Lamont Harrington's Blog

Few sample .NET applications have had more impact on the .NET development community than the Terrarium sample application that was released during the version 1.0 release cycle of the .NET Framework.  This solution created a community of .NET enthusiasts that far exceeded the expectations of the .NET Framework team.  It showcased a "production-level" end-to-end reference solution that highlighted key features of the .NET Framework and showcased the power and creativity .NET can bring to software development.  I recalled that for many months I inquired as to when the source code for this application was going to be released, because, as you may recall, only the binaries were made available.  Sure you could decompile the executable and supporting libraries, or use great tools like Lutz Roeder's .NET Reflector, but there's nothing like having the Visual Studio projects openly released for all to see!!

Well, Terrarium is BACK!!   The project was resurrected by the Windows SDK Team and MVP Bil Simser has volunteered to coordinate development efforts for the project.

Head on over to CodePlex and be a part of the effort! For all you .NET Framework "old heads" like myself who looked at Terrarium as an amazing solution to dissect, learn from, and foster new ideas around the creation of solution architectures, I emplore you to check out the project. 

Thanks Windows SDK Team for evolving the solution and thanks Bil for stepping up to take on coordination for the effort.

Fun times (especially for me) are ahead!   Especially with the introduction of WPF, WCF, WF, LINQ, Silverlight and an assortment of other technology goodies, this solution is sure to continue to evolve into something that we'll all continue to be proud to showcase as a premier .NET solution.

Announced on the SharePoint Team Blog, the SharePoint Deployment Planning Services program has been launched and is geared at helping our Software Assurance (SA) customers sucessfully plan and deploy SharePoint Products & Technologies.  I think this program provides a great resource for those customers who are struggling to make sense of SharePoint technologies or are trying to uncover proven "best practices" around how to properly deploy and implement SharePoint-based solutions.

During my time as a Technology Architect within the Reston, VA Microsoft Technology Center, I worked with a number of customers in definining SharePoint-based solution architectures where we covered topics such as understanding SharePoint architecture, definining portal taxonomies and physical deployment topologies/architecture, development and integration opportunities through Strategy Briefings and Architecture Design Sessions as well as "real world" implementation through Proof of Concept engagements to demonstrate the capabilties of a "live" SharePoint solution.  It's certainly great to see these getting packaged into a set of service offerings that we can make more widely available to our customers and partners.

And speaking of partners, this program is jointly managed by our partner ecosystem as well as Microsoft Consulting Services which together provides proven business and technical expertise in architecting/deploying SharePoint-based solutions for small, medium, and large organizations alike.

To learn more about the SDPS program and what it can do for you, head over to the SDPS website.  Microsoft Partners having strong competency in the Microsoft Office System stack are encouraged to sign up and participate in this growing community.

The final and complete edition of the end-user Office SharePoint Server 2007 Training is now broadly available to customers, in the Download Center. 
 
The training comes with rich set of videos, tutorials and articles that help end users learn the basics of SharePoint’s workloads. The kit can be installed directly to individual machines (stand alone edition), or directly onto a SharePoint environment (portal edition). IT Departments, or even groups such as HR, Corporate Learning, and others will be able to use and customize the kit to train users on SharePoint usage.

You'll be able to choose between two versions:

• Portal Edition: built on the Microsoft SharePoint Learning Kit (‘SLK’), the Portal Edition must be deployed onto a SharePoint Server site by a server administrator. It includes a reporting function that allows an administrator/trainer to track learners’ completed training topics. The content is compliant to the e-learning standard SCORM 2004.
• Standalone Edition: can be installed by an individual and easily accessed from a desktop icon. It does not allow customization or reporting, but give customers the ability to view the training before they deploy the Portal Edition on a SharePoint Server site.

Topics covered in the training include:

• Collaboration: team sites, permissions, Web parts, libraries, lists, blogs, wikis, and workspaces.
• Enterprise Content Management: document and records management, protecting files, using workflows, compliance, and more.
• Search: finding files, Web sites, information and people.
• Portals and personalization: My Sites, targeting content, and managing My Site access
• Business processes and forms: streamline business processes, gather information with forms, and configure workflows.
• Business intelligence: share Excel workbooks, work with a Report Center site, use dashboards, integrate internal data, and more.