@JKevinParker

Stop PIPA/SOPA!

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin Parker) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:25:00 +0000

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

CIP

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin Parker) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 21:35:00 +0000

After a lot of good feedback and hard work, the folks at AIIM have re-branded the "information certification" as the "Certified Information Professional" (CIP). This is an excellent improvement, and will help in communicating the purpose and importance of this program and designation to a wider audience.

I have updated my earlier post about me earning the certification.

Every information management professional and information architect should become a Certified Information Professional. Experienced pros can quickly identify and fill knowledge gaps, while newcomers have a solid learning path to become an information subject matter expert. Earning the CIP designation demonstrates to your organization and clients that you are a valuable resource for their enterprise information initiatives.

Learn more about the Certified Information Professional.

Certified Information Professional

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin Parker) — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 18:03:00 +0000

I am a Certified Information Professional. I just passed the proctored exam and received my CIP Examination Score Report. In a few weeks I should have access to the official logo and credentials.

While for obvious reasons test takers cannot retain a copy of any questions answered incorrectly (or otherwise), this Score Report shows the percentage correct for each section. That's very helpful, in my opinion, because now I'm motivated to review the concepts in one of the sections in particular. (Cue the handy youtube videos!) I want to be as strong in that section as in the others.

If you are an information worker, architect, manager, or executive, you should strongly consider becoming a Certified Information Professional. And while you're at it, check out the fabulous certificate programs and training essentials AIIM offers.

New Certified Information Professional

Enterprise Search: AIIM's Information Certification Training

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin Parker) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 18:58:00 +0000

The following playlist includes videos from AIIM's Information Certification training on Enterprise Search posted to their YouTube channel.

AIIM's Information Certification

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin Parker) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 17:10:00 +0000

AIIM now offers the new Information Certification. According to the AIIM Web site,

The new Information certification demonstrates your ability to solve an organization's existing information-related problems as well as plan for the future.

The objectives outlined for the certification are as follows:

Certified information professionals contribute to the success of their organizations by helping address the following kinds of information management challenges (both on-premises and in the cloud):

Ensure information is dynamically delivered to staff and customers via websites, mobile, and social media

Improve information sharing and collaboration by leveraging virtual collaboration solutions, social networks, and existing and emerging communications technologies

Improve enterprise search and access to information across organizational and technology boundaries

Continuously analyze information to identify new business opportunities and improvements

Ensure appropriate information security and privacy controls across systems and platforms to protect the organization and its staff

Manage information and records regardless of format or location to meet regulatory compliance and e-discovery readiness requirements

Streamline and automate information intensive processes across systems and platforms to improve efficiency and reduce costs

The information professional should also be able to bridge the increasing gap between enterprise IT and business executives that currently exist in many organizations. The information professional should be able to effectively communicate and facilitate; establish consistent project/program management; research user experience / user customization; demonstrate technical and analytical skills; and engage in IT architecture/technology planning (source: Forrester Research, Nov 17, 2010).

This is what I've been doing for a long time now—I'm scheduling my exam right away!

Get more information:

Government IT Reform

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin Parker) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 13:01:00 +0000

I'm currently working through the White House's 25 Point Implementation Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology Management. I want to quickly highlight the first paragraph of that document so that you will understand why I am so passionate about helping Uncle Sam make major improvements:

Information technology should enable government to better serve the American people. But despite spending more than $600 billion on information technology over the past decade, the Federal Government has achieved little of the productivity improvements that private industry has realized from IT. Too often, Federal IT projects run over budget, behind schedule, or fail to deliver promised functionality. Many projects use “grand design” approaches that aim to deliver functionality every few years, rather than breaking projects into more manageable chunks and demanding new functionality every few quarters. In addition, the Federal Government too often relies on large, custom, proprietary systems when “light technologies” or shared services exist.

Wow—$600 billion dollars in 10 years spent on an enormous growing digital landfill. Thankfully, there are some good folks in DC driving reform. I'm thankful to be a SharePoint Architect/ECM Architect here helping lead one of the agencies in their implementation of these reforms.

I'm working hard for the American people, and yet you won't have to endure even one campaign ad featuring me come election time!

Washington, D.C.

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin Parker) — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 03:59:00 +0000

I have begun my new job in Washington, D.C. as a SharePoint Architect. I'm working with the Department of Labor to plan out a SharePoint deployment for ECM, ERM, and Government 2.0 within one of their agencies. It's really exciting stuff!

The first day that I walked through the streets of the District, I was struck by the fact that their buildings are all only about 13-14 stories tall. "What is that about?" I asked my coworker, who was walking with me between buildings. He quoted a popular theory, that by law the buildings cannot be taller than the Washington Monument.

I apprectiated his insight, but I'm always very curious and like to back up my sources. It's a good thing, too, because according to Wikipedia and its sources, there has never been a law restricting building height to that of the Washington Monument. Rather, according to the amended Heights of Buildings Act, buildings cannot be higher than the width of their adjacent street plus 20 feet. That is one reason cited for the expensive housing situation in DC. And that is part of why close to half the people who work here live in Virginia or Maryland.

I have now walked some of K Street, and have been a block from the White House and the Capitol Building, but still haven't had time to actually go see these famous buildings. I'm looking forward to it, though, and all the rest of what this awesome city has to offer!

Twitter Tidings: How Twitter Became Useful

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin Parker) — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 02:21:00 +0000

Back when blogging began, I scoffed, and said it wouldn't last. It seemed that blogging = bloviating. Why would anyone want to read about Samantha's average trip to the market? And comment? Yeah right! But my darling wife insisted that there was value in the medium, and she began blogging on a number of topics.

Obviously, I admit she was right (try not to faint, wife). Hence the blog you're reading right now.

I've been on Twitter for a while now, but I was not an instant convert to this medium, either. Again, my wife was an early adopter, but I could not for the life of me figure out why I would want to be on yet another social networking site, telling everyone about my day in 140 characters. After all, Facebook already did that for me, and I hardly used it. I was not alone in thinking that Twitter was twaddle where people prate perpetually.

I am a social scientist. I have observed as blogging became useful. Sure, there are tons of useless blogs, but there are gobs of good blogs that are focused and have built an audience. And people have different ways of utilizing the great content. In my case, when I'm developing software or investigating ECM topics, I type a specific problem I'm facing into my browser's Google search box, and presto: I find lots of blog posts from around the world that deal with my exact issue.

Maybe we should give credit for the massive success of Google as a tool to the content creators. After all, if we weren't all out here cranking out content, Google would have very little to index. Ain't the Web wonderful!?!

But I digress: This is about Twitter.

Twitter and other social media networks have evolved into very useful tools. The market place found interesting and useful ways to use Twitter to announce breaking news, product updates, and even (gasp) blog posts. When I see people whom I follow endorsing a resource, I'm interested. And when they easily put the link right in front of my face, my chances of actually going there increase exponentially.

Twitter has soared in popularity. Jimmy Fallon has a regular bit on his show where he introduces a hashtag and invites others to tweet something funny using it. In this way, Twitter has effectively brought social networking and collaboration to television, which has been traditionally a one-way medium.

And I won't even go into how one particular Congressman used Twitter to commit political suicide.

One thing I really love (and actually predicted correctly!) is being able to connect all my social networks with little effort. When I post an update to my LinkedIn network, it automatically tenders a tweet, which also posts a status on Facebook. That's a streamlined business process!

So here's a prediction: Google+ will be super, and tons of people will flock to it. And it will flourish. But it will not replace Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn. Rather, smart people will link all these networks up (together with their blogs and YouTube friends and Flikr, etc.) so that people in all their circles can keep up with them however they choose. Linking the tools together makes it easy to remain consistent with your public (and private) persona.

So what is the real value of social media like Twitter and Facebook? One benefit is meeting like-minded people, some of whom will influence me, and some of whom I will influence. But the real value of social media—in my humble opinion—is connecting with people you already know so you can be more in touch with their lives. This includes both professional contacts and personal friends and family.

So if you can't tell, I'm a big Twitter fan. It is exciting to me when authors of books I've read, national leaders, and news outlets follow me. Suddenly, I have a voice! Since Twitter following is a variation of a free market system, I have to continue to keep my followers interested with my quips and news, and they have to do the same. So let's connect! (as long as you are a real person and don't spam me!)

Firefox 5 Released. Huh?

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin Parker) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 04:15:00 +0000

Very recently, I upgraded to Firefox 4.0. That's why I was surprised when I began getting bugged to upgrade to Firefox 5.0. Wait, huh? Did someone fat-finger the subversion commit? It seemed to me like it was time for a minor version release, especially considering some of my favorite plugins have not been upgraded for 4.0 yet.

Apparently, I'm not alone.

I went ahead and updated. I'm composing this post using Firefox 5.0. I am interested in some of the new features, like the Awesome Bar. At any rate, I still love my Firefox.

While I was at it, I went ahead and installed the PDF Browser Plugin for Mac (free for non-commercial use) so I could again open PDFs in my browser rather than always having to choose to download or open externally.

I'm an AIIM ECM Specialist!

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin Parker) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 06:09:00 +0000

Recently I passed my exam to become an AIIM SharePoint Specialist, and a few hours ago I passed the AIIM ECM Specialist exam.

Now it's on to those Master projects to upgrade those certificates!

I'm an AIIM SharePoint Specialist!

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin Parker) — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 01:15:00 +0000

I just took the AIIM SharePoint Master exam, which combines the exams for SharePoint Practitioner and SharePoint Specialist. After passing the exam, I was awarded the designation "AIIM SharePoint Specialist."

To move from SharePoint Specialist to SharePoint Master, I need to complete my Master project and submit it for review. When that has been approved, I will be an AIIM SharePoint Master!

Before I submit that project, I'm going to review my ECM (Enterprise Content Management) Master class notes and take that course's exam. Then it's on to the SharePoint project and then the ECM thesis. I love learning, and these come with the added benefit of world-wide recognition for my knowledge and skills. Check out the AIIM Training Programs for yourself.

What is a SharePoint Architect?

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin Parker) — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 21:22:00 +0000

I am pleased to announce that I have accepted a position with a consulting firm near Washington, D.C., as a SharePoint Architect. I will be interfacing directly with a federal government agency, helping them create a new robust SharePoint 2010 environment and migrating content from thousands of SharePoint 2007/2003 sites to this new environment. I'm very excited!

One of my closest friends just commented on Facebook chat: "I really have no idea what you do." I replied "You are not alone"! So just what is a "SharePoint Architect"?

A few years back, Joel Oleson wrote a post entitled "Depth and Breadth in a SharePoint Architect Skillset" in which he outlined his view on the required skill sets for this role. Below is my take on the skill set required for today's SharePoint Architect.

First, the elevator pitch:

A SharePoint Architect is a high-level Information and Technology expert who evaluates an enterprise's information, content, and records management; business processes; core values, mission, and vision; organizational structure and culture; IT infrastructure; and operational, legal, and regulatory risks, and then creates and implements a comprehensive plan for creating information governance, business processes, and SharePoint (and third-party) infrastructure to meet the assessed needs. It's about Enterprise Information Architecture and Enterprise Content and Records Management.

The required skill set includes much more than technical skills. You must have real depth of "information" skills and "soft" skills as well. And after visiting with companies all over the U.S. looking for just such a person, I can testify that a true SharePoint (or any other ECM system) Architect is a rare animal.

SharePoint Architect Skill Set

The following list assumes SharePoint 2010 to keep this list manageable. I don't pretend that this list is exhaustive, but I feel it's a good starting place.

Enterprise Information Architecture Skills
- Information Strategy
- Information Governance (not your typical "I.T. Governance")
- Taxonomy & Ontology
- Enterprise Metadata Management
- Master Data Management
- Findability
- Accessibility (including Section 508)
- Usability
- Security
- Information Infrastructure
Enterprise Content and Records Management Skills
- Capture
- Document Management (DM)
- Records Management (ERM)
- Digital Asset Management (DAM)
- Business Process Management (BPM)
- Web Content Management (WCM)
- Collaboration
- Web 2.0
- Enterprise 2.0 (E2.0)
- Content Interoperability Services (CMIS)
- Case Management
- eDiscovery
- Enterprise Search
- Enterprise Portal
- Email Management (it's more than archiving!)
- Business Intelligence
- Information Organization & Access (IOA)
- Information Change Management
- Information Security
- Some knowledge of these are helpful:
  - Documentum
  - WebSphere
  - OpenText
  - Alfresco
  - Other major ECM platforms
Enterprise Information Technology Skills
- Networking
  - TCP/IP
  - DNS
  - Ports & Protocols
  - Switches
  - Cabling
  - Network Load Balancing
  - NAT
  - Firewalls (particularly MS Forefront)
  - DMZ
  - Network Security
- Servers
  - Server Hardware (Processors, RAM, Disk I/O, SANs, etc.)
  - Virtualization Platforms (VMware, XenServer, Hyper-V)
  - Windows Server 2008 R2
  - IIS
  - SharePoint Server 2010 & SharePoint Foundation 2010
    - Business Connectivity Services (BCS)
    - Visio Graphics Service
    - PerformancePoint Service
    - Excel Services
    - Access Services
    - Web Analytics
    - My Sites
    - Site Collections
    - Solutions & Features
    - Content Types & Lists
    - And many other SharePoint-specific skills...
  - SQL Server 2008 R2
  - Active Directory
  - Some knowledge of these are helpful:
    - Exchange Server
    - Windows & SQL Server Clustering
    - FAST Search Server 2010
    - Dynanics AX, CRM, etc.
    - Project Server 2010
- I.T. Change Management
- I.T. Service/Help Desk
- I.T. Infrastructure Security
Enterprise Application Architecture Skills
- SharePoint Application Architure
  - ASP.NET 3.5
  - C#
  - XML
  - GAC
  - web.config
  - Web Parts
  - Event Receivers
  - JavaScript
  - Workflow
  - Object Models
  - schema.xml
  - Forms
  - Master Pages
  - Etc.
- Tools
  - SharePoint Designer 2010
  - Visual Studio 2010
  - PowerShell Scripting
  - InfoPath 2010
  - Office Professional 2010
  - Visio Professional 2010
  - Adobe Acrobat Professional
  - Expertise in these are very helpful:
    - Adobe Illustrator
    - Adobe Photoshop
- Service-Oriented Architecture
- Design Patterns
- URI Namespace Management
- Search-Engine Optimization
- Branding & UI Design
- Application Security
Web Standards Skills
- XHTML & HTML
- XML
- DocTypes
- XSLT
- CSS
- JavaScript (jQuery helps, too, and will surely be critical to future versions of SharePoint)
- RSS & ATOM feeds
- Microformats
- Intelligent UserAgent Targeting
- Mashups
Marketing, Communication, and Design Skills
- Single-Source Authoring
- WORM (Write Once, Read Many)
- Blogging
- Public Relations
- Graphic Design
- Publication Design
- Copywriting & Technical Writing
- Digital Media
- Social Media
User Experience Skills
- Forms Design
- Usability
- Information Architecture (the kind focussed on navigation, tagging, and UI design)
- Findability
- Accessibility (including Section 508)
- Mobile & Alternative Device Design
Research & Authoring Skills
- Ethnography
- Survey
- Wireframing
- Use Cases
- UML
- Workflows & Diagrams
- Usability Testing
- Scope
- Business Requirements
- Business Process Management/Improvement
- Local Regulations
- I.T. Maturity Auditing
- Business Case
- Statement of Work
- Functional Requirements
- Technical Requirements
- Logical Requirements
- Onotology & Taxonomy
Business Leadership Skills
- Executive Communication, Interviewing & Presentation
- Business Values, Mission, Vision & Strategy Communication
- Enterprise Architecture
- Return on Investment & Value on Investment
- Conflict Management
- Project Management
- Program Management

I'm certain there are skills I'm leaving out here. I invite you to share your ideas for what is missing.

Shame on Citigroup's Web Apps Team

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin Parker) — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 16:27:00 +0000

This week, details came out about how identity thieves captured information for around 200,000 Citigroup customers' information. According to the New York Times article and many articles that reference it, "The case illustrates the threat posed by the rising demand for private financial information from the world of foreign hackers."

Wrong. This case illustrates the threat posed by total negligence and/or ignorance of your Web Apps and Security teams and flaws in your internal quality assurance processes. That is, if the report I read is correct (otherwise, shame on whoever else is responsible for this, and also on the dirty rotten thieves).

Sure, cyber security is a huge and growing concern. But this case illustrates the old adage (modified here to reflect scale) that an ounce of prevention is worth 200,000 pounds of cure.

URL hacking is the oldest trick in the Web apps hacker's book. To frame our discussion, we will consider the "3 A's of security":

Authentication: Is this user who they say they are?
Authorization: Is this authenticated user authorized to access the requested resource?
Access: Does the requested resource require authorized access only by certain authenticated users?

One common URL hacking method is known as the SQL Injection attack, where you change the URL's search parameters by inserting additional SQL commands into those parameters. This type of attack can be mitigated in your Web application (on any major Web server platform and application framework) by simply using appropriate query parameters (both on the application level and database level for added layers of security) and carfully checking escape characters, rather than simply grabbing your URL parameters and sticking them without prejudice into your SQL statements. It also helps to use a limited database user account rather than your RDBMS administrator's account (never do that!!). By limited, I mean that the database user account can only perform CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) functions or less (preferably just Read), and only on specific tables for most access.

How do the "3 A's of security" apply here? SQL injection attacks exploit the failure of a Web application's architecture to properly control access required to modify SQL commands and/or authorization for the database user employed by the application.

In the case of the Citigroup exploits, the attack is much simpler to carry out—and to prevent. If this story is reported correctly, the hackers just had to change an ID number in the URL to get to other customer accounts. This would mean that Citigroup's application page execution process goes something like this:

Receive request.
Is the user authenticated (logged in)?
- If yes, proceed (probably handled by checking a Session object or client Cookie).
- If no, redirect to login form.
No problem here...
What is the user's account number? Grab it from the URL!
BAD move. Here, access (is it restricted?) and authorization (is this user authorized?) should be checked.
Return the account information the user asked for (regardless of who the user actually is).
Not a planned step, but it is the result.

After a user has been authenticated, the account number could be stored temporarily in a secured session object on the server. And in the case of something like a bank account number, it should probably be a GUID reference ID that is associated on the database level with the user's account, and not the actual account or credit card number. Granted, for very large enterprise Web apps, you also have to consider the implications of multiple Web front-ends, session hand-off, etc., but additional complexity just means additional needs for security. Also authorization should be checked for sensitive information with each and ever request (including AJAX requests), even if only at the server's Session scope. You should NEVER EVER pass and receive sensitive data via the URL or GET requests.

No level of SSL encryption, firewall hardening, and password complexity will make one iota of difference when you allow the passing of account ID by URL. This is equivalent to having a Citibank branch with dozens of armed security guards, biometric security access, and 12" thick bullet-proof glass guarding the bank, but having your vault door open and giving customers a skeleton key to all other customer accounts. You might as well put a sign that says "Security is on the Honor System."

Citigroup is a very large enterprise with a very large I.T. infrastructure (I know because I've been perusing their job postings for SharePoint and ASP.NET architects). Somewhere, the bureaucracy that is in place to ensure quality and security has broken down and actually prevented them from seeing this very simple but obviously damning security hole.

My professional advice to Citigroup would be to reexamine your Application and Enterprise Architects and your Security auditors. This should have jumped out at them long before it became a nightmare for both customer and corporation.

Palin Emails and Stupid Digital-to-Paper Processes

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin Parker) — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 23:51:00 +0000

Unless you're hiding under a rock, you know that emails from Sarah Palin during her time as Governor were released today. First off, it is amazing to me how frenzied the media is over this mountain of mail, especially when you consider that this same media tells us all the time how ignorant and irrelevant Governor Palin is. Like her or loathe her: She keeps the media's attention!

Besides the political interest of this story, there is a very important lesson to learn here about Enterprise Content Management:

If you are turning corporate emails into paper documents to call your official record, then trying to search through these documents with scores of human resources, you are no more efficient than is our government.

That's right: The emails of Governor Palin were printed out, then distributed to news outlets and government offices who wanted to pay over $700 for the copy fees. Boxes and boxes and boxes worth.

Why, when email is digital to start with, would you print them out, only to manually search them and reproduce them later?

AIIM's Digital Landfill blog had a great post about this today entitled "Palin Emails and the Stupidity Of Paper-Based Records Management for Digital Assets."

TaxonomyPicker.ascx No Longer Used in SharePoint 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin Parker) — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 22:18:00 +0000

Twice now I have found this error in the logs of a client's SharePoint 2010 servers:

Load control template file /_controltemplates/TaxonomyPicker.ascx failed: Could not load type 'Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.WebControls.TaxonomyPicker' from assembly 'Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c'.

The initial fix I found was on a Microsoft Knowledge Base page:

This is not causing any issues except for a wrong ULS log message a single time in a web application process life time, the exception is caught and that template file is skipped. This message should be treated as log noise and can be ignored. To change this behavior:

Navigate to /14/TEMPLATE/ControlTemplates/TaxonomyPicker.ascx user control

Open the user control in a text editor and locate the first line

Find the character string , and replace with a comma ‘,’ (without quotes).

Save the user control

That's all well and good, but it doesn't fix the problem. If you open up this file, you will notice that the character entity """ appears several times instead of the double-quote character it represents. But changing this does not fix the problem either, at least not for everyone.

Finally I learned from a couple of sources that TaxonomyPicker.ascx doesn't even appear to be used anywhere in SharePoint 2010. Nice! Check out this thread and this blog post for more discussion.

The fix is to rename the original file to something like "TaxonomyPicker.ascx_disabled".

Is "ASP.NET" Profanity?

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin Parker) — Tue, 31 May 2011 15:45:00 +0000

I was editing my Amazon.com profile and adding to my "interests" section. When I went to save my profile, Amazon.com barked at me and said that I could not have profanity in my interests section. Excuse me?

Notice this screen shot of the interests I had typed:

I wondered if they didn't like "politics" or "religion." As it turns out, the offending term was "ASP.NET." That's funny to me. Does Bill Gates know that Amazon has pejorated this term to profane status?

Professional SharePoint 2010 Library

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin Parker) — Tue, 31 May 2011 05:00:00 +0000

The number of SharePoint 2010 titles is increasing daily. If you are a SharePoint architect, developer, or designer, you need to select titles that speak to your specific needs, rather than one of the many "how to do stuff with SharePoint" titles (many of which are excellent for non-IT business leaders and users).

To this end, I created an Amazon ListMania! list for SharePoint 2010 Professionals that contains some of the books I have found to be helpful. It's not complete by any means, but I think these are worth buying.

Check out my Professional SharePoint 2010 Library list.

AIIM

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin Parker) — Sat, 28 May 2011 18:27:00 +0000

I am a Professional Member of AIIM.

About AIIM:

For over 60 years, AIIM has been the leading non-profit organization focused on helping users to understand the challenges associated with managing documents, content, records, and business processes. AIIM was founded in 1943 as the National Microfilm Association and later became the Association for Information and Image Management. AIIM is also known as the enterprise content management (ECM) association.

Today, AIIM is international in scope, independent, and implementation-focused. As the industry's intermediary, AIIM represents the entire industry - including users, suppliers, and the channel.

As a neutral and unbiased source of information, AIIM serves the needs of its members and the industry.

Why am I a Professional Member of AIIM?

Research. The AIIM community and leaders keep their fingers on the pulse of ECM and related industries, and they continuously crank out fantastic research on a variety of important topics. Much of this research is free of charge, as it is underwritten by numerous industry sponsors.

Focus. Since they are vendor-neutral, AIIM is free to focus on business processes and trends, rather than basing all conversations on a particular technology or product that they are selling. Too many "I.T." departments and leaders are focused on technology and platform as their solutions, with little to no regard for examining process and purpose first and architecting solutions to meet actual needs. AIIM helps to correct this for all who will listen.

Community. It is great getting to know other leaders in the field of intelligent information and content management!

ROI. Since I am pursuing Certifications through AIIM, the Professional Membership reduces my TCO for the very first Master certification I'm getting. And a lot of their tools and research cost $40-100, unless you are a Professional Member. It is definitely worth the investment!

Page Layouts in SharePoint 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin Parker) — Fri, 27 May 2011 03:07:00 +0000

In an earlier post, I mentioned two uses I saw for "Reusable Content" in SharePoint 2010, but that I needed to research these further. After doing this research, and given the particular client's need, I elected to use Page Layouts instead. This allowed me to put common display elements used for home pages of subsites in one place.

In order to make Page Layouts work, we had to enable the SharePoint Server Publishing site feature on each site. Next, we had to create a new Home.aspx inside "Pages," and make this the site's home page. "Pages" is the library for SharePoint "Publishing Pages," and one of the benefits this type of page gives you is the ability to create and use "Page Layouts."

Standard "Site Pages," on the other hand, use "Text Layouts," which are different. Confused? You're not alone. The documentation for all of this is difficult to track down. But if you want reusable, manageable page layouts, "Publishing Pages" is the way to go.

Reusable Content in SharePoint 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin Parker) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 22:00:00 +0000

Have you seen the Reusable Content list in SharePoint 2010? To get there in your SharePoint environment, go to Site Actions » View All Site Content. Or you could just go to http://your-sharepoint-site/_layouts/viewlsts.aspx. If it is activated in your site collection, you'll see "Reusable Content" under "Lists" on the all site content page.

According to the description on the All Site Content page in SharePoint,

Items in this list contain HTML or text content which can be inserted into web pages. If an item has automatic update selected, the content will be inserted into web pages as a read-only reference, and the content will update if the item is changed. If the item does not have automatic update selected, the content will be inserted as a copy in the web page, and the content will not update if the item is changed.

I see several good uses for this right out of the box. This feature existed in SharePoint 2007, and like nearly every content management feature in SharePoint, it is not new nor is it exclusive to SharePoint. Back in the day, FrontPage had a feature that let you store content in one place and insert content tokens throughout your site. When you published, FrontPage would replace every instance of the content token with the centrally edited bit of content. And many other site management tools did this. Even so, I'm glad I discovered it in SharePoint 2010!

I'm currently researching a couple of issues related to using Reusable Content. First, in my client's environment, this list does not seem to be available to subsites, but having it available to these would be super helpful. Second, I want to be able to put tokens (i.e., SharePoint controls) in their master pages so that content managers can manage content like the site's slogan and copyright through the SharePoint interface.

When I have discovered the solutions to these issues, I will post them here.

SharePoint Skills

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin Parker) — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 17:52:00 +0000

Yay, my new box of books from Amazon have arrived! I bought several Wrox Press "Professional" books on SharePoint 2010 and ASP.NET so I can continue my skill development in those technologies. After my work with a large oil and gas services company as their Enterprise Content Manager, I am continuing down the SharePoint road rather than building CMS solutions from scratch (for this season at least). Another book in my shipment that I'm anxious to read is Laughing at the CIO: A Parable and Prescription for IT Leadership. The title was enough to grab me, but the author sealed the deal. Bob Boiko is Mr. Content Management. I have a well-worn 1st edition of his comprehensive Content Management Bible, which is the canonical book on the subject. If you are in the field of Content Management but don't know the name Bob Boiko, stop whatever you are doing this instant and buy (and read!) Boiko's Content Management Bible. Right now. No, really!

JavaScript and CSS Frameworks

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin Parker) — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 19:37:00 +0000

Due to time constraints, I'm only going to list some interesting frameworks I'm researching and/or using here for my own reference.

JavaScript

jQuery - My current favorite JS library.
cujo - an MVC framework that runs in the browser.
selectivizr - CSS3 selectors for IE.
YUI - A fuller JS + CSS library.

CSS

jQuery UI.
oocss - Object Oriented CSS.
960 Grid System - provides commonly used dimensions, based on a width of 960 pixels.
Sass - Syntactically Awesome Stylesheets.
YUI - A fuller JS + CSS libary.
less css - Uses Ruby to extend CSS.