Yeah, we have too.

Well, worry no more! Our very own Bil Simser will be providing some tips on how best to start you on your own SharePoint design process. Focusing not just on theoretical design approaches, but practical tips to help you maximize your design skills to make  any SharePoint implementation shine (..or *pop*)!              

Please join us at 5:30 on Thursday June 17 at Nexient Learning. We’ll provide the pizza!

Sunlife Plaza, Suite 200, West Tower
144 – 4th Avenue SW

 Please RSVP to calspug@gmail.com

PS: As usual, SharePINT will follow the presentation. Location TBD. :)

We stood this site up as a potentially temporary replacement for the previous one. If you recall, the previous site was running on SharePoint 2007 with the Community Kit. It was good but there may have been some areas of confusion. After an infrastructure issue, we were left with a single page so we stood this site up as a replacement.

This site is built on WordPress, an open source PHP content management and blogging system very popular on the Internet. The reason why this was chosen over SharePoint 2010 was that we wanted to get something up and running quickly and value-add. We have been and will continue to work on a SharePoint 2010 based system and may roll that out as the platform to deliver content and information to you. This WordPress site was just easy to get up and running and offered a lot of out-of-the-box features such as polls, forums, membership, and events.

Here’s a quick tour of some of the things available on the site:

Membership

Membership is simple and you just register with a new account. Once the account is created you can associate it with a variety of 3rd party authentication providers like Twitter, Windows Live ID, Google, Yahoo, and Flickr. As a member you’ll be allowed to vote on polls, enter comments on postings (such as this one) and rate pages and features.

Forums

We have a set of forums available. The topics are initially setup but not fixed. They’re just some ideas around things we thought users like yourself might want to talk about here. If you have suggestions for new topics and forums please use the forums to suggest them!

Polls

From time to time we’ll post an interactive poll that you can vote on. This might be polls about venue information (pizza vs. sandwiches?) or speaker suggestions. Polls are archived and you can always view the past results of a poll.

RSS Feed

We have an RSS feed on the home page (right hand side, about half way down) if you’re interested in getting updates that way. Just click on it and subscribe using your browser, mail program, or any system that supports RSS feeds. All updates go to the feed when they’re posted including new pages, new events, and new features of the site and user group.

You

The most important thing about the user group and this site is YOU. Your input is important and going forward we want to deliver the information you need, make your experience with the group a good one, and help grow the community. Always feel free to contact us and help us continue the journey.

There are other features of the site to check out so just browse around. If you’re lost or need some help, feel free to call on us via email at calspug@gmail.com.

The presentation will include:

• How is SharePoint a competitive advantage for Business Intelligence?
• How is Enterprise BI achieved? What about Operational/Embedded BI?
• Can SharePoint technicians deliver BI?
• How is Microsoft BI being implemented in the real world? What are some real-world benefits?
• What tools are available for BI now? How does it change in SharePoint 2010?
• Why aren’t SharePoint kpi lists considered BI?
• Is PowerPivot really a game changer?

Speaker Bio:
A recognized thought leader, Richard Hines has over 15 years of international experience in performance management and business intelligence solutions. His depth of knowledge regarding technology and its strategic implications on decision making has made him a regular speaker at industry forums throughout Canada and the US. His technical expertise in Data Architecture, Database Administration, and Enterprise Application Integration, is complemented with his business experience in financial and systems auditing, and business process reengineering.

Richard is one of twenty professionals worldwide who sit on Microsoft’s Business Intelligence Advisory Council, which is responsible for advising on Microsoft’s strategic direction for business intelligence.

Event Info

Date: Thursday May 20th, 2010 @ 5:30 (MST)
Location: Nexient Learning ( Suite 200, 144-4th Avenue SW, SunLife Plaza Building)
Presentation content will be posted after the event.

While there is no official registration for this event, please let us know you’ll be coming by sending an email to calspug@gmail.com

Thanks!

Whether you’re new to SharePoint development or a seasoned veteran, this session is for you.

During this session, you will learn from SharePoint experts how to leverage SharePoint 2010 for your web infrastructure and how to build applications for the SharePoint environment whether you are a web developer or SharePoint veteran.

We will start with material targeted at those new to SharePoint development, covering key foundational topics (like Features and the Solutions Framework) that are vital to understanding how customizations are componentized and packaged.

You will also learn about the new tools in Visual Studio 2010 that make SharePoint development easier than ever before. We’ll see how the new templates, wizards and designers improve productivity by automatically managing project structure and manifest files for you. We’ll demonstrate how you can use visual designers to speed-up the process of building Web parts.

You will also learn how the new client object models and REST services enable you to make the use of SharePoint functionality from client applications across the enterprise. Finally, you will learn how to debug that SharePoint applications using the same F5 deployment and debugging experience enjoyed by .NET developers for years.

Speaker Bio:
Jason Kaczor has been providing technical solutions to business problems for over 18 years; covering nearly all industry sectors. He is currently an independent consultant specializing in Microsoft SharePoint and .NET technologies; architecture, design, governance, operations, training as well as custom solutions & applications.

Formerly a Premier Field Engineer/Rapid Response Engineer for Microsoft Canada, he provided SharePoint and .NET expertise worldwide. While at Microsoft he was involved in several unique initiatives, including; Bad Guy Patrol and the Child Exploitation Tracking System (CETS). He has always been involved in user group and community-based initiatives, most recently a co-founder of the Calgary SharePoint User Group (CalSPUG). For fun he does the typical “old-school” geeky/nerdy activities and is trying to convince his kids that programming is “cool”.

Jason can be contacted by E-mail, phone (403) 991-6373, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

Location

Date: Thursday April 22nd, 2010 @ 5:30 (MST)
Location: Nexient Learning ( Suite 200, 144-4th Avenue SW, SunLife Plaza Building)
Presentation content is available here.

• Quick overview of the PowerShell Engine
• New capabilities of PowerShell with SharePoint 2010
• Automating the SharePoint 2010 installation and configuring a new farm
• Provisioning and configuring Service Applications
• Creating new Web applications and site collections
• Creating scheduled SharePoint backups

It will create a forum for individuals to discuss SharePoint and related technologies, such as .NET/development, customization/branding, Business Intelligence (BI), content/document & records management, etc, with other experienced individuals in the field.

Bil Simser presents an overview of SharePoint 2010 and what features it offers users, developers, and information workers.