Enabling and managing social networks (for business use) with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

Very comprehensive overview about MOSS 2007 in relation to social networking.

While the competition is playing Microsoft down by spreading incomplete information on our social networking capabilities (slide 25,26) (more on this in a couple of days), but the most recent Gartner MQ on Magic Quadrant for Team Collaboration and Social Software sets the scene: Microsoft furthest ahead.

Lawrence and his team do a great job in explaining Microsoft’s capability in social networking. be sure to read the whole post :

While the Microsoft / Facebook expanded partnership announcement made earlier today doesn’t have anything to do with SharePoint, the publicity it generated will likely get a lot more people to start thinking or asking about the value of social networking capabilities within an enterprise and between a company and its business partners as well as its customers. Eric Charran (Senior Consultant in Microsoft Consulting Services), Dino Dato-on (SharePoint Ranger), and Greg Lang (Program Manager for Microsoft Enterprise Services Communities Tools and Infrastructure) have written a soon to be published white paper that addresses the topic of the importance of social networking in an organization and how to properly implement MOSS 2007 as a social networking solution. Excerpted below are key portions of the white paper, which I hope will get you to think about MOSS 2007 as your default option for enabling and managing social networks for business use. …

About Office SharePoint Server as a Social Networking Solution

… Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 adds a significant social networking context to its existing collaboration and communication features and capabilities. By providing a framework for the establishment of user profiles and the ability to understand the organizational hierarchy between these profiles, Office SharePoint Server can easily connect information workers and organization members together.

Using the concept of individual, customizable user profiles, Office SharePoint Server allows users to publish their own personal and team information to the organization. Combined with information from organizational directory services such as Active Directory or other Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS), Office SharePoint Server builds a foundational organizational hierarchy that is used to present workgroup and colleague information to organization members. This rapid method of presenting friends and colleagues in an automated fashion provides quick access for information workers to teams and extended resources. Office SharePoint Server logically extends existing organizational directory services, combined with additional information sources to knit together a team-based view of organizational relationships and presents them to the user. …

About Office SharePoint Server Social Networking Features

… Through the use of Office SharePoint Server as a collaboration platform, organizations can benefit from the productivity and communication enhancements exposed by social networking features. SharePoint exposes social networking to information workers and organization members through the use of colleagues. Colleagues are a list of friends, team members and co-workers that are related to a specific person through the establishment of a user profile. Colleagues are presented to users through a user’s personal site (My Site) and are built using foundational elements that are established when Office SharePoint Portal Server is implemented within the organization.

Based on the organization’s implementation of products including Active Directory, Exchange Server, Live Communications Server 2005 or Office Communications Server 2007, Office SharePoint Server will mine this information at the individual user level to determine other team members, organizational managers and direct reports and virtual team members that should appear on an individual’s colleagues list. The colleagues list, presented through web parts on an individual’s personal profile page of their My Site will list these related individuals and provide contact, presence and organizational information to visitors.

Through the use of colleagues, organization members can find subject matter experts, key contacts and business relationship owners in the enterprise and gain instant access to the methods of communication with those personnel. This aspect of social networking allows for increased lines of communications, quick decision making and an optimization of human resources. …

Source: Enabling and managing social networks (for business use) with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
Author: sptblog
Date Published: Thu, 25 Oct 2007