So in day 2 of the Ignite we ended the day on the complexities of the new SharePoint 2013 Search, how you can do very vibrant search results pages barely leaving the comfort of OOB. And in fact you can replicate very complex 2010 build in minutes.
But we are on Day 3 now, starting with Social….
First before I tell you about some of the new and exciting you must first CALM YOURSELF if you cannot please take a moment to look at the picture…..ok
Let’s begin grasshopper.
SharePoint 2013 Social
Social gets some improvements via new functionality, and new features.
Follow people as well as content
Share personal documents, data, activities, and status updates
Keep up to date with social aggregators, discussions, feeds
Yammer
Community Sites
To outline social correctly we need to break it down into 2 categories MySites/Community Sites and Additional Features.
MySitesWe all know that when you start out with your MySite it is a little daunting…no info, no guidance, no ideas. Well SP 2013 is going to start you in the same way. I have to say it does start out blank and well painful.
Well it does get better, I will use a shot from the Ignite Deck for example once you get started. Thanks Ali for your screenshot.
So if you have never or even if you have used MySites you know of the struggle to keep folks interested, keep fresh information, and not cross HR boundaries that lead you into trouble. So Newsfeeds have taken the lead on trying to add that level of interaction. This the SharePoint and Yammer integration everyone has been talking about. What do you get:
People Posts
Profile changes and updates
updates on Followed documents
Any item updates from Followed tags
Mentions
Likes
and Feed Aggregation
Sound like Yammer right…exactly so if you have not had a chance to play with Yammer do it now, get confortable with it, as this will be a big component to the SharePoint investment in your org. It will also tell you if 2013 is right for you. I mean if Yammer and MySites are not something you plan to implement, then you are giving up a huge chunk of functionality and social collateral. Remember that adoption for users is one of the biggest and first hurdles you encounter with any solution, but especially SharePoint.
Community Sites
So Communities are building on the momentum of Team, Project, Groups, and many of the Fantastic 40 Templates of old. What it does add is the fact that you gain all the social of discussions and aggregators with Wikis, Membership lists, What’s Happening, My Posts…etc. Get the point. These are built around a unified place to discuss a topic or concept. We have found that with a simple naming change Community Sites become Project Sites, Client Sites, Event Sites…and on and on. Remember OOB just means you have to be creative.
I am going to use the Community site for the Ignite class for example:
Here is a great usage of a Community around a class/training session.
One of the big wins that combines with Communities is Self Service Site Creation. The configuration is very simple and makes it so that you can create a Web Application with a Parent Site Directory site, then direct folks to create sites under that structure. So mix in trimming out site templates to only Community Sites, and tada you have a Community Web Application structure that folks can use and not kill your governance.
Wrap-Up
Well I need to get back to class, so hope you enjoyed these bits of info and ideas. Remember SharePoint can be the solution for a lot of organizational woes, but is not a silver bullet, you have to be willing to meet it half way with change. SharePoint 2013 looks like it will offer you more functionality to make the change just a bit easier to swallow.
Cheers.
.