Microsoft Partners Its Way Into Social Computing

In an earlier post ("Will Microsoft Become Facebook for the Enterprise?") I pointed out some of the deficiencies in Microsoft's SharePoint Products & Technologies platform for social computing. Today at the Web 2.0 Summit, Microsoft fills some of those gaps by partnering with two leading vendors in their respective fields. The information below should parallel information contained within the press announcement that each vendor is releasing today.

NewsGator

Social Sites is a collection of site templates, profiles, Web parts and infrastructure that integrates directly with SharePoint Server 2007’s existing architecture and security models. Social Sites works in conjunction with NewsGator Enterprise Server. Key capabilities include:

• Delivering Content into SharePoint Server 2007: Instead of “reinventing the wheel” by manually adding content, administrators can bring in RSS feeds from outside of SharePoint Server 2007. Fresh content provides a better user experience and increases SharePoint Server 2007 utilization. Users can mark items as read, filter by tags and subscribe to the underlying feeds with one-click;
• Syndicating Content from SharePoint Server 2007: With one-click subscriptions for all SharePoint Server 2007 feeds, users can keep up with updates or changes from their desktop, e-mail client or mobile device and know when they need to return to SharePoint Server 2007;
• Improving User Interaction: Eliminating a common complaint that portal content isn’t “fresh,” NewsGator Social Sites lets users mark calendar items, announcements, document links and other static list items as read, so they only see new items when they return. The AJAX interface reduces page load times and tagging encourages participation. The “Social Sites” rollup view also facilitates content discovery in SharePoint by showing the most active users as well as “colleagues,” allowing users to quickly assess the most popular content,feed trends and tag clouds;
• Connecting People with Content: NewsGator Social Sites improves expertise discovery and collaboration. By clicking on a link for the content author or tagger, the user sees an in-lineprofile with their contact information, blog and wiki entries and the articles and feeds that they read, tag and recommend. In a single glance, the user can discover areas of focus for another person without requiring any extra data entry – the reading and publishing behavior of a user is presented in a single view.

Atlassian

Users of SharePoint and Confluence will be able to access and share content across these two popular technologies. The SharePoint Connector for Confluence will feature:

• Search: Users can search SharePoint and Confluence content together from one place.
• Content sharing: From within SharePoint, users can embed Confluence page contents allowing users to blend content.
• Linking: Within Confluence, users can access SharePoint document facilities. By including SharePoint lists and content within Confluence, users, in a single click, can edit Microsoft Office documents.
• Single Sign-On and Security: With one login, users can access both systems while seeing only what they have permission to view. 

Comments

[Ross Mayfield]

You might remember that Socialtext launched SocialPoint integration with Sharepoint a year ago.

[LUIS EDUARDO SANCHEZ]

SEÑORES YO NESECITO QUE ME CAMBIEN UN PROGRAMA DE WINDOWS XP DE INGLES A UNO EN ESPAÑOL, EL CUAL COMPRE EN STAPLES Y NO MELOQUISIERON CAMBIAR. YO QUIERO QUE USTEDES ME DIGAN QUE PUEDO HACER PARA OBTENERLO. DANDOLES EL AGRADESIMIENTO.