Web/Tech: April 2004 Archives
Today I got something free from Microsoft! Because I attended an Enterprise Project Management webcast, I was the lucky winner of Connecting the Dots: Objectives in Unpredictable Times by Cathleen Benko and F. Warren McFarlan.
About the book, the web site says:
"Connecting The Dots employs a practical, "play the hand you are holding" approach, providing a balance of concepts and roll-up-your-sleeves guidance on how to:Determine how well-aligned–or misaligned–your organization is today
Reveal opportunities for increasing portfolio economics
Apply tools to reduce portfolio risk while improving its efficiency, flexibility, and direction
Instill new mind-sets to better respond to whatever future presents itself
If you’re like most executives, you already know your portfolio is not delivering as expected. Alignment is not about spending more; it’s about getting greater return for what you are already spending. This guidebook helps you "connect the dots" between your organization’s intentions and its project activities, capturing hidden value today while better preparing for the future. And it does so in a way you can use when you get into the office tomorrow".
It is not as exciting as winning the perfect weblog elevator pitch contest, but I am on a roll!
Robin Good, an extremely knowledgeable analyst of collaboration tools, hosted his first Buyer's Guide on the internet yesterday using some of his recommended tools. Unfortunately, the technologies did not cooperate and Robin had to improvise. It turned out to be quite a good session and I learned a lot about the Flash Communication Server, how to build a video conferencing room, plus some good tools to connect people together. Robin made the remainder of the session useful by hosting a discussion with the tool vendors.
Here, in fact, courtesy of Robin, is a screen shot of our conference room:
Oh frabjous day! A new hot button. I hardly expected the reader feedback I’d get writing about VoIP, but considering I was writing about it in a column devoted to Windows management in the enterprise, I suppose I should have expected it.
[Feedster.com Results For: microsoft voip]
Jan Tielens has developed RSS generation for Sharepoint sites. This is a big omission from the application so I am glad to see it addressed. He also supplies a good bit of technical detail so that you can understand what is going on in the app.
As I have mentioned in this blog before, I am a Microsoft Windows Sharepoint Services user and developer. Lately I have been trying to configure a completely open site that would display no challenges to users. Sharepoint is a very secure application and works well in large or small teams that need to collaborate privately. However, my team shares nothing that is confidential and I did not want anyone to be frustrated by a challenge. I discovered that an anonymous user cannot upload documents, but can contribute to lists, discussions, surveys etc. This is not exactly the functionality that I wanted, but it makes good sense. I do not want people spamming my team, loading large or infected files. I can live with the answer now that I now.
The microsoft.public.sharepoint.windowsservices newsgroup help me fix this quite fast and, of course, I learned lot in the process. The answer is posted in the WSS FAQ which is an invaluable resource for people using Windows Sharepoint Services. Here is the dialog if anyone is interested (it is in reverse chronological order):
I've added it to the WSS FAQ as III.70. "How can I enable anonymous users to
add, delete or edit files in document libraries?"
Thanks to both of you!
Mike Walsh, Helsinki, Finland
"Ralph Poole" wrote in message
Great, finally. I have been trying to fix it forever. I am glad someone
knew the answer. Is it documented anywhere?
"Iyaz" wrote in message
You cannot upload, edit documents in Document libraries, forms or
Picture libraries anonymously. Only list items can be added and edited
anonymously.
-Iyaz
"Mike Walsh [MVP]" wrote in message
It all depends on what rights you give anonymous users *in WSS* - the
default is that anonymous have reader access only but you can change
this to a higher right (Contributor?) if you as admin want.
Mike Walsh, Helsinki, Finland
"Ralph Poole" wrote in message:
So now I can have anonymous users edit and update lists, but I can't
Enable them to add, delete or edit files in document libraries. Is that
Another IIS setting in permissions, for example? Hope you can help.
"Mike Walsh [MVP] wrote in message:
WSS FAQ item III.43 http://wss.collutions.com/Lists/FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=175
Q: "Why can't I specify anonymous access to my WSS web site? (It's
greyed/grayed out)
A:You need to first enable Anonymous on the Virtual Server using
The IIS MMC. Only when this is done is setting anonymous access a selectable
option.
Mike Walsh, Helsinki, Finland
WSS FAQ at wss.collutions.comwss.collutions.com
"Ralph Poole" wrote in message
Thank you for your answer, however under the heading "change
Anonymous access" in "modify settings and columns", the anonymous access
Settings are grayed out except for a check box under "view items". I must
have another box checked somewhere that does not allow anonymous users to
"Edit items" I want the users to view and edit the content
Any other thoughts?
"Boris Gomiunik"wrote in message
You also have to set access for authenticated users. Maybe
your friends are authenticated in some other sites and that’s why they can't
access the content. You can check the status of authenticated users in
the same page as you set the anonymous access.
Otherwise please check also because anonymous users can only read.
I think it has to do also something with the rights of each list of
library...
Modify Settings and columns -- Change Permissions -- Change
Anonymous access -- (check the "Add items" and "Edit items")
Hope that'll do.
"Ralph Poole" wrote in message
I want to create a completely open anonymous web site that any of my colleagues can contribute to without having to login. I have set up the site for anonymous use, but people are still being challenged when they want to add content. What am I doing wrong, how do I set it so there are no challenges at all?
You can now track who is linking to particular posts on my blog by clicking the Technorati link next to link next to trackbacks at the bottom of the post. The result is similar to trackbacks, but these links are links that have been discovered by Technorati, whereas trackbacks are links that are sent to me directly by other bloggers. Boing Boing recently started Technorati support and Dave Sifry explains how to add this to your blog. Since I don't get as many links as Boing Boing, clicking the Technorati link will often yield no results. I think we need to figure out a way to easily show how many links from Technorati, just like comments and trackbacks so people will know whether they should click or not. Adriaan's got it running on his blog using the Technorati API, but it's a bit dodgy still so I'm going to wait for a better solution. ;-)
In order to make these results more accurate, it would be great if people made a point to link as much as possible to the permalinks rather than the top level URL when referring to entries in blogs.
[Joi Ito's Web]
PPT2Flash Top20 Why Would You Ever Want To Convert A Powerpoint Presentation Into A Flash File? Here is a detailed list of the key advantages you would have in converting a PowerPoint presentation into a Flash file. No matter what your final goal is, a Flash-based presentation goes a long way in making your content become easily accessible, ubiquitous and easily distributable. 1) Greater Accessibility Once converted to Flash a PowerPoint presentation can be easily viewed in any Internet browser. Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Netscape, Safari, Opera, and more. As more than 98% of all browsers have already installed the Flash...
[Robin Good's Sharewood Tidings]
This is a set of links that I copied from Alidade Inc. on the think tanks that investigate the future. For me, the most relevant links have to do with how business will be conducted in 5 to 10 years.
The Brain
http://www.thebrain.com/
This software will change forever the way you file your electrons. Or not. Consider it a litmus test of your ability to innovate.
Chief of Naval Operations Strategic Studies Group
http://www.nwc.navy.mil/ssg/
A think tank that takes tasking only from and reports directly to the “CEO” of the U.S. Navy, the SSG, headed by retired four-star admiral James R. Hogg, is charged with developing revolutionary naval warfare innovations with a horizon of 30-50 years in the future.
Complexity Digest
http://www.comdig.org/
If you don't already subscibe to this weekly e-newsletter, you can get it here. Subscribe, and then peruse the archives. The Who's Who and What's What of the complexity community, ComDig is reporting from the front lines at every conference and from every journal.
Cosma Shalizi
http://www.santafe.edu/~shalizi/
A one-man innovation center, Cosma's homepage is a treasure trove of ideas, research, links and musings. Visit it often: it keeps going, and going, and going …
Entropy and Information
www-mtl.mit.edu/%7Epenfield/pubs/complex-99.html
MIT has decided that entropy is too important to be left to thermodynamics. Every freshman may one day be required to take this course. And just when you thought you had the thermo type figured out.
Good Experience
http://www.goodexperience.com
Mark Hurst is a leader in the science of developing online experiences that work. He is also the sponsor of the GEL conferences. Take a look.
The Highlands Group
www.highlandsgroup.net/flash/about.html
A policy consulting network that investigates and reports on the pragmatic use of innovative concepts well before they appear as business press trends.
Ilachinski, Dr. Andrew
http://www.cna.org/isaac/
Andy's website is the Mother Lode of complexity links. His free, downloadable agent-based combat model is one of the most insightful complexity tools available to the military OR community.
The Institute for Operations Research and Management Science
http://www.informs.org/
The civilian counterpart of MORS, INFORMS likewise contains contains links to other OR sites, publications and OR events.
Military Operations Research Society
http://www.mors.org/
The epicenter of military OR. Contains links to other OR sites, publications and OR events.
Nerve
http://www.gotnerve.com/
Where, Chris Meyer, the spiritual leader of the late great Center for Business Innovation is starting a new.
The New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI)
http://www.necsi.org/
NECSI is the host of the annual International Conference on Complex Systems (ICCS) and an important node in the New Science network. NECSI's listserv also hosts interchanges by A-list researchers.
Nutech Solutions
http://nutechsolutions.com/
A world leader in making complex business problems simple.
Office of Force Transformation
http:// www.oft.osd.mil/
The front lines of the Transformation revolution.
Reiter's Scientific and Professional Books
http://www.reiters.com/
You've heard of Amazon, et alia. Reiter's consistently ships books overnight that the others need six weeks to locate (they probably order from Reiter's). You've got to visit their DC store.
The Santa Fe Institute
http://www.santafe.edu/
Legendary in the short history of the New Sciences. The SFI website contains a wealth of information, including a list of events and links to every working paper they sponsored.
The SWARM Corporation
http://www.swarm.org/
Although the model is not for beginners, the SWARM site is work a surf, if for nothing else than to keep track of the state of the art and the practitioners of agent-based modeling activity.
I saw this post in Ross Mayfield's SocialText Weblog. I think that it is great that CGEY is still involved in thought leadership. SocialText in particular is a firm to watch, having nicely packaged blogs and wikis in a very elegant application.
I am also pleased that Chris Meyer is still involved in the Trends Consortium. Chris Meyer is the author of "Blur" and several other books that provide insight into new modes of work and how technology is impacting business.
Here are Ross' comments:
Cap Gemini Ernst & Young Key Trend
Cap Gemini Ernst & Young highlights ad hoc collaboration with Social Software as one of six key 24-month technology trends.
Ad Hoc Collaboration
A new generation of tools and approaches toward software-based collaboration creates an environment in which people, no longer limited to the confines of a single department, company, or location, can now join forces and pool resources with people they have never met, and without any pre-existing arrangements. Simply put, the "join point" is no longer based on an organization chart. Rather, it flows from people's common interests.
This trend is made possible by two technological factors.
First, a new design philosophy of "social" software, which embraces lightweight process control, supports many small, quick interactions, and is based on a series of open standards for communication. For example, the "Wiki-Wiki" collaborative system allows any user to modify the contents of a Web page with no editorial control or synchronization.
Second, the increasing capability of portable devices such as PDAs and phones, plus the growing availability of cheap mobile data networks (such as 802.11/Wi-Fi), mean that users can interact with others and with systems in a far wider range of times and locations...
The article points out how these two factors will change the nature of events and discusses the other five trends.
A full report discusses social factors, the wiki and highlights Socialtext as evidence for the rise of this trend.
In elearnspace, George Seimens talks about a recent CNET article on Sharepoint. While the CNET article is balanced, George's view of Sharepoint is somewhat negitive. I disagree with his characterization of the limited functionality of Sharepoint. Here is the post I am referring to:
Sharepoint in Microsoft's response to the collaboration/shared spaces need. This article provides a good overview of the product. The real selling feature of Sharepoint is tight integration with other Microsoft products. If you know Windows and Office, the learning curve is very low. In my experience, I've been disappointed with the product (sign in isn't direct and obvious, very little metadata support, very "boxy", no support for RSS, collaboration is basically just a threaded discussion, etc.) Given the opportunity, I would move toward a product like Plone, Groove, Drupal, or Convea. Over the next several versions, Sharepoint will certainly improve...but it's currently a product that looks like a poor duplication of the more effective collaboration tools now available (both open source and proprietary).
And even after the right product has been selected, the final quote in the article says it best: "That's the whole problem with collaboration: It sounds great, but getting people to use the tools is a real challenge".
[elearnspace]
A really interesting article on what Google is actually trying to achieve: The Secret of Google's Power "Google has taken the last 10 years of systems software research out of university labs, and built their own proprietary, production quality system. What is this platform that Google is building? It's a distributed computing platform that can manage web-scale datasets on 100,000 node server clusters."
[elearnspace]
Recently I needed a quick way to display all available SharePoint lists and libraries with last modification date and item count.In my case I needed it for the discussion board lists to give a visitor a quick peek what's going on in all the discussion boards of a SharePoint site like many Web based forum packages do today (for example the www.asp.net Web Forum).Played a moment with the SharePoint lists.asmx XML Web Service and voila! here's the result. I'm sure it could have been done prettier (I didn't waste time to add graphics) but it does the job just fine for me ;-)Note that this *simple* Web Part sample does not "roll-up" lists and libraries from subsites. I haven't had the time and need for such an animal especially since you can get such things already from other places.
[Sig Webers Playground]
Kaye Tramell writes "I'm going to try my best, but the SXSW Interactive program actually suggests that attendees STOP blogging & start interacting". Apparantley SXSW organizers feel much the way Marysia Milonas felt during last years BlogTalk. (Also see Lilia's...
[Ton's Interdependent Thoughts]
Guidebook is a fast-growing online resource dedicated to preservation and showcase of all the major Graphical User Interfaces utilized to this day on personal computers. At Guidebook you can find all of the interface elements of Windows 386, System 6 for the Mac or any other major system version you want to review. An absolute panacea of useful references for the serious visual interface designer.
[Robin Good's Latest News]
