Adventures of a ServerGrrl- the WSS/SPF edition: May 2013

Friday, May 31, 2013

Stuff that's happening- I'll be at TechEd 2013 North America, I'm coauthoring a book about SharePoint 2013 for a little while, thoughts on an online SPF guide, and more...

Hi everyone,

My apologies for letting this blog lag as of late. I have been super busy with work things and life things.

If you remember my post about SPC 2012, I promised that I would be more available for my readers, followers, etc.,. True to my word, I will attending TechEd 2013 North America this year as a full attendee. This means that none of my hours at the event will be dedicated to working a lab, booth, or session. All my time can be yours (well, I might want to see some sessions, and do some certification, but otherwise, I'll be available). Feel free to contact me if you'd like to get together.

I am writing some chapters for the MSPress SharePoint 2013 Administration Inside Out, to be out this autumn. O'Reilly (the actual publisher for MSPress books right now) is doing some interesting sneak peek, "Rough Cut" marketing of the Inside Out book. A "Rough Cut" is a sampler of chapters that are currently in copy edits from the full SharePoint 2013 Administration Inside Out book. Right now those are mostly Chris Givens' Search chapters, but they want me to spend some time signing copies anyway, saying hi to readers, and generally being social.

The time I am scheduled to be signing Rough Cuts is Wednesday, June 5, at 4:30pm at the Microsoft Press booth. If you're at TechEd, and free at that time, feel free to stop by and say hello.

In other news, I have been wondering what to do concerning continuing the content of my Mastering SharePoint Foundation books. My audience deserves to learn all the new features, lost features, tips, and tricks of the 2013 version of SharePoint Foundation. How to upgrade/migrate from 2010 to 2013. How Search has completely changed (unless you're used to Search Server Express- then it's exactly the same). How the graphic elements, and therefore navigation, has changed.

To make matters worse- Microsoft TechNet doesn't even have a separate section for SharePoint Foundation at all. That's right. For those of you using SharePoint Foundation 2013, there is no where to go for articles specifically about SharePoint Foundation 2013 on TechNet at all. Only SharePoint Server 2013. So if you want to see if something works, you have to read the Server article, which might mention Foundation.

So if I don't write anything for my audience about SharePoint Foundation 2013, they aren't going to get the information they need anywhere else. Not TechNet certainly.

But- I do not want to go through the hassle and heartbreak of trying to publish a big fat book dedicated to administering, configuring, managing SharePoint Foundation anymore. It's just too much of an uphill and thankless battle (ask my reviewers for details).

But- I don't want to leave my readers hanging.

But- I just can't do conventional publishing of that topic anymore. But, my readers... But my sanity... But my readers... But my finances... But...

...So what do you think of this-

I create a Callahan's Guide To SharePoint Foundation 2013 online. A site dedicated to documents concerning all things SharePoint Foundation 2013 configuration, administration, and management. It will be a lot like a book (like previous ones I've done), a lot like TechNet probably should be, and all about SharePoint Foundation.

I can use ads to to cover costs, so it can be totally free for you, the readers, and I can even offer on-demand printing of portions into mini-books or manuals in hard copy for a minimal fee.

Do you think y'all might be interested? It'd be a lot of work on my part with no certainty that anyone would read the pages, or click the ads. So I'd like to know if anyone out there might want to use the site. Let me know, and after I finish my chapters (end of July), if there's interest, I'll set up the site and get started.

Also- as a note-- I will be presenting at SPTechCon in Boston this August. This is the first time I've worked with this group. I will be doing a pre-conference 3 hour Tutorial about how to Migrate to SharePoint 2013 (covering both Server and Foundation, since I can), and the free tools, how to monitor SharePoint 2013 without spending a dime. If you're going to the event, please stop by my sessions and say hello.

Welcome to the Adventures of a Server Grrl-the WSS edition

This site was created as a location to dish about the Mastering Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (and Mastering SharePoint Foundation 2010) books, as a place to communicate with me directly, and allow me to communicate directly with you. There were so many things I wanted to say that didn't make it to print. So I felt I needed a place to tell you about them.

So please join me here as I essentially continue to write my book, covering more and more WSS 3.0 stuff as I learn them. From my desk to yours.

Gentle suggestions for the next edition, improvements, and questions welcome. : )

Twitter username: cacallahan

Happenin' Things

In 2013:

I did two sessions about SharePoint 2013 for the PacIT Pro folks at TechDays San Francisco.

I'll be doing book signings and attending TechEd North America in New Orleans this year.

I'll be speaking at SPTechCon in Boston in August, doing a 3 hour pre-conference tutorial, and a breakout session

In 2012, I did speak at or otherwise work TechEd North America, TechEd Europe (in Amsterdam), SharePoint Conference 2012, and SEF 2012 in Stockholm Sweden.

In November, I will be visiting Sweden for the first time as a speaker for the SEF 2011 event (SharePoint and Exchange Forum 2011), November 14-15th. I will be doing two sessions: "SharePoint Design Fundamentals" and "Monitoring your SharePoint Foundation server at no extra cost." I will also probably be giving out a copy of my book at the event.

At the end of October, October 29th, 2011 to be exact, I am speaking at the SharePoint Saturday event in Cincinatti. My session is going to cover "Permissions, things I've learned the hard way." If you're in town, please stop on by.

I won an "Unsung Hero" award to attend and staff the SharePoint Conference in Anaheim, CA, October 3-6th, 2011. I will be working the Hands-On labs (just like I did for TechEd this year). If you are attending the event, please stop by and visit. Frankly, doing the labs hands-on have always been the best part of these events. Why watch someone do what you can actually do yourself? I'll be posting on twitter (as cacallahan) my specific hours if you would like to stop by and say hi!

For September 2011, I'll be the featured speaker at the SharePoint TechDay in San Francisco on the 23rd. It will be a whopping 6 hour session, covering all kinds of topics that a SharePoint adminstrator needs to know. A kind of "kitchen sink" session, this will focus on what an administrator who might have inherited a SharePoint implementation needs to know by the end of their first work day. Figure out what kind of implementation you have, your namespace, the web applications, their security and settings, the site collections, and sites. Along the way, see what kind of permissions are being used, suggestions on how to configure AAM, managed paths, and more. Take control of your SPF implementation, don't let it control you.

What is essentially a day long, custom course, this session will run from 10am-5pm on Friday, September 23rd at the Microsoft Office in San Francisco. It is not entirely free, but very inexpensive at $99 a person. To register go to http://techdays.org/2011/09/spwithca/.

In August 2011, I'll be doing a double-header in Columbus. On the 18th I'll be speaking at the BuckeyeSPUG (Columbus SharePoint User Group) meeting about Permissions.

Then that Saturday, August 20th, I'll be doing a session on Multi-Tenancy, what it is and why you might want to use it. So if you are in the area, please stop by.

On July 27th, 2011, I'll be in Cleveland Ohio speaking that the Cleveland SharePoint Users Group meeting. I will be covering how to create do-it-yourself dashboards and giving out a copy of my Mastering Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 book. If you're in the area, feel free to stop by.

For the week of May 16th-19th, 2011, I will be working the Hands-On labs, SharePoint and Office section at TechEd NA in Atlanta, Georgia. Hands-On labs are always my favorite part of these events- after I hear about things during a session, I can often try them, hands on, in the labs. Very useful for a servergrrl like me. Feel free to stop by.

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For the week of June 7th to the 11th I will be working as a Product Expert in the SharePoint track at TechEd 2010 in North America. This year the event will be held in New Orleans. If you are attending the event, feel free to stop by the booth, I'd be glad to meet you.

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December 16th, 2009, I'll be offering a free Windows Server 2008 R2 Firestarter Launch event at the Microsoft Offices in downtown Pittsburgh. This will be a deep dive, demonstration heavy, IT pro happening, focused on new features and capabilities of the most recent Server release.

I will be carrying this event alone, from finding the venue, to buying the refreshments, to doing all four hours of presentations. Right now I am trying to drum up more attendees, because I need a minimum of 25 people.

So if you're in the Pittsburgh area on the 16th, and would like a chance to see live demos (no high level overviews here) of new things in Server 2008R2-- like Active Directory Recycle bin (my fave), booting to VHD, Hyper-V (at the least because I'll be using it extensively all day), Power Management, Remote Server Manager (and the AD management center), powershell V2 (from an IT pro perspective of course), and much, much more-- then stop on by.

To register (please register so I know who's coming), go to my little registration form at: http://www.callahantech.com/firestarter.htm.

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November 21st, 2009, I'll be carry a Introduction to SharePoint track at the Richmond, VA SharePoint Saturday event. (earlier in this space I'd posted that I'd be carrying most of a track, but an additional room was booked and now I am doing all four sessions)

My sessions will be back to back in four, one hour pieces. Starting with What is SharePoint, then A day in the life of a SharePoint User, then Make the most out of Lists and Libraries, and finally Make the most out of Web parts (a remake of my Frugal Admin, built-in web parts session, for those of you who have been looking to take that one but couldn't-- 'til now).

It will be held at the J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College

Parham Road Campus in Richmond Virginia. As of 11/18/09, there are still a few seats available if you want to sign up. Click the logo below to be taken to their site for more information.

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November 14th, 2009, I'll be presenting two sessions:

-- Frugal Admin: Create your own Dashboards (for those of you that missed it in Baltimore)

-- Migrating to 2010; The good, the bad, and the ugly.

At the SharePoint Saturday event in Cleveland Ohio. There will likely be a fun SharePint event afterwards, and rumor has it that attendees will get a cool SPS Cleveland pint glass as well...

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August 20th, 2009, I'm visiting the fine folks in Columbus Ohio at the Central Ohio SharePoint User Group meeting. I'll be doing the fourth part of the Frugal Admin series; "Exploiting the free online offerings for SharePoint". I'm primarily going to cover Fantastic 40 templates, Community Kit for SharePoint, Codeplex in general, solution accelerators, a few nifty blogs, some nifty SharePoint add-ons, and more. (really, whatever I can fit in the time they give me)

If you're in the area, come on by the Microsoft Office on Lyra Drive (8800 Lyra drive, suite 400 I believe) around 5:30pm.

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July 25th, 2009, I am going to be presenting a Frugal Admin series Dashboards session at the SharePoint Saturday event in Baltimore. This event is free to all attendees and will be chock full of SharePoint MVP goodness. I'll be there to give out a free copy or two of my book, sign a few, and just say hello to other SharePoint fans (and victims, lol). So if you can, stop on by. Oh, and did I mention free?

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SSWUG (the SQL Server Worldwide User Group) is rebroadcasting my sessions in a "Summer Refresher '09" event July 22nd, 23rd, and 24th. Stop by http://www.vconferenceonline.com/shows/summer09/uvc/ and sign up to see some old favorites, like "Avoid Disaster without spending a penny," "Pump up those list views," "Useful, effective templates, from Microsoft, for free," and the first three sessions of the Frugal Admin series: "How to get the most out of the built-in web parts," "How to make your own Dashboards," and "Create your own site templates."

(not a free event)

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I am not going to be presenting at TechEd this year, but I will be volunteering in the Windows Server area. Come visit if you'd like.

On April 23rd and 24th, I'll be doing some sessions for a SSWUG.org SharePoint VConference (check out their linked logo):

These sessions will be one hour apiece and are all part of the "Frugal Admin Series: How to get the most out of WSS for the least amount of cash":

-- How to get the most of the built-in web parts

-- Do it yourself dashboards

-- Make your own Custom Site Templates

Stop by, sign up, and check it out. I have a VIP code--SPVCCASP09. If you use it, it takes an additional $10 off the $125 (early bird) conference fee.

Hey, every little bit helps.

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SharePoint Saturday, DC, May 1st.

On May 1st, I'll be presenting one of the Frugal Admin series sessions, "Make your own custom site templates" at the DC SharePoint Saturday at the Reston, VA Microsoft Offices. The session will be an hour long. The event is completely free. So, if you're in the neighborhood, stop on by. I'll be glad to see ya.

Also happenin' at the SharePoint Saturday event is a charity food drive contest (http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/dc/pages/charity.aspx). So you won't just get some free training in SharePoint, you can do some good in the world as well. Check out the link and see if you can join in.

Oh, and BTW, the "prize" for the contest is an hour with the speaker of your choice. So if you've ever wanted to have a speaker's undivided attention for an hour, this is a good way to do it.

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I was just informed last night, 3/24/2009, that the event listed below has been completely cancelled. Yes, the entire 70 speaker, 110 session conference in a four star resort in Wisla, Poland has been simply cancelled.

I was to leave the US on Tues, 3/31. So as you can imagine, it came as quite a shock to be told less than a week before that all plans are off...

Crazy huh? Yes, these things can happen.

Click on the event icon below (and translate the site into your language, you can use Google Translate) to see exactly what happened. I cannot be guarantee how long the site will remain up, so don't dally if you want the inside scoop.

The first weekend in April (3/2 to 3/5), I was going to be speaking at TechFest 2009 in Wisla Poland (yay Poland!).

I was going to be doing four, hour and a half sessions from the Frugal Admin series:

-- How to get the most of the built-in web parts

-- Do it yourself dashboards

-- Make your own Custom Site Templates

-- Exploiting what's out there, how to get more free WSS stuff from the internet

Luckily I will be doing some lighter, shorter, recorded versions of the first three of them at the vconference later in the month (see below). So if you are interested in the content, that's where you can go-- cuz obviously they ain't happenin' in Poland now...

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SharePoint Conference 2009, Las Vegas, baybee!

I am not going to be presenting at this one, but it'll be chock full of SharePoint goodness. Not just an IT conference that has a SharePoint track, this one's all SharePoint all the time.

Have errata?

Adventures of a ServerGrrl- the WSS/SPF edition

Friday, May 31, 2013

Stuff that's happening- I'll be at TechEd 2013 North America, I'm coauthoring a book about SharePoint 2013 for a little while, thoughts on an online SPF guide, and more...

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