• You can do multi person video conferencing - don't think you can do that with WLM
• Can IM a DL
• Cleaner UI, more corporate

Office Rocker! : Why is OCS and Communicator 2007 better than Windows Live Messenger?

SynOA: Syndicated Application Architectures

Another indicator that XML Syndication is being thought in more serious terms (as outlined in an earlier post here):

Jon Udell Interview with Rohit Khare

At the 2002 Emerging Technology Conference, Rohit Khare gave an influential talk on an architecture he called application layer internetworking (ALIN). Five years later that thinking has evolved, and now he's describing syndication-oriented architecture (SynOA). The same idea of event routing is at the core of both ALIN and SynOA. With ALIN, messages are SOAP packets that travel between applications. With SynOA's, messages are items in RSS or Atom feeds that travel among applications, people, or both.

ITConversations podcast with Rohit Khare

O'Reilly XML.com article

In a recent interview with Rohit Khare, Director of CommerceNet Labs, Jon Udell may have been responsible for introducing a new meme into the noosphere that will be as important in its time as AJAX was in 2004. Rohit Khare gave an influential presentation describing ALIT, which utilized SOAP messages for transferring events between systems, but in the intervening years, his thinking has shifted to a new system based not upon SOAP but upon RESTful RSS and Atom feeds, for which he has coined the term Syndication Oriented Architecture, or SynOA.

....

A syndication feed is a curious beast. At its head is a block of metadata that includes a reference to where it comes from, a category or two, publication dates, and enough data to provide a human readable label on that particular feed. The entries of a syndication feed are similarly blocks of metadata tied to links that also include identifiers and the potential for content blocks. In general, the purpose of such blocks is not in general to contain bodies of information (which is the way that SOAP works) but rather to contain enough of a description about the given entry that it can be used either by a human agent or by a machine agent to figure out what to do with the link.

With a system like AtomPub, you can also post entries to an AtomPub server wrapped in an <atom:entry> block, and the system will then, based upon ACLs and the entry envelope’s rel or category tags, perform processing on that object to add something derived from it to the server. This information doesn’t have to be HTML blogs - it can just as readily be objects modelled as blocks of XML (or potentially JSON) data. What’s more, what gets sent in that particular case may not necessarily be the data itself, but instead might be links to that data - in essence, a properly enabled publisher would then be able to reference that linked data at a later time, with the knowledge coming from the atom <entry> envelope making it possible to determine what specific action needed to be performed on that data.

SynOA What? Syndicated Application Architectures Come of Age - O'Reilly XML Blog

Wisdom from Online Crowds - Knowledge@Wharton

You may have to register for a free account:

Prediction markets, where people bet on everything from the likelihood that a movie will be a hit to the chance that a politician will become president to whether the stock market will go up or down, are in vogue. Research papers have been written on their accuracy, and the media likes to write about how these predictions often beat the purported experts.

But they are not perfect. Markets require babysitters. Someone has to set them up and ensure that the traders' money -- in cases where people are, for example, buying shares of stock -- exchanges hands in an orderly way. Wharton professors Albert Saiz and Uri Simonsohn have found a cheaper way to deliver some of the same benefits. It's called an Internet search.

Specifically, Saiz, in the real estate department, and Simonsohn, in operations and information management, argue in a new research paper that the likelihood that a topic is discussed online, in relation to a given location, correlates with its relative prevalence in the real world.

Predictions and Perceptions: Downloading Wisdom from Online Crowds - Knowledge@Wharton

Yahoo! Acquires Zimbra

Oh well, my bet was on Cisco to acquire Zimbra. Zimbra is one of the more innovative companies in the collaboration space. Karen covers the e-mail market in much more depth and her analysis of the acquisition is here. I have a tiered perspective on this deal but overall, positive:

Skeptical: Yahoo! has not been successful in past efforts to make customers out of traditional large enterprises (efforts in the portal and instant messaging space were disappointing). I'm not sure Zimbra alone will alter the decision-making criteria in large shops already invested in Microsoft or IBM. A credible option might be for Yahoo! to take a hands-off approach. Letting "Zimbra be Zimbra" will continue to make the technology attractive to open source enthusiasts. The more Yahoo! interjects itself into Zimbra's enterprise activities, the more distant large enterprises will become based on the lack of credibility on the part of Yahoo! concerning the enterprise software market.

Skeptical: There is a lot of general criticism towards Yahoo! over the past few months regarding organizational dynamics, market strategies and so on. I'm not sure this deal clarifies that bigger picture. Without further clarification - it could look like just another tangent.

Optimistic: In the SMB space this could play well.

Positive: In certain market segments (carrier/telco/isp's) and verticals (e.g., education), this will be well-received.

Positive: In the consumer space this will also be helpful to Yahoo! overall.

We will continue to make our software available for download and continue to offer Zimbra software and support as usual. This evolution further allows Zimbra to exceed its current (and future) customer expectations by leveraging the world class Yahoo! email experience and expertise. Partnering continues to be a very important pillar of Yahoo!'s strategy and this combination will have a renewed focus on partnerships across the globe including our 350+ VAR and hosting partners. The combination of the two companies will only enhance the level of commitment and support to our hosting partners who will remain a key focus for us moving forward.

Yahoo! is also a major proponent of open technologies and this combination is a further testament to how serious they are about their intentions. You will continue to see active participation in developer APIs and forums. We are committed to continue keeping the source open available for use and we will continue to offer the network version that will contain value added proprietary features on top of the open product.

Yahoo! Acquires Zimbra

Extreme Blogging: Moveable Type Enterprise Solution

While there are a lot of blogging tools popping up within collaboration and content platforms, most are not comparable to specialized tools. There are times when "good-enough" may satisfy the vendor but not satisfy business requirements. The debate between specialized versus generalized tools can be endless and needs to be put in the context of an organization's IT principles rather than debating vendor product features. For example:

• If the organization invests only technologies and services that are mature, stable, secure, and proven in the field - then generalized tools will likely suffice. If the organization invests in any technology with the potential for competitive and market advantage, regardless of stability, security, or technical maturity, then specialized tools will almost certainly be deployed.
• If the organization states that "Vendor X" is our strategic vendor, and where possible, we will buy from Vendor X - then a blogging tool will be acquired from that vendor (even if it is not best-of-breed). However, if the organization states that technology will be selected based on best-fit for its business requirements - then that would favor a specialized tool that was best-of-breed. 

So there is no overall right/wrong - organizations should keep up-to-date on industry advances and, in the case of blogging, advances by Moveable Type and WordPress (as well as Traction Software). Being informed is important, even if your decision-criteria favors generalized solutions from larger vendors.

Moveable Type Enterprise Solution   

Movable Type 4.0 has seen an incredible reception in just its first few weeks -- bloggers have told us they love the new user interface, the powerful asset management, and the smart new templating features. And Movable Type Enterprise Solution is a new layer of capabilities that layer on top of MT4 to give you bulletproof blogs that are easy to manage. Building on the all-new core platform, we've incorporated the capabilities that made Movable Type Enterprise the best enterprise blogging and social media platform on the planet:

• Directory Services Integration, with support for Active Directory,OpenLDAP, iPlanet, and most other common LDAP servers.
• Enterprise Database Support, offering robust integration with Oracle 10g and Microsoft SQL Server, on top of MT's core support for MySQL and PostgreSQL.
• Customizable User Administration, which lets you manage users in the system with powerful predefined roles and groups that are infinitely customizable.
• Automatic Blog Provisioning, to give each of your users a blog with your custom templates and settings, the first time they log into the system.
• Powerful Reporting and Management, offering administrative tools that let you manage entries, comments, and settings for thousands of blogs all on one screen, with customized status reports that you can export as XML feeds or in Excel format.
• Unrivaled Platform Support, which works with the web servers and middleware you have now, and offers centralized web-based deployment with no client software installation required. And professionally-translated multi-language support is built right in.

MT News Blog

Will Microsoft Become Facebook for the Enterprise?

Right now, I would grade MOSS 2007 a B- in terms of it being a social computing platform (from a technology perspective):

• Blogs:B-
• Wikis:C+
• Tag/Social Bookmark System: N/A
• Social Networking: B+
• XML Syndication: N/A (feed aggregation and management)

The blog capability within SharePoint is not as complete as competing solutions such as Moveable Type or WordPress. The Wiki feature is not as functional as what can be delivered via Confluence. (Actually, it is not uncommon to find a lot of MediaWiki platforms deployed. Traction Software also comes up as a strong hypertext platform that supports both blogs and wikis.) There is no tag and social bookmark capability within SharePoint (similar to what Connectbeam can provide). SharePoint also does not have the complete back-end feed aggregation and management system found in platforms from Attensa, NewsGator and KnowNow. In addition, the SharePoint team seems to be avoiding any statement of direction when it comes to supporting Atom and Atom Publishing Protocol versus RSS (RSS is simply not a strategic direction for an enterprise to pursue). When it comes to social networking (a loaded term to begin with), SharePoint does have credible capabilities but it is not as complete as it could have been given the decision to postpone the Knowledge Network technology until a future release. Still, the MySite function within SharePoint coupled with the "social distance" feedback within the search engine can deliver adequate social networking functionality.

Microsoft does attract vendor partners that often fill-in gaps and weaknesses in native capabilities and this situation is true when it comes to social software. Socialtext released SocialPoint in October of 2006 and NewsGator is working on a product, Social Sites, to provide that back-end feed management framework. Microsoft also provides a hosting platform, CodePlex, where customers can create and share projects that extend SharePoint capabilities (such as the Community Kit). However, clients need to read the small print and fully understand the "terms of use" and any associated risk (e.g., lack of technical support, possible absence of an upgrade path). In terms of the Community Kit for instance, the license states "The software is licensed "as-is." You bear the risk of using it. The contributors give no express warranties, guarantees or conditions."

The competitive landscape for social software and platforms that deliver "Facebook for the enterprise" is rapidly evolving. Some might also label this space as "Enterprise 2.0".

• IBM has delivered Lotus Connections.
• BEA has delivered AquaLogic Pages and AquaLogic Pathways.
• Oracle is beginning to think in terms of Web 2.0/Enterprise 2.0 (e.g., folksonomy and tags) and is showcasing some innovating thinking with its AppsLabs effort.
• SAP is also leveraging social networking capabilities internally with its "Harmony" system, as noted here.
• There are plenty of open source and specialized vendors in this space as well. In addition to the ones already mentioned, Leverage Software, SelectMinds and KickApps play in the social networking space. Scuttle is an open source tag/bookmark system; MindTouch has an interesting spin on wikis. Jive Software is also building a "mini-suite". SpikeSource is another option that received a lot of attention at the Enterprise 2.0 conference.

Business and IT strategists are left with the classic "best of breed" vs. large platform vendor debate. In some cases, organizations will decide that sub-optimal solutions from large platform vendors will suffice. In the case of SharePoint, organizations might not have pressing business requirements to deliver best-in-class solutions for blogs or wikis - they might be able to wait until a future release - or they might be able to supplement their needs with add-ons from other vendors - or pursue the CodePlex option. In other cases, organizations will determine that the solutions offered by specialized vendors are either tactical bets for the next 2-3 years or strategic in some cases if they deliver competitive differential in terms of business goals.

In many ways, the issue as to whether Microsoft will or will not become Facebook for the enterprise is the wrong question. Right now, there are several technical deficiencies in SharePoint but companies may or may not care given its overall strengths as a unified collaboration and content management platform and synergies with other Microsoft technologies. Microsoft is likely to fill most social computing gaps through acquisition or in the next SharePoint release. Companies that cannot wait have plenty of options. Better questions (in the context of these articles and blog posts below) to generate some discussion are more along the lines of:

• If you had Facebook in the enterprise - would it make any difference?
• Why wouldn't a Facebook-like platform be a catalyst for change?
• If those workforce/workplace transformations did occur, in what ways would a Facebook make a difference in your organization?

From a business perspective, a "Facebook for the enterprise" is not a technology endeavor alone. Decision-makers need to chart technology directions that are in the context of market, societal and customer trends as well as internal factors such as culture and workplace dynamics (e.g., a multi-generational workforce). Strategists also need to consider whether management structures and practices might have a stifling influence on any social computing effort. Having a "white pages" directory listing of employees is fairly straight-forward, even in a "command-control" environment. Delivering a platform that engenders the type of social atmosphere associated with Facebook is a more complex proposition that can be negated if community-building and social interaction is discouraged. Strategists and decision makers need to value a healthy and thriving "informal organization". From an IT perspective, navigating the maze of vendor "marketecture" requires that organizations avoid product-centric allegiances and go back to reference architecture best practices that rely on principles, technical positions, and templates (blueprints) when establishing governance frameworks and technology standards.

Related Articles & Blog Posts    

Earlier comments on this topic (SharePoint and social software)

Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog Post

We will be posting a series of blog entries very soon about how SharePoint Server 2007 can provide a significant portion of the answer to the question above. We will describe in detail how Microsoft is already using MOSS 2007 to enable Facebook like social networking functionality within our intranet, and what non-technical issues such as privacy, security, multilanguage, and diverse cultures had to be resolved. We will also disclose at the appropriate time how SharePoint vNext will provide the bulk of the answer to the "Facebook for the enterprise" question plus so much more from the perspective of Social Computing for Business.

Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies Team Blog : Will Microsoft Become Facebook for the Enterprise?

CIO Insight Article #1

The nation's fourth largest bank will roll out a social networking service for 110,000 employees over the next several months, giving workers a sophisticated knowledge-management platform that combines the user-friendly approach of the popular Facebook service with broad integration into Wachovia Corp.'s business applications.

The vendor for the big project isn't one of the many contenders such as Visible Path, SelectMinds and Leverage Software in the burgeoning enterprise social-net market, or the ballyhooed Facebook itself. It's Microsoft, which offers easy interconnection with other applications via its Office SharePoint Server product. Integration into the daily routine of business was a difference-maker in choosing the software.

Social Networking

CIO Insight Article #2

Meanwhile, several purpose-built products are competing to do business with businesses. Facebook's got the early mindshare among workers, but companies like Visible Path, SelectMinds, and Leverage Software may be more viable contenders in the long run.

Know It All - - Digital Life and Digital Work