Michael Sampson: Currents

Europe Trip in February-March 2010

2010-03-13T09:18:10+13:00

My Europe trip in February and March 2010 is in its final hours. I have about 30 hours of sitting on a plane to get back to New Zealand, and then it's at an end.

I've had a blast. I have really enjoyed being here -- seeing new things, going to new countries (Norway, Ireland, Hong Kong -- on the way home!), and going through Heathrow lots of times. Seriously, I really like Heathrow ... there's something about what it means for international travel that make me stand in wonderment. Perhaps put me through here another 100 times and I'll become cynical about the place, like most other people I meet!

I've met great people on this trip; some for a second or subsequent time, some for the first time. I'm not going to mention everyone, so this is just a partial list, but my thanks to:
- Kurt from IntraTeam, for the invitation to come in the first place. You looked after me so well; thanks.
- Martin from Intranet Focus, for the "chat over breakfast" at IntraTeam. I've been thinking about what we talked about, and as you will have noticed, have implemented one of your points immediately.
- Jane from NetStrategy JMC, great to meet you for the first time (after discussions via other channels), to hear your presentation and workshop, and to learn more about your work. Looking forward to seeing where you take your stuff next.
- Frederik, Mark, Sam, Sharon, and many, many other at the IntraTeam conference, thanks. And thanks (publicly) to Sam and Sharon for helping me get to my hotel in London after IntraTeam. That was a huge, huge help!
- Ray in London, thanks for the good chat and overview of how you are helping customers with Groove and SharePoint.
- James and Carmel in Oxford ... good to meet up with the two of you again. Thanks for showing me the sights.
- James from Step Two ... good to see you in Copenhagen and London! Enjoyed the chat on Sunday afternoon ... hope your equally crazy travel this week has gone off okay.
- Julie in London ... thanks for the opportunity to work with you on Monday around SharePoint governance. Hope things have gone well for the rest of the week.
- Anders and team in Norway ... thanks for the invite, and the conversation throughout the day. I was sorry that I missed meeting Fredrik ... next time, okay?
- Eoghan in Ireland, for playing point man on getting me there, and then making sure I got to the various places I needed to be. Thanks for making it happen, and for your input (and others from Storm) and work behind the scenes in getting 65 (!!) people to the SharePoint Roadmap masterclass in Ireland. Well done. And thanks for the Microsoft Ireland people for hosting the event, too.
- Seb in London ... good to meet you finally, and thanks for coordinating the details for a great session today.

I've given numerous presentations while over here ... and people have asked how I found them. I always look out for people laughing, talking, engaging, thinking, questioning ... and I've been so pleased that all of that happened. So ... the presentations have gone great, on that basis.

A couple of funny things (okay, funny to me), happened over here.
- At Microsoft in Ireland, they graciously gave an XBOX 360 as the prize draw for people who handed in their registration forms. There were three copies of SharePoint Roadmap left too, so I added those into the mix ... but I called the XBOX 360 the "runner-up" prize, and one of the copies of SharePoint Roadmap as the "grand prize". I don't think anyone feel for that, though!
- And then also at Microsoft Ireland, you can't pay cash for things in the canteen; you have to have a card and a staff account. My sore throat was hanging out for a lemonade, but I couldn't pay the cashier via €1. But rather than walking out without the lemonade, I turned to the person behind me in the line and said, "I want this drink. I can't buy it with this €1. Can you buy it on your account, and I'll give you the euro?" It worked. I got my drink!

Finally, thanks to everyone who put up with my sore sounding voice this week. Next time ... I'll sound like I usually sound!

Ok ... boarding time. It's 747-400 time ...

The London Masterclass on SharePoint for Collaboration and Governance

2010-03-13T07:52:15+13:00

Photo credit: Seb Matthews

The London masterclass on SharePoint Collaboration and Governance, presented in partnership with AdeoPoint is now done. Many thanks to Seb Matthews from AdeoPoint for making it possible for me to present in London today. My voice still sounded dreadful, but I got through it.

17 people came to the masterclass today. That was a good number (it wasn't on the Ireland scale, to be sure), but it meant that the discussion and engagement was at a different level. I really enjoyed presenting, discussing, thinking, facilitating ... even with a sore voice.

One of the group exercise we did today was look at the process of document co-authoring, and how a change of work practice can make a huge change. Using Excel, we modelled a 4-stage review cycle between Sally (lead author) and five reviewers. We then changed the work practice (stick the document in SharePoint, check-out and edit, check-back-in), and re-modelled the process. Key discovery from the group: doing it the second way was 55% faster in actual work time, and resulted in 87% less copies of the same document. That was about the same point we got to yesterday when we did the same exercise in Ireland. For such a simple change, that is a huge improvement!

So ... thanks to everyone who came today, who took part, who spoke up, who asked questions, and who made me welcome. And great to meet people that I've traded communications with before -- Emma for example. To you all ... go great on Monday!

Windows Mobile 6.5 in HTC HD2

2010-03-12T20:24:16+13:00

A couple of the Microsoft guys in Ireland were showing off the new HTC HD2 smartphone with Windows Mobile 6.5. While they were willing to show it, they weren't willing for me to leave with one myself!

A couple of observations:
- the screen is beautiful. The marketing on the site uses the word "stunning". I'd agree.
- Barry took a photo of my business card, and the software recognized the fields and enabled him to import the digital text straight into his contacts database. Smart.
- I initially thought the guys had Windows 7 Phones, but this was just 6.5. If 7 is better (as it should be), then I'd be willing to take a fourth look at the platform.

And I'm still waiting for more details on SharePoint Workspace Mobile. That, depending on how it's done, combined with a Windows 6.5 or 7 device, could be very powerful. Mmm, new things to explore ...

Thus the question is: Have the new capabilities in Windows Mobile 6.5 and the forthcoming 7.0 Windows Phones made you take a second (or third) look at this platform?

End of Ireland; London Awaits

2010-03-12T07:36:23+13:00

My day and a half in Ireland are basically done, and it's time to head to my final destination before going back to New Zealand. I've been away since February ... it feels like a long time now. I'm looking forward to being back. Anyhow ...

The two days in Ireland have gone well. I've enjoyed them. The people who attended the SharePoint Roadmap masterclass today appeared to be glad that I came too! And, in beating Singapore for numbers, there were 65 people at the workshop today ... a great turnout (based on 70 people enrolled). Many thanks to the attendees for their involvement through the day, their engagement with the questions, their discussions during the governance session, and their questions throughout. My voice sounded pretty bad, and my ears were blocked, but they graciously gave me their attention for 7 hours. It was a privilege to share. One of the comments on a feedback form made my day: "I now know that I can go back and do governance for SharePoint for collaboration." Great stuff ... the day worked.

So ... many thanks to the team at Storm Technology (Karl, Eoghan and Derek, among others) for the invitation to come, and for Microsoft Ireland for hosting the event at their Irish headquarters.

Now to London. I'm on the way to the airport (thus writing this in the back of the taxi). Am hoping to get an earlier flight but will have to see what the Aer Lingus people say.

Update: No, no earlier flight for this traveler. So thanks to Eircom, I'm online at the airport.

Insomnia in Ireland

2010-03-11T21:12:56+13:00

I've been in Europe for 12 days now; will be back in New Zealand in 4 days. With having to totally reverse my wake / sleep pattern due to the 12 hour time difference between where I normally live and where I've been working for the past few weeks, I've had very little sleep since getting here. Most nights I've lain awake for hours at a stretch ... I'll remember Europe as the place where the nights are very long!

Anyway, last night in Ireland I finally slept, and slept soundly. So, rule of thumb about changing comes into play again: time to adjust is one day per time zone crossed. That means I should be able to look forward to a good sleep in London tonight.

But then ... I have to go back to New Zealand tomorrow night, and make the change all over again. So many people on this trip told me this would happen: You'll get perfectly adjusted, and then you'll have to go back. LOL.

Nicholas on Team Performance

2010-03-11T19:26:41+13:00

Why is your team not performing at its best? Nicholas Bate suggests three reasons. Don't focus on the small slice!

Ireland: Night Falls

2010-03-11T08:09:53+13:00

Got to my hotel in London last night at 10pm. Slept (fitfully). Up at 6am for breakfast, then took the bus back to Heathrow. Did the security checks, got on the plane, flew to Ireland, found the taxis were on strike, so experienced the bus from the Dublin airport to the other side of the city. Met up with Eoghan from Storm Technology, drove to the Microsoft Center here (great building!), and spent a very enjoyable few hours with a number of executives who are using SharePoint (or are considering doing so) at their firms. Great discussion. I talked about user adoption and governance. We then looked over the room for tomorrow's masterclass, back to the hotel, and in 7 minutes it's dinner time (hurray!).

Eoghan said he had the perfect fix for my head cold: a hot whiskey. Too bad coffee is as hard as I go.

Norway: Can You Say "Snow"

2010-03-11T08:03:33+13:00

I took the Airport Express train to and from the city (Oslo) when I was there on Tuesday. There is a lot of ... snow ... around. It's beautiful, but I got the sense that people there are looking forward to spring.

It was my first time in Norway; I was there for all of 22 hours. But, I got to walk the streets at 11pm trying to find my hotel without a map, got to see the snow, got to meet people who love skiing (I've only been once), and then had a great workshop with the company that asked me to come. Thanks Fredrik and Anders for making it possible!

Oxford: Great Street Names

2010-03-11T07:57:42+13:00

Gotta love the street names in Oxford!

My Crazy Week

2010-03-09T20:13:04+13:00

Week 2 of my European Tour is well underway. This is the crazy of the two weeks:
- Sunday ... sleep in London
- Monday ... work in London, fly to Norway, sleep in Norway
- Tuesday ... workshop in Norway, fly to London, sleep in London
- Wednesday ... fly to Ireland, workshop in Ireland, sleep in Ireland
- Thursday ... workshop in Ireland, fly to London, sleep in London
- Friday ... workshop in London, fly to New Zealand, sleep from here to there.

6 days, 6 different hotels, 3 countries (and UK multiple times). One word = crazy.

Anyhow, 4 minutes till I have to leave for the presentation in Norway. Wherever you are ... have a great day!