- Posted by karthik on December 25, 2009
A little later than expected, but attached are my slides. You can view or download them from Slideshare.
SharePoint Saturday was a blast and I had a great time both presenting and being a part of the organizing team 
Look forward to making this event even more of a blockbuster next year!
Enjoy!
- Posted by karthik on October 19, 2009
SPC2009 is here, finally. And it has been a long and fun day today. Got in last night, went straight to registration and afterward visited the exhibit hall browsing vendor/partner booths. It's been a while since I have been to a major conference like this and for a while there, I was just catching up!
However, I did manage to seek out and network with SharePoint folks I have been conversing with the last couple years and that was fun. The conference itself has been a blast so far and I am posting some raw, unedited pictures below, live from the event.
Video highlights of the events so far can be found here
Keynote Session:
SharePoint 2010 Developer Tools Overview:
More pics and info to follow. Till then, cheers!
- Posted by karthik on October 9, 2009
In meetings with current and potential clients, we always hear this comment at the highest levels of IT management. Almost always, the context is around a business need or pain that can be managed using a tool like SharePoint (in their own words) but that's where the thought stops, for whatever reason.
When it happens once, its an anamoly; When it happens twice, it could be a coincidence; but when its more that that, it is either reality or a perception of it! So it got me thinking and that is a scary thing 
In the process of trying to put context around it and address the issue of perception or a lack thereof, I have come up with some thoughts. These thoughts are not grounded in facts or stats, so bear with me.
At work, I am often approached by my counterparts in the Business Development side of things who start the conversation with - "We have this organization that is interested in SharePoint....."; My usual response is "What do they do?" followed by "Why are they interested in Sharepoint?"
At some point, it starts to become clear that, like most medium to big sized orgs, there has been an evolution of "organized chaos" within the enterprise that has now resulted in a million legacy technology applications doing "custom business" things, with a billion artifacts (in the form of documents/emails/other types of unstructured content) being stored across the entire IT ecosystem. Usually when this system reaches a stage bordering business pain is when organizations start thinking about strategy as it relates to "managing the chaos".
As an example, most organizations traditionally do not care about how much file content is being stored in hardware based file storage systems because stora
ge cost has never been an issue. So it is okay to have IT create a file share for the Marketing department that ends up using the share as a document/image repository for all of their big file needs. However, when the repository scales out to gigabytes of content with no structure or hierachy, then it is IT that ends up having to troubleshoot issues and maintain those systems. Since IT has no clue what is inside that repository, they do not have an efficient or timely way to support and manage the expectations of end users, whose biggest need right now is to find the "right file/s" and they can't do that because the thing is just too unwieldy!
This has a direct impact on productivity, efficiency, frustration with work tasks, frustration with IT and so on and so forth...Now, you may think this is not applicable to your organization because you have this built-in auto-magic sense system that just works. Reality is, the way you work within that system is probably not the same way that your colleague does or for that matter anyone else. And guess what, that is typical; Unless and until there is STRUCTURE around what you do and the same rules apply to everyone within that system no matter how you do it, you cannot have an expectation that your need is being met in a way that matches your requirement.
This is where SharePoint comes in. It forces you to adopt a "methodology/framework/process/tool" that brings that "order to your chaos". Notice that I am intentionally ambiguous about whether it is a "methodology/framework/process/tool" because SharePoint can be all of that; Or just some of that; or just one of that. As (my newly adopted favorite) phrase goes, "It depends!"
Now, what does all this have to do with blog title, you ask? If you have made it this far, then the answer is...........there is not one!
In the next post, I will pen down some thoughts on how to tackle a SharePoint conversation that seems to lead towards this context and the information you can use to answer this question.
- Posted by karthik on October 9, 2009
It has been a while since I had a chance to post about anything at all and even though I'd love to say that it was due to a sabbatical or something relaxing, the truth is, I have been busy!
And I mean, BUSY! I started on a new project late July with WCM and some fancy Design/Architecture stuff for a regular client that has kept my grey cells humming. To top it off, on the home front, the wife and I are expecting a new arrival soon here! It's our first and it has been an INTERESTING experience so far. More on that later, though...
Right now, I am getting ready to set up a list of things to do, people to meet and questions to ask for SPC 2009. I am very excited to be going to one of the biggest MS events of the year and certainly THE BIGGEST SharePoint Conference ever!
Here are some of the things running through my mind as I write this:
I am sure there will be additions as the week goes by.
In the meantime, I am also looking forward to SharePoint Saturday KC in December. The event is gathering a life of its own and I hope it is as fun (if not more) as last year. I am volunteering for the event in any capacity as needed and want to see more folks there this year.
On a sidenote, I have been gathering tips and tricks on all the interesting and wierd things that SharePoint WCM has thrown at me the past two months. A blog post series will shortly follow detailing some of my adventures on that...!
Till then, stay tuned............!
- Posted by karthik on August 28, 2009
I will be presenting on team based development in a Sharepoint environment in the upcoming Kansas City Office Geeks User Group meeting on Sep 3rd. Details below:
Topic: Team based Development in a SharePoint Environment - A WCM approach
Location: Centriq(8700 Stateline, Suite 200, Leawood, KS 66206)
Start Time: 9/3/2009 5:45 PM
End Time: 9/3/2009 7:30 PM
Abstract: This session continues on the development practices outlined in the previous meeting with an emphasis on team based development.
It explores the challenges commonly faced implementing an internet facing site in MOSS with WCM capabilities. The key concepts covered include custom Master Pages and Page Layouts development in a team environment with source control integration, configuration of a three-tier development architecture (physical environment), customized deployment actions for different environments along with tips and tricks!
Linky - http://www.officegeeks.org/kcog/Lists/Events%20Calendar/DispForm.aspx?ID=20&Source=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eofficegeeks%2Eorg%2Fkcog%2Fdefault%2Easpx
See ya'll out there!
Cheers!