VOGTLAND - Mark Vogt's Blog

Microsoft Sharepoint is changing the world, in much the same manner as email did in the early & mid 1990's...

If you're not already aware of it, Microsoft Sharepoint is what everyone calls "collaboration software". If I jumped on an elevator with President Reagan, and I only had 10 floors to explain to him what Sharepoint was, I'd say "Sharepoint is a website-building technology which requires nothing more than a browser. The sites you can create are equivalent to "virtual workrooms - the kind you always dreamed about having for each of the projects you work on with other people. When you're working on projects together (let's face it - that's the PRACTICAL definition of "collaboration"), you've got lists of various kinds plastered all over the walls of whatever little closet your boss is letting you temporarily use. Task lists, Needs lists, Goals lists, Don't-Forget lists, Questions lists, Calendars (really just an "event list" - isn't it?)... the list goes on (get it?). When the items on the lists are all checked-off, YOU'RE DONE.

You always wished you could have a separate "project room" for EVERY single project you worked on, but no building could ever have enough rooms. Sharepoint is as close as anyone has EVER gotten to providing "virtual" project rooms, and it actually works quite nicely.

There - and we're only on the 5th floor...

:-)

So now you know what Sharepoint IS, but that's not why you're looking at this book. Likely you already KNOW what Sharepoint is, and are experiencing some kind of PAIN related to how your organization is using it - which likely is BADLY.

I detest using terms without defining them in a practical manner, so let's start with the most important term you'll find in this book - GOVERNANCE.

You can find all the textbook definitions you wish, but in the end, "Governance" means nothing more than "not letting people run amuck"...

That said, "Sharepoint Governance" then means "not letting people run amuck whilst using Microsoft Sharepoint".

This naturally leads to the question "HOW can people "run amuck" whilst using Sharepoint?"

The following list provides pretty decent coverage of all the ways many organizations have

commonly been able to mis-use or otherwise run amuck with Sharepoint since it first came out in 2001:

Common ways to Run Amuck with Sharepoint

- users see content they shouldn't

- users to change a site's branding (look & feel) when they shouldn't

- users create sites they shouldn't

- users create features in their site which cause the underlying servers to grind to a halt

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