February 16, 2010 - 12:50, by Dostalek, Kevin
Earlier this morning I presented a revised version of my Social Computing with SharePoint 2010 presentation at the local Microsoft office as part of their "Morning Perk" series which highlights new technology paired with customer case studies. I had the honor of once again sharing the stage with long-time customer and friend Dr. Ron Thieme, VP and CIO of AIT Laboratories.
Although breakfast was late, we ended up with a full house and overall a great event. As I promised in my session, you can grab a full sized copy of my mindmap by clicking on the thumbnail below.
I think I also mentioned in the presentation, that for those that would prefer a more traditional presentation of this infomration, you can find a PDF of my slides that I used at SharePoint Saturday a few weeks back in
this blog post (scroll to the bottom, and click on the title slide image).
Ron's presentation can be downloaded (in PDF form) by clicking on his title slide to the right. You can also visit
AIT Labs corporate website to find out more about this dynamic and growing company.
Thanks again to all that attended and those that helped in organizing the event. As always, please feel free to contact me with questions/comments or if you are interested learning more about these topics and how
Ambassador Solutions can help, we're ready and waiting.
March 27, 2009 - 12:36, by Dostalek, Kevin
I wrote a few months ago about some of the
new ads coming from Microsoft- specifically the bizarre Bill & Jerry ones and also the very promising "Life without Walls" (aka: I'm a PC) ones.
I just saw this new one out there, which takes a similar direction to the "Life without Walls" campaign, but is quite the different approach. What I really like is that finally MS has shown the chutzpah to directly attack Apple. No more snarky references to Apples campaigns ("I'm a PC"), but here Lauren (the character in the advert) actually goes into the Apple store and leaves disappointed because she could afford so little on her budget.
Perhaps it's risky throwing the "I'm just not cool enough to be a Mac person" line in there, but I applaud them anyway! It's the truth, and of course by definition "cool" is always the miniority. The message I get here is: wouldn't you rather be smart than cool?
Anyway, I don't know if this ad's is intended to get TV play or just online, but check it out below and tell me what you think.
MS Advert Video
November 23, 2008 - 17:21, by Dostalek, Kevin
I needed to install the Java JRE last night (it's been awhile, and my tablet's been somewhat of an experimental OS platform lately). So I went over to java.com to grab it (by the way, I always thought it was ironic that the Java installer uses an ActiveX control if you are using IE).
So the installer starts and here's what I see:
After a quick doubletake, I realize what this is actually asking me and I'm baffled for a moment.
Does this represent some new found love between Sun and Microsoft. I doubt it, and after some quick web research, sure enough they still pretty much hate each other, but will of course do business with each other. What this really represents is another move on the field of battle betwen Microsoft and Google (remember, what the JRE used to try and install here? The Google Toolbar).
Anyway, I thought it was a remarkable enough sight to remark on it. ;)
November 21, 2008 - 11:53, by Dostalek, Kevin
Last month I posted about the
Foldershare Beta which solved a big problem for me, as well as doing it in a very simple yet robust way. I knew then that it was using Microsoft's Mesh Framework, but I had no idea what that was.
Now after attending the MS PDC, I know exactly what the Mesh Framework is, as well as Live Services, and the whole Windows Azure platform (ok, well that last one is still blurry for me). And for those that were just assuming that all of this stuff was 2+ years off from reality, it's not.
I just received an email from the Windows Live FolderShare group letting me know that "In December, we plan to announce a product called Windows Live Sync. You can think of it as FolderShare 2.0." Some of the new features they are promising are:
- More folders and files - sync up to 20 folders with 20k files each.
- Integration with Live ID
- Integration with the Recycle Bin
- Unicode support - sync files in other languages
So this represents one of the first real big product releases on top of the some of these new platforms (ok, granted, some have been out for awhile, like Live Messenger and the other Live stuff)-- but this is a real Meshified app. I'll be interested to see how our apps that are also Meshified will be able to integrate with Live Sync.
I am a little confused though since Live SkyDrive doesn't look like it's going to be replaced by Live Sync (although certainly it could)... in fact I saw rumors that SkyDrive's were going to be upgraded to 25GB in the near future!
Last word of warning from the email I received. During the upgrade from FolderShare to Live Sync, it will automatically rebuild all your personal folders and device relationships. However, it will not rebuild your shared libraries. So if you have some, you should copy all of that information to some local storage pronto to make sure you don't lost it.
I'll post an announcement and review here when Live Sync goes live next month!
November 15, 2008 - 15:56, by Dostalek, Kevin
So Microsoft has a new initiative to help connect internet software startup companies with the resources they need (information, investors, potential customers, partners, and of course their software). There seems to be a ton of good stuff on their startupzone website and for those that are looking to form a new startup in today's economy, this resource may prove to be a godsend.
So it looks like to qualify for the program you just need the following:
-
Business is less than 3 years old with anual revenues under $1M and privately held
-
Actively engaged in development of a software-based product or serice that will form core pirce of intended business.
-
Must be sponsored by a Network Partner (the site helps connect you with partners)
The benefits include:
-
A bunch of licenses for MS software, mostly development related, but also "production use rights" to host SaaS solutions on some MS server products, and the Azure platform when it's available.
-
Support tools and two tech support incidents (all sort of similar to what other MS Partners get)
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Access to the Startup community including potential partners, customers, and investors.
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Visibility in the form of listings in their online database as well as some features on their website.
Whether you are planning on starting a new business or not, there's some valuable infomation on the site. I learned quite a bit from the stuff in the Resources and Blogs tab. Check it out today.
http://www.microsoftstartupzone.com