What I actually do in Microsoft Consulting Services? Check out here.
Have no ideas? May be you can read this.
14 February, 2010
05 February, 2010
HTML 5
Steve Jobs said,"Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy, he says. Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it’s because of Flash. No one will be using Flash, he says. The world is moving to HTML5." (Read more)
So what HTML 5 is all about?
The definition from Wikipedia: "HTML5 is the proposed next standard for HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.0 and DOM Level 2 HTML. It aims to reduce the need for proprietary plug-in-based rich internet application (RIA) technologies such as Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, and Sun JavaFX."
YouTube is working on this: http://www.youtube.com/html5
Hope to see more to come this year.
So what HTML 5 is all about?
The definition from Wikipedia: "HTML5 is the proposed next standard for HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.0 and DOM Level 2 HTML. It aims to reduce the need for proprietary plug-in-based rich internet application (RIA) technologies such as Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, and Sun JavaFX."
YouTube is working on this: http://www.youtube.com/html5
Hope to see more to come this year.
18 January, 2010
Semantic Search Engine
Back to the days in the university, semantic web was a computer science research area and now we can see some nice search applications out there: Powerset / hakia / deepdyve
Compare the results of searching"what is software design" in Powerset , hakia and Google
What is semantic search? Wikipedia says, "Semantic search is a process used to improve online searching by using data from semantic networks to disambiguate queries and web text in order to generate more relevant results. (more)"
Here's a very good summary from Atos Consulting:
Concept
* The Semantic Search Engine or Third-Generation Search Engine is a search engine in which Semantic technologies and / or Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques are applied. There are some investigation groups and companies―such as Swoogle, PowerSet (acquired by Microsoft in 2008), and hakia ― that are making a big effort in this area.
* Basically, the objective of these products is to take advantage of the existence of structural data (RDF, microformats, and OWL) on the Web in order to process the information included and offer to the end user an intelligent response. Essentially, the Semantic Search Engine can understand the question and is able to provide an exact response, rather than just returning thousands of pages where all words included into the search field are found.
* This challenge is so complex that most current providers cannot properly be considered as true Semantic Search because results are not oriented to the casual end user, but as a tool for specialists.
* Another related concept is Natural Language Search in which one can ask a question using complete sentences phrased in everyday language (such as ‘where can I find information about William Shakespeare?’) as opposed to formulating a search statement (such as ‘su:Shakespeare, William’).
* There is a big dependence between this technology and Semantic annotation. Until all Webmasters, blog users, and wiki writers frequently use ontology annotation, Semantic Search will be limited to certain Webpages or content provided by Semantic experts.
* Another important dependence to consider is with the language itself. Some languages (such as English) are more suitable than others in making the adoption process less complex.
Application and Benefits
* Different applications of Semantic Search are: Vertical Semantic Search and General-purpose Semantic Search. General-purpose actual search engines work using statistical ranking methods, and the results are reasonably acceptable, although the end user’s time may be wasted by search results that don’t distinguish between credible contents and misleading information. As hakia points out, a popular Website may not always be credible and a credible Website may not always be popular.
* Another application would be the ability to search precisely in non-textual content, such as annotated photograph and audio.
* Related with Vertical Semantic Search, this technology is being adopted where the meaning of sentences, the combination of content, and context are crucial to retrieve precise information, such as in law, finance, science, and libraries.
Compare the results of searching"what is software design" in Powerset , hakia and Google
What is semantic search? Wikipedia says, "Semantic search is a process used to improve online searching by using data from semantic networks to disambiguate queries and web text in order to generate more relevant results. (more)"
Here's a very good summary from Atos Consulting:
Concept
* The Semantic Search Engine or Third-Generation Search Engine is a search engine in which Semantic technologies and / or Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques are applied. There are some investigation groups and companies―such as Swoogle, PowerSet (acquired by Microsoft in 2008), and hakia ― that are making a big effort in this area.
* Basically, the objective of these products is to take advantage of the existence of structural data (RDF, microformats, and OWL) on the Web in order to process the information included and offer to the end user an intelligent response. Essentially, the Semantic Search Engine can understand the question and is able to provide an exact response, rather than just returning thousands of pages where all words included into the search field are found.
* This challenge is so complex that most current providers cannot properly be considered as true Semantic Search because results are not oriented to the casual end user, but as a tool for specialists.
* Another related concept is Natural Language Search in which one can ask a question using complete sentences phrased in everyday language (such as ‘where can I find information about William Shakespeare?’) as opposed to formulating a search statement (such as ‘su:Shakespeare, William’).
* There is a big dependence between this technology and Semantic annotation. Until all Webmasters, blog users, and wiki writers frequently use ontology annotation, Semantic Search will be limited to certain Webpages or content provided by Semantic experts.
* Another important dependence to consider is with the language itself. Some languages (such as English) are more suitable than others in making the adoption process less complex.
Application and Benefits
* Different applications of Semantic Search are: Vertical Semantic Search and General-purpose Semantic Search. General-purpose actual search engines work using statistical ranking methods, and the results are reasonably acceptable, although the end user’s time may be wasted by search results that don’t distinguish between credible contents and misleading information. As hakia points out, a popular Website may not always be credible and a credible Website may not always be popular.
* Another application would be the ability to search precisely in non-textual content, such as annotated photograph and audio.
* Related with Vertical Semantic Search, this technology is being adopted where the meaning of sentences, the combination of content, and context are crucial to retrieve precise information, such as in law, finance, science, and libraries.
SharePoint 2010 updated services infrastructure
In Microsoft® SharePoint® Server 2010, services are no longer contained within a Shared Services Provider (SSP). Instead, the infrastructure for hosting services moves into SharePoint® Foundation 2010 and the configuration of service offerings is much more flexible. Individual services can be configured independently and third-party companies can add services to the platform.
More granular configuration of services
· You can deploy only the services that are needed to a farm. Services that are deployed are called service applications.
· Web applications can be configured to use only the services that are needed, rather than the entire set of services that are deployed.
· You can deploy multiple instances of the same service in a farm and assign unique names to the resulting service applications.
· You can share services across multiple Web applications within the same farm.
Sharing services across farms
· Some services can be shared across server farms. Other services can be shared only within a single server farm. Services that support sharing across farms can be run in a central farm and consumed from regional locations.
· Each Web application can be configured to use services from different farms. For example, you can share the User Profile Service across Web applications in several server farms while using some services, such as the Business Data Connectivity, locally.
· In large environments, computing-intensive services can be run in a central farm to minimize administration overhead and to scale out easily and efficiently as requirements grow.
Logical architecture
· All service applications in a farm are deployed to the same IIS Web site. (See below diagram)
· Service applications can be deployed to different application pools to achieve process isolation. However, farm performance is optimized if services are contained within one application pool.
· To achieve physical isolation of services, create separate instances of service applications and place them in different application pools
Service groups
· By default, all service applications are included in the default group, unless you change this setting for a service application when it is created. You can add and remove service applications from the default group at any time. (See above diagram)
· When you create a Web application, you can select the default group or you can create a custom group of services. You create a custom group of services by selecting only the service applications that you want the Web application to use.
· Custom groups are not reusable across multiple Web applications. Each time you select "custom" when creating a Web application, you are selecting services only for the Web application you are creating.
Connecting service applications to Web applications
· When you create a service application, a connection for the service application is created at the same time. A connection is a virtual entity that connects Web applications to service applications.
· In Windows PowerShell these connections are called proxies. The term "proxy" also appears at the end of the type description for connections on the Manage Service Applications page in Central Administration.
· Connections for services in the local farm are not created by the administrator, but these appear along with the list of service applications in Central Administration.
· Some connections might include settings that can be modified. For example, if a Web application is connected to multiple instances of the Managed Metadata service, you must indicate which of the connections is connected to the primary service application which hosts the corporate taxonomy.
A List of Service in SharePoint 2010
Sample of Single farm, single service group
Manage Service Applications page
More granular configuration of services
· You can deploy only the services that are needed to a farm. Services that are deployed are called service applications.
· Web applications can be configured to use only the services that are needed, rather than the entire set of services that are deployed.
· You can share services across multiple Web applications within the same farm.
Sharing services across farms
· Some services can be shared across server farms. Other services can be shared only within a single server farm. Services that support sharing across farms can be run in a central farm and consumed from regional locations.
· Each Web application can be configured to use services from different farms. For example, you can share the User Profile Service across Web applications in several server farms while using some services, such as the Business Data Connectivity, locally.
· In large environments, computing-intensive services can be run in a central farm to minimize administration overhead and to scale out easily and efficiently as requirements grow.
Logical architecture
· All service applications in a farm are deployed to the same IIS Web site. (See below diagram)
· Service applications can be deployed to different application pools to achieve process isolation. However, farm performance is optimized if services are contained within one application pool.
· To achieve physical isolation of services, create separate instances of service applications and place them in different application pools
Service groups
· By default, all service applications are included in the default group, unless you change this setting for a service application when it is created. You can add and remove service applications from the default group at any time. (See above diagram)
· When you create a Web application, you can select the default group or you can create a custom group of services. You create a custom group of services by selecting only the service applications that you want the Web application to use.
· Custom groups are not reusable across multiple Web applications. Each time you select "custom" when creating a Web application, you are selecting services only for the Web application you are creating.
Connecting service applications to Web applications
· When you create a service application, a connection for the service application is created at the same time. A connection is a virtual entity that connects Web applications to service applications.
· In Windows PowerShell these connections are called proxies. The term "proxy" also appears at the end of the type description for connections on the Manage Service Applications page in Central Administration.
· Connections for services in the local farm are not created by the administrator, but these appear along with the list of service applications in Central Administration.
· Some connections might include settings that can be modified. For example, if a Web application is connected to multiple instances of the Managed Metadata service, you must indicate which of the connections is connected to the primary service application which hosts the corporate taxonomy.
A List of Service in SharePoint 2010
Sample of Single farm, single service group
Manage Service Applications page
15 January, 2010
What is Windows Communication Foundation?
I've been designing .NET applications using ASP.NET Web Services since 2004. Web Services is the great tool for building service-oriented architecture (SOA) systems and connecting applications in different environments. But, it does not solve some other important problems and you need to use another tools e.g. .NET Remoting, Enterprise Services, Web Services Enhancements (WSE), System.Messaging, System.Net.
With WCF, the perfect solution is at hand:
Here’s how WCF addresses common technical requirements:
- Because WCF can communicate using Web services, interoperability with other platforms that also support SOAP, such as Java EE application servers, is straightforward.
- To allow optimal performance when both parties in a communication are built on WCF, the wire encoding used in this case is an optimized binary version of SOAP. Messages still conform to the data structure of a SOAP message, referred to as its Infoset, but their encoding uses a binary representation of that Infoset rather than the standard angle-brackets-and-text format of XML.
- Managing object lifetimes, defining distributed transactions, and other aspects of Enterprise Services are now provided by WCF. They are available to any WCF-based application, which means that third party applications can use them with any of the other applications with which it communicates.
- Because it supports a large set of the WS-* specifications, WCF helps provide reliability, security, and transactions when communicating with any platform that also supports these specifications.
- WCF’s option for queued messaging, built on MSMQ, allows applications to use persistent queuing without needing to use another set of application programming interfaces.
- The version of WCF in the .NET Framework 3.5 has built-in support for creating RESTful clients and services.
Read more here: Introducing Windows Communication Foundation
Or MSDN WCF
With WCF, the perfect solution is at hand:
Here’s how WCF addresses common technical requirements:
- Because WCF can communicate using Web services, interoperability with other platforms that also support SOAP, such as Java EE application servers, is straightforward.
- To allow optimal performance when both parties in a communication are built on WCF, the wire encoding used in this case is an optimized binary version of SOAP. Messages still conform to the data structure of a SOAP message, referred to as its Infoset, but their encoding uses a binary representation of that Infoset rather than the standard angle-brackets-and-text format of XML.
- Managing object lifetimes, defining distributed transactions, and other aspects of Enterprise Services are now provided by WCF. They are available to any WCF-based application, which means that third party applications can use them with any of the other applications with which it communicates.
- Because it supports a large set of the WS-* specifications, WCF helps provide reliability, security, and transactions when communicating with any platform that also supports these specifications.
- WCF’s option for queued messaging, built on MSMQ, allows applications to use persistent queuing without needing to use another set of application programming interfaces.
- The version of WCF in the .NET Framework 3.5 has built-in support for creating RESTful clients and services.
Read more here: Introducing Windows Communication Foundation
Or MSDN WCF
ADO.NET Entity Framework (Object/Relational Mapping)
You may heard of Hibernate if people are talking about ORM. What ORM tools can Microsoft deliver? Here you go:
The ADO.NET Entity Framework is an Object/Relational Mapping (ORM) framework that enables developers to work with relational data as domain-specific objects, eliminating the need for most of the data access plumbing code that developers usually need to write. Using the Entity Framework, developers issue queries using LINQ, then retrieve and manipulate data as strongly typed objects. The Entity Framework’s ORM implementation provides services like change tracking, identity resolution, lazy loading, and query translation so that developers can focus on the application-specific business logic rather than the data access fundamentals.
The Entity Framework uses the Entity Data Model (EDM) to describe the application-specific object or “conceptual” model against which the developer programs. The EDM builds on the widely known Entity Relationship model (introduced by Dr. Peter Chen) to raise the abstraction level above logical database schemas. The EDM was developed with the primary goal of becoming the common data model across a suite of developer and server technologies from Microsoft.
Extract from ADO.NET Entity Framework At-a-Glance
Read more on Beginner's Guide to the ADO.NET Entity Framework
The ADO.NET Entity Framework is an Object/Relational Mapping (ORM) framework that enables developers to work with relational data as domain-specific objects, eliminating the need for most of the data access plumbing code that developers usually need to write. Using the Entity Framework, developers issue queries using LINQ, then retrieve and manipulate data as strongly typed objects. The Entity Framework’s ORM implementation provides services like change tracking, identity resolution, lazy loading, and query translation so that developers can focus on the application-specific business logic rather than the data access fundamentals.
The Entity Framework uses the Entity Data Model (EDM) to describe the application-specific object or “conceptual” model against which the developer programs. The EDM builds on the widely known Entity Relationship model (introduced by Dr. Peter Chen) to raise the abstraction level above logical database schemas. The EDM was developed with the primary goal of becoming the common data model across a suite of developer and server technologies from Microsoft.
Extract from ADO.NET Entity Framework At-a-Glance
Read more on Beginner's Guide to the ADO.NET Entity Framework
14 January, 2010
Are you really know how to program in .NET?
Have been interviewing many .NET developers/programmers/analysts recently, to be honest, many of them are below average. I've consolidated some essential .NET development materials and resources on the web for those who keen on learning software development:
Overview of the .NET Framework : Entry ticket please. Framework architecture, Common Language Runtime, Common Type System, Class Library, Guidelines and Best Practices ...
C# Programming Guide & C# Language Specification 3.0 : Arrays, Strings, seems easy? Not quite. Generics, LINQ Query Expressions, Lambda, Iterators, Collection, Threading, Reflection ...
Design Guidelines for Class Library Developers : Good codes, bad codes. That makes a difference.
ASP.NET and Visual Web Developer : How to build an advance ASP.NET web site. What's more? Web Services, AJAX, Model View Controller (MVC)
Improving .NET Application Performance and Scalability : The need of speed.
Microsoft Data Development Technologies At-a-Glance : At the end of the day, data is what you really concern. So, how to access data is critical.
Microsoft Application Architecture Guide : For developers or solution architects to design and build effective, high quality applications. It provides guidance for using architecture principles, design principles, and patterns that are tried and trusted.
Overview of the .NET Framework : Entry ticket please. Framework architecture, Common Language Runtime, Common Type System, Class Library, Guidelines and Best Practices ...
C# Programming Guide & C# Language Specification 3.0 : Arrays, Strings, seems easy? Not quite. Generics, LINQ Query Expressions, Lambda, Iterators, Collection, Threading, Reflection ...
Design Guidelines for Class Library Developers : Good codes, bad codes. That makes a difference.
ASP.NET and Visual Web Developer : How to build an advance ASP.NET web site. What's more? Web Services, AJAX, Model View Controller (MVC)
Improving .NET Application Performance and Scalability : The need of speed.
Microsoft Data Development Technologies At-a-Glance : At the end of the day, data is what you really concern. So, how to access data is critical.
Microsoft Application Architecture Guide : For developers or solution architects to design and build effective, high quality applications. It provides guidance for using architecture principles, design principles, and patterns that are tried and trusted.
How to measure your web site?
Measuring web site traffic and marketing effectiveness is hard and often ignore during software development. Some web analytics software provide extensible solution with a consolidated view of visitor interactions. Omniture and Google Analytics are the enterprise-class web analytics solution that gives you rich insights into your website.
Quote: "Free product offerings are tempting, and a good learning tool, but strategic initiatives with an opportunity for large gains in site yield should choose commercial products." "Narrow a shortlist of Web analytics vendor choices to those that answer the big question, which is software as a service (SaaS) or on premises, then concentrate on price, support and "ecosystem" partners."
Other players: Coremetrics, Unica, Webtrends
Read more:
The Interactive Marketing Metrics You Need - Forrester Research
Key Challenges in Web Analytics, 2009 (PDF)
Quote: "Free product offerings are tempting, and a good learning tool, but strategic initiatives with an opportunity for large gains in site yield should choose commercial products." "Narrow a shortlist of Web analytics vendor choices to those that answer the big question, which is software as a service (SaaS) or on premises, then concentrate on price, support and "ecosystem" partners."
Other players: Coremetrics, Unica, Webtrends
Read more:
The Interactive Marketing Metrics You Need - Forrester Research
Key Challenges in Web Analytics, 2009 (PDF)
12 January, 2010
Flash vs Silverlight
Still enterprises are still prefer Flash than Silverlight at the moment. But Silverlight has been greatly improved in these few years. Have a look:
Flash vs Silverlight Gallery
(you will be more interested in this comparison)
Silverlight Showcase
Silverlike
Flash vs Silverlight Gallery
(you will be more interested in this comparison)
Silverlight Showcase
Silverlike
Designing a Knowledge Management System
In the past four years, I've managed to implement for about 3 Knowledge Management Systems in 3 large listed enterprises, one is a railway company, one is a sport company and the other is an international sourcing and retail company. I want to share my view on the succeed factors of building a KM system in a real world:
A knowledge handbook of a great KM project in Hong Kong.
Critical-Thinking Questions [1]
Articles on KM:
Architecting a Knowledge-Management System [1]
Six ways to make Web 2.0 work
- Sell it as a corporate-wide initiative and secure funding and supports from top management
- Select a group of KM champions in every business unit
- Choose a right software platform
- Design a simple document taxonomy
- Build a community of practice
- Connecting people using web 2.0 technologies
- Keep the content of KM portal flash and up-to-date
A knowledge handbook of a great KM project in Hong Kong.
Critical-Thinking Questions [1]
- Why would a company need a system for managing knowledge?
- How is knowledge managed at your organization? Is there a centralized repository in place, or do you engage in impromptu sharing?
- How would you organize your project documentation, so that it is convenient for you?
- How do you see your company's business processes changing, if you implemented a knowledge-management system?
- For a knowledge-management system to be successful, the technical architect should select the KMS based on what criteria?
- What is the ROI of the knowledge-management system? How would you go about measuring it?
Articles on KM:
Architecting a Knowledge-Management System [1]
Six ways to make Web 2.0 work
Model View Controller (MVC)
I had a long discussion with a friend of mine on applying Model View Controller (MVC) in modern web application development. My view to the value of this design pattern is: It depends!
You can read more about MVC on ASP.NET MVC , MSDN, Java Patterns or a pet shop example.
.
You can read more about MVC on ASP.NET MVC , MSDN, Java Patterns or a pet shop example.
.
SharePoint development patterns and practices
The Developing SharePoint Applications guidance helps architects and developers design and build applications that are both flexible and scaleable.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd203468.aspx
The TechNet best practice resource centre is another good resource.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/sharepointserver/bb736746.aspx
Or checkout my SharePoint reading list:
http://delicious.com/paulabraham/sharepoint
.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd203468.aspx
The TechNet best practice resource centre is another good resource.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/sharepointserver/bb736746.aspx
Or checkout my SharePoint reading list:
http://delicious.com/paulabraham/sharepoint
.
11 January, 2010
The Practice of Design
Our customer says: “I want our new system to have a response time of no more than two seconds!!”
Our IT Director says: “We must cut cost!! All new development efforts must fit within our existing environment, using existing tools.”
We have faced these challenges many times and are used to design challenges that have both stringent customer requirements and built-in IT constraints due to existing environment or technology realities.
So what do you do in such cases? You dig deep and become very creative. You pull out all your design skills. What does that mean? If you are like us, you have a solid foundation in design methodology, you have strong technical skills, and you have wellhoned ‘people skills’ like negotiating and communicating. Then, you put them all together and get to work!
As Architects, we have found that in order to meet the challenges placed on us by both the customer and our Information Technology leadership, we must understand the whole system of interconnected elements that participate in, impact, and influence the design process. The scope of a software architect’s world is awesome, as the breadth of experience documented in this book demonstrates...
Extract from ITABOK.
.
Our IT Director says: “We must cut cost!! All new development efforts must fit within our existing environment, using existing tools.”
We have faced these challenges many times and are used to design challenges that have both stringent customer requirements and built-in IT constraints due to existing environment or technology realities.
So what do you do in such cases? You dig deep and become very creative. You pull out all your design skills. What does that mean? If you are like us, you have a solid foundation in design methodology, you have strong technical skills, and you have wellhoned ‘people skills’ like negotiating and communicating. Then, you put them all together and get to work!
As Architects, we have found that in order to meet the challenges placed on us by both the customer and our Information Technology leadership, we must understand the whole system of interconnected elements that participate in, impact, and influence the design process. The scope of a software architect’s world is awesome, as the breadth of experience documented in this book demonstrates...
Extract from ITABOK.
.
Becoming an Architect in a System Integrator
So inspired by Amit Unde after reading this article.
...
Being an architect is tough! What architects do is a mystery to much of the world; this is hardly surprising, because an architect's work is intangible—"thought-ware," if you will—and it happens in the background. That makes many wonder about the architect's role in an organization. Architects interact with many stakeholders—CIOs, project managers, business users, and developers—and each expects them to work differently. While the CIO expects an architect to derive a solution road map for implementing the company's IT vision, the developer expects the architect to provide direction on the technical problem. The architect needs to have a bird's-eye view in one scenario, while in some other scenarios, the architect needs to dive deep into the problem area. The architect is expected to be both a generalist and a specialist.
Many companies try to reduce the ambiguity by introducing different flavors of the role, such as enterprise architect or solution architect. Ironically, differentiation within the role can add to the confusion since there is no standardization of the designations across companies. Let's find the commonalities and define these different flavors of the role.
Read more here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/architecture/cc505970.aspx
.
...
Being an architect is tough! What architects do is a mystery to much of the world; this is hardly surprising, because an architect's work is intangible—"thought-ware," if you will—and it happens in the background. That makes many wonder about the architect's role in an organization. Architects interact with many stakeholders—CIOs, project managers, business users, and developers—and each expects them to work differently. While the CIO expects an architect to derive a solution road map for implementing the company's IT vision, the developer expects the architect to provide direction on the technical problem. The architect needs to have a bird's-eye view in one scenario, while in some other scenarios, the architect needs to dive deep into the problem area. The architect is expected to be both a generalist and a specialist.
Many companies try to reduce the ambiguity by introducing different flavors of the role, such as enterprise architect or solution architect. Ironically, differentiation within the role can add to the confusion since there is no standardization of the designations across companies. Let's find the commonalities and define these different flavors of the role.
.jpg)
Read more here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/architecture/cc505970.aspx
.
01 November, 2006
Developer maps for Office, SharePoint and InfoPath
You can download them via:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=771AEB45-9D27-4D1F-ACD1-9B950637D64E&displaylang=en.
ASP.NET AJAX
ASP.NET AJAX is a free framework for quickly creating a new generation of more efficient, more interactive and highly-personalized Web experiences that work across all the most popular browsers.
Read the
ASP.NET AJAX Showcase
This is a cool site developed using ASP.NET AJAX
http://www.pageflakes.com/
Microsoft is spending lots of $$$ on catching up these Web 2.0 things. I guess more will come soon :)
Read the
ASP.NET AJAX Showcase
This is a cool site developed using ASP.NET AJAX
http://www.pageflakes.com/
Microsoft is spending lots of $$$ on catching up these Web 2.0 things. I guess more will come soon :)
02 October, 2006
Web 2.0 in the Enterprise
A very nice article on Web 2.0 by Arpan Shah's Blog
Quote:
Web 2.0 is a popular term used to describe a number of web applications on the Internet. Terms like Enterprise 2.0 and Office 2.0 have also made their way into mainstream Tech vernacular. As a Technical Decision Maker, as an Architect, as a Business Decision Maker - what does Web 2.0 mean to you?
I've had a number of conversations with technologists, analysts and product managers over the last few months to really understand what Web 2.0 for the Enterprise means to them. To sum up what I think Web 2.0 means for the Enterprise: it's all about turning users into participants allowing them to easily create, share and connect with information, applications and people. That's it.
Web 2.0 generally refers to the notion of rich browser applications that are developed using technologies like AJAX. But not all rich browser applications are Web 2.0 and Web 2.0 isn't just about AJAX/technology. Technology is an enabler... nothing more; nothing less. Having said that, as a Technical Decision Maker, you must think about how your organization can allow its users to very easily and efficiently create the applications they want. This means having an agile platform capable of hosting a variety of applications.
So why do people make a big deal about AJAX, XML, Services and why should you care?
AJAX - Stands for Asynchronous Javascript and XML. This is not a new concept. In fact, Microsoft was one of the first pioneers here with Outlook Web Access 2000. AJAX leads to a smooth, immersive experience... almost client-like... reducing the amount of browser post-backs. AJAX is becoming an increasingly popular development technique on the Internet because of broadband ubiquity.. so the footprint of web applications no longer has to be a couple KB. Having rich, browser accessible applications in your Enterprise is a good thing... this allows for easy access to applications and services from anywhere.
XML - There's been an industry buzz around XML for years. XML allows systems to interact with one another seamlessly. As technologies, this is important to consider when making investments in different technologies. Beyond serving as a common way to communicate, XML also had some other great benefits that include the separation of data and presentation allowing content to be easily syndicated and used in different ways. A very common example of this today is RSS.
Services - A services-oriented architecture is important for Enterprises to gain maximum value of the investments, adoption and usage. Mash-ups are examples of how applications can quickly take advantage of services to create a rich application. In the Enterprise, a close parallel to mash-ups are composite applications.
more ...
http://blogs.msdn.com/arpans/archive/2006/10/01/780380.aspx
Quote:
Web 2.0 is a popular term used to describe a number of web applications on the Internet. Terms like Enterprise 2.0 and Office 2.0 have also made their way into mainstream Tech vernacular. As a Technical Decision Maker, as an Architect, as a Business Decision Maker - what does Web 2.0 mean to you?
I've had a number of conversations with technologists, analysts and product managers over the last few months to really understand what Web 2.0 for the Enterprise means to them. To sum up what I think Web 2.0 means for the Enterprise: it's all about turning users into participants allowing them to easily create, share and connect with information, applications and people. That's it.
Web 2.0 generally refers to the notion of rich browser applications that are developed using technologies like AJAX. But not all rich browser applications are Web 2.0 and Web 2.0 isn't just about AJAX/technology. Technology is an enabler... nothing more; nothing less. Having said that, as a Technical Decision Maker, you must think about how your organization can allow its users to very easily and efficiently create the applications they want. This means having an agile platform capable of hosting a variety of applications.
So why do people make a big deal about AJAX, XML, Services and why should you care?
AJAX - Stands for Asynchronous Javascript and XML. This is not a new concept. In fact, Microsoft was one of the first pioneers here with Outlook Web Access 2000. AJAX leads to a smooth, immersive experience... almost client-like... reducing the amount of browser post-backs. AJAX is becoming an increasingly popular development technique on the Internet because of broadband ubiquity.. so the footprint of web applications no longer has to be a couple KB. Having rich, browser accessible applications in your Enterprise is a good thing... this allows for easy access to applications and services from anywhere.
XML - There's been an industry buzz around XML for years. XML allows systems to interact with one another seamlessly. As technologies, this is important to consider when making investments in different technologies. Beyond serving as a common way to communicate, XML also had some other great benefits that include the separation of data and presentation allowing content to be easily syndicated and used in different ways. A very common example of this today is RSS.
Services - A services-oriented architecture is important for Enterprises to gain maximum value of the investments, adoption and usage. Mash-ups are examples of how applications can quickly take advantage of services to create a rich application. In the Enterprise, a close parallel to mash-ups are composite applications.
more ...
http://blogs.msdn.com/arpans/archive/2006/10/01/780380.aspx
Gates Advises CEOs: Software Puts Information to Work for People
Gates Advises CEOs: Software Puts Information to Work for People
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/may06/05-17CEOSummit06PR.mspx
REDMOND, Wash. – May 17, 2006 – Speaking to more than 100 CEOs gathered here for the 10th annual Microsoft® CEO Summit, Microsoft Corp. Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates today said trends in the “new world of work” create a need for companies to rethink how employees find, analyze and act on vital corporate information. Gates described how current and future Microsoft offerings address the key issues of information overload and information “underload” – the difficulty employees face trying to act on information once they have found it.
Microsoft asserts that although finding information and people through powerful search tools is critical to enabling information workers to more effectively do their job, the intelligent enterprise requires secure, customizable solutions that help their employees collaborate and act on information to drive business success. The company believes that enterprise search is just one facet of effective Enterprise information management in a people-ready business, and Microsoft is addressing this by providing new solutions that enable employees to find relevant people and information quickly through their desktop, within the corporate network or on the Internet.
“Everyone inside an organization – from the CEO to the newly hired information worker – has to be able to find the information they need and then use it to drive smart decisions and take action,” said Kevin Johnson, co-president of the Platforms and Services Division at Microsoft. “Search is just one piece of the solution. Organizations that enable employees to create, access, use and share information efficiently will be more successful at building customer relationships and better at getting great results from their people.”
Enabling Information Management With Enhanced Search Solutions
Microsoft today shared its vision of how enterprise search fits in the broader context of software technologies and services that maximize employee productivity and effectiveness. Enterprise search is just a component of information management, which is far more than browser toolbars and appliances or a keyword search of a set of documents on a network. An optimal enterprise search solution improves productivity by quickly, seamlessly and securely connecting people with the right information so they can effectively apply it to their organization’s needs. It also allows organizations to deal with very large amounts of content, addressing information overload and underload by giving information workers the right tools to make better decisions, find and instantly share the knowledge within the enterprise and beyond, and prevent duplication of content and effort.
Finding, Using and Sharing Information Through a Single Point of Entry: Windows Live Search
Microsoft’s goal is to create and deliver groundbreaking search solutions that present information workers with a simple, unified way to get at the information they need, no matter where it resides.
• Simple. Microsoft’s approach to enterprise search lets information workers search in Windows Vista™ and the Microsoft Office applications they work in every day to quickly obtain relevant information, and recognize that people are information sources too.
• More secure and adaptable. Unlike the Internet, company networks require rules-based information access to help provide security, employee privacy and regulatory compliance and keep company information more secure.
• Single point of entry. Windows Live™ Search provides a single, comprehensive user interface, which uniquely brings together content from previously separate systems including the Internet, desktop and corporate networks.
New Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Search Solutions
Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007 provides integrated information management capabilities such as portal and collaboration, enterprise content management, business process and forms, business intelligence, and enhanced search. Enterprise search is also a core investment area with enhancements in increased relevancy, security and scalability. In addition, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server will provide new capabilities through its Business Data Catalog to search against structured data sources in line-of-business applications including those from Siebel and SAP.
Office SharePoint Server also furthers Microsoft’s investment in people and expertise location through a breakthrough innovation called Knowledge Network for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. By automating the discovery of undocumented knowledge and relationships, Knowledge Network can provide customers with the shortest path to key contacts, enabling them to make better decisions more quickly. Knowledge Network will do the following:
• Make finding people based on their expertise more efficient by searching automated profiles
• Help users quickly connect with influential and knowledgeable people
• Help keep personal information private
As a response to customer feedback from the Microsoft Office 2007 system beta, Microsoft is also announcing a new product called Microsoft Office SharePoint Server for Search 2007. A subset of the complete SharePoint Server offering, SharePoint Server for Search will provide midmarket and departmental enterprise customers with core search capabilities, crawling content in common data repositories including file shares, Web sites, SharePoint sites, Exchange Server and Lotus Notes. It can also be extended to search other repositories using third-party or custom-built connectors, and is upgradeable to the full SharePoint Server offering.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/may06/05-17CEOSummit06PR.mspx
REDMOND, Wash. – May 17, 2006 – Speaking to more than 100 CEOs gathered here for the 10th annual Microsoft® CEO Summit, Microsoft Corp. Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates today said trends in the “new world of work” create a need for companies to rethink how employees find, analyze and act on vital corporate information. Gates described how current and future Microsoft offerings address the key issues of information overload and information “underload” – the difficulty employees face trying to act on information once they have found it.
Microsoft asserts that although finding information and people through powerful search tools is critical to enabling information workers to more effectively do their job, the intelligent enterprise requires secure, customizable solutions that help their employees collaborate and act on information to drive business success. The company believes that enterprise search is just one facet of effective Enterprise information management in a people-ready business, and Microsoft is addressing this by providing new solutions that enable employees to find relevant people and information quickly through their desktop, within the corporate network or on the Internet.
“Everyone inside an organization – from the CEO to the newly hired information worker – has to be able to find the information they need and then use it to drive smart decisions and take action,” said Kevin Johnson, co-president of the Platforms and Services Division at Microsoft. “Search is just one piece of the solution. Organizations that enable employees to create, access, use and share information efficiently will be more successful at building customer relationships and better at getting great results from their people.”
Enabling Information Management With Enhanced Search Solutions
Microsoft today shared its vision of how enterprise search fits in the broader context of software technologies and services that maximize employee productivity and effectiveness. Enterprise search is just a component of information management, which is far more than browser toolbars and appliances or a keyword search of a set of documents on a network. An optimal enterprise search solution improves productivity by quickly, seamlessly and securely connecting people with the right information so they can effectively apply it to their organization’s needs. It also allows organizations to deal with very large amounts of content, addressing information overload and underload by giving information workers the right tools to make better decisions, find and instantly share the knowledge within the enterprise and beyond, and prevent duplication of content and effort.
Finding, Using and Sharing Information Through a Single Point of Entry: Windows Live Search
Microsoft’s goal is to create and deliver groundbreaking search solutions that present information workers with a simple, unified way to get at the information they need, no matter where it resides.
• Simple. Microsoft’s approach to enterprise search lets information workers search in Windows Vista™ and the Microsoft Office applications they work in every day to quickly obtain relevant information, and recognize that people are information sources too.
• More secure and adaptable. Unlike the Internet, company networks require rules-based information access to help provide security, employee privacy and regulatory compliance and keep company information more secure.
• Single point of entry. Windows Live™ Search provides a single, comprehensive user interface, which uniquely brings together content from previously separate systems including the Internet, desktop and corporate networks.
New Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Search Solutions
Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007 provides integrated information management capabilities such as portal and collaboration, enterprise content management, business process and forms, business intelligence, and enhanced search. Enterprise search is also a core investment area with enhancements in increased relevancy, security and scalability. In addition, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server will provide new capabilities through its Business Data Catalog to search against structured data sources in line-of-business applications including those from Siebel and SAP.
Office SharePoint Server also furthers Microsoft’s investment in people and expertise location through a breakthrough innovation called Knowledge Network for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. By automating the discovery of undocumented knowledge and relationships, Knowledge Network can provide customers with the shortest path to key contacts, enabling them to make better decisions more quickly. Knowledge Network will do the following:
• Make finding people based on their expertise more efficient by searching automated profiles
• Help users quickly connect with influential and knowledgeable people
• Help keep personal information private
As a response to customer feedback from the Microsoft Office 2007 system beta, Microsoft is also announcing a new product called Microsoft Office SharePoint Server for Search 2007. A subset of the complete SharePoint Server offering, SharePoint Server for Search will provide midmarket and departmental enterprise customers with core search capabilities, crawling content in common data repositories including file shares, Web sites, SharePoint sites, Exchange Server and Lotus Notes. It can also be extended to search other repositories using third-party or custom-built connectors, and is upgradeable to the full SharePoint Server offering.
10 July, 2006
The Wired 40
01. GOOGLE
2005 Rank: 02
Less cuddly but more profitable than ever, the monster from Mountain View has rivals but no peers. Is it a search engine? A media company? A software provider? Who cares? Microsoft, for one. Get ready for the grudge match of the decade.
02. APPLE
2005 Rank: 01
In the drama of Apple’s resurgence, act one was forging the iTunes/iPod axis. Act two was bundling the iLife suite of creative tools with new computers. Adapting the Mac OS to run Windows apps natively would make a triumphant conclusion.
03. SAMSUNG
2005 Rank: 03
Smart design and rapid product development made Samsung tops in consumer electronics. What will the company do with its newly doubled research staff of 32,000 and a $40 billion budget? Next iPod, please!
http://wired.com/wired/archive/14.07/wired40.html
2005 Rank: 02
Less cuddly but more profitable than ever, the monster from Mountain View has rivals but no peers. Is it a search engine? A media company? A software provider? Who cares? Microsoft, for one. Get ready for the grudge match of the decade.
02. APPLE
2005 Rank: 01
In the drama of Apple’s resurgence, act one was forging the iTunes/iPod axis. Act two was bundling the iLife suite of creative tools with new computers. Adapting the Mac OS to run Windows apps natively would make a triumphant conclusion.
03. SAMSUNG
2005 Rank: 03
Smart design and rapid product development made Samsung tops in consumer electronics. What will the company do with its newly doubled research staff of 32,000 and a $40 billion budget? Next iPod, please!
http://wired.com/wired/archive/14.07/wired40.html
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