Meet Our Authors
- Bob S
- Dee Anne Kotzer
- Gabe Y
- Gerry V
- Jane H
- Jeff Tincher
- Kelly Kilpatrick
- Marge R
- Mike G
- Neall A
- Peggy S
- Sheri T
Are you social media fan who’s listed on Facebook, Twitter, FriendFinder, MySpace, and any of the hundred of other social media sites? If not then you might be missing some valuable information from your friends, coworkers and now businesses.
Many businesses are learning that there is a benefit to having a “social” relationship with their customer base. Take for example, the CEO of Zappos. The CEO is on Twitter and has a large number of followers, upwards of 10,000+ and he even follows more than that. It seems like everyone I have as a contact in my Twitter account is connected to @Zappos. A large number of followers could potentially result in a few additional sales or services. Most likely one of the reasons Zappos has been so huge on Twitter.
Springhouse has been on Twitter for a few months now and just recently started to interact with our followers and update them with valuable information about our business as well as technology in general. You can follow Springhouse on twitter and keep up to date with our monthly schedule of classes or Executive Briefing events for SharePoint and Enterprise Project Management. Also, we discuss current technology topics and link to our blog posts. All of this keeps our students and customers in line with Springhouse and offering them an added value.
What is a Follower?
Followers are good, they are the people that want to receive your “tweets”, the term Twitter users refer to for the 140 character limit message that is sent. A tweet is like a SMS or instant message, but instead of going to a particular person, the tweet is sent out publicly and your followers are alerted.
There are other ways to send out a message, you can reply to a particular tweet or send a direct message (d twittername) and only that person will receive the tweet.
On the Flip Side, Why Follow?
Since other twitterers will be following you, you’ll also probably want to get updates from them as well. That would be “following”, where you follow the tweets of people or companies that interest you. For example, the Springhouse Twitter profile follows numerous people interested in SharePoint and Project Management.
Other Sites where you can find Springhouse
So if you’re big into social media or just getting started we hope you’ll find value in Springhouse’s online presence and connect with us.
Visit Springhouse on Facebook
Our corporate web site at www.springhouse.com
Again, Follow Springhouse on Twitter to keep up to date.
Tags: Social Media, Twitter
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Filed Under Technology |
Simply Share Your Desktop Using Microsoft SharedView
By Jeff Tincher
How many times have you been either at your office desk, telecommuting or on the road but needed to see and discuss a document or spreadsheet with your coworkers? Or maybe you’re a member of a sales team and you are out on the road and need to touch base regarding a sales spreadsheet and update it with new revenue and sales data. The way most people in the past have dealt with these situations is to email the document out to everyone that needs to view it and then talk about it over the phone. To me, those days are behind us, with all the advances in technology why are we still operating as if it were 1999!?
In steps a free, lightweight collaboration tool that will enable you and your team to be more efficient in discussing documents and other issues. The application is called Microsoft SharedView. Read more
Filed Under Microsoft, Technology |
Windows 7 – Now a mid-2009 launch ?
By Gerry V
Recently Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer acknowledged that Microsoft was aiming to deliver Windows 7 in mid-2009. This is even earlier than previously announced indicating what may be a less-than-enthusiastic acceptance of Vista.
Up until now, Microsoft’s official line has been that Windows 7 will ship three years from the date that Vista became generally available. Microsoft began offering Vista to its business customers in the fall of 2006 and to consumers in January 2007.
Redmond is citing the revised launch date is due to the holiday PC sales season. With Vista, Microsoft missed getting code to its PC partners early enough for them to preload it on machines they sold during the holidays and my guess is that Ballmer won’t let that happen again.
Filed Under General, Microsoft, Servers & Infrastructure, Software Licensing, Technology |
Late last week (February 01,2008), Microsoft posted an open solicitation for beta testers for what appears to be the upcoming version of Windows Media Center, codenamed, “Fiji.”
While Microsoft would not confirm that this solicitation was indeed for Fiji, the content of the survey associated with the solicitation asks directly about testers’ experiences with managing photos, video and music. Additionally some early participants have shared that the survey delves deeply into hardware requirements which might indicate that functionality will leverage multi-core processing.
Interested in applying to be a tester ? Visit Microsoft Connect at this link.
Filed Under General, Microsoft, Servers & Infrastructure, Technology, Windows Vista, Windows XP |
A popular server licensing model is what licensing specialists refer to as “Per-Proc” or a model based on charging a separate Processor license for each processor that is located in the server. Additionally, under this model with a Microsoft Sever product, the customer is not required to purchase Client Access Licenses or “CAL’s,” and with a database server like Microsoft SQL, this is an attractive feature to many enterprises.
So everything is great, right ? Not so fast… 2007 has brought us the shiny new multicore desktops servers (yes, this author is writing this entry on a quad-core Intel chipset) bringing us greater multi-tasking performance, better graphics benchmarks and photo-realistic video games - however, its all one server or one desktop and one chipset so certainly we simply pay for one license, right?. The short answer is no. The software publishers see the multi-core as multiple licenses, so indeed the performance benefits come at a greater licensing price. Some customers have become very vocal about this seemingly inequitable structure - the “per-proc” model is so attractive to certain applications, especially web database applications that are pounded by end-users who may or may not have the appropriate CAL.
Ultimately this issue is still unresolved and the licensing specialists and Large Account Resellers are slugging it out. Don’t be surprised if we see some sweeping changes in the per-proc structure.
Filed Under Database, Developer, General, Servers & Infrastructure, Technology |
Over the course of my blogging, I have extolled some of the training benefits available to our clients that happen to subscribe to Software Assurance as a component of their licensing agreement with Microsoft. Today, Microsoft has announced some key changes that effect the redemption time-line.
Beginning November 11, 2007, SA training vouchers will expire depending on whichever of these comes first:
(a) Expiration of Software Assurance coverage, or
(b) Six months (180 days) from issue date. This means training vouchers can no longer be used after the agreement expiration.
This is a major change from the original structure that allowed activation of vouchers any time during the license period creating a 180 day life from that point forward, conceivably extending the voucher window 6 months beyond the last day of the agreement. For more information, I recommend visiting this link.
Filed Under Desktop Education, General, SA Benefits, Technology |
More Facebook / SharePoint Talk
By Neall A
Here is some more talk about Microsoft’s investment in Facebook I mentioned earlier:
Microsoft puts money down on Web 2.0 trendAnalysts point out that the deal could be the start of something even bigger. They say if Microsoft and Facebook can collaborate on advertising, there’s no reason to believe they couldn’t incorporate a Facebook-like application into SharePoint, Microsoft’s portal-based server that allows companies to manage shared documents and run collaborative technologies such as a blog or a wiki. The future result could be more robust Web 2.0 offerings that corporate IT departments offer under the comfort and familiarity of a Microsoft environment.
“Right now, the Facebook deal is really motivated by the consumer and marketing side of things, and to really get [Microsoft's] ad platform up and running” in the social network space, says Oliver Young, an analyst at Forrester who researches Web 2.0 technologies in the enterprise. “But if that relationship goes well and continues to deepen, I think we could see some cross-pollination between Facebook and SharePoint.”
Young’s assessment can be backed up by two announcements this week that flew under the radar because of the Facebook announcement. At the Web 2.0 summit in San Francisco this week, Microsoft announced that it would help Atlassian, a provider of enterprise-grade wikis, and NewsGator, a popular RSS tool, integrate their applications with SharePoint. For Microsoft, the announcements show they’re willing to incorporate best-of-breed Web 2.0 technologies rather than only provide their own applications atop the SharePoint server, which Young says have been adequate but not exceptional.
Filed Under SharePoint, Technology |
Microsoft beats Street, reports strongest Q1 in 7 years
Strong sales of new and old products alike led Microsoft to its fastest first-quarter growth in seven years, with the company reporting growth in all five business segments and both revenue and earnings per share (EPS) that beat analyst expectations.
Strong performances from Microsoft’s client, business, sever and tools and online divisions also contributed to revenue growth in the quarter. In particular, Microsoft said sales of its Windows Vista OS experienced double-digit growth through multi-year business contracts, and demand for Microsoft Office, Windows Server and SQL Server was also high.
Filed Under General, Technology |
I mentioned Facebook some time ago HERE and how I thought it was similiar to SharePoint. Well, when I had Bill and Steve over for dinner the other day I mentioned it. They got all excited and did this:
Microsoft Invests $240 Million in Facebook
Microsoft yesterday announced a $240 million deal with Facebook, giving the technology giant a minority stake in the popular social networking site and the exclusive rights to sell worldwide advertisements that target Facebook’s 50 million members.
Facebook, which is second to MySpace among social networking sites, in recent months has become a hot property as a magnet for Internet advertisers. Google reportedly sought a similar deal with Facebook.
In 3 1/2 years, Facebook — a site that allows its users to exchange messages, share photos and showcase their network of online friends — has won an audience big enough to bring in $125 million in ad revenue, the estimate for this year, according to eMarketer, a market research firm.
The companies did not disclose details but said the deal values Facebook at $15 billion.
Full Disclosure for the Humor-Impaired: Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer were not over my house for dinner (that night).
Filed Under SharePoint, Technology |
2007 has seen the launch and maturation of a number of exciting new product lines, especially from Microsoft – new versions of SharePoint, Project Server, Office to name a few, that offer genuine increased functionality and business value. As enterprises see this value, new implementation and migration initiatives are launched, it makes sense to review licensing requirements to remain compliant and current. Read more
Filed Under General, Microsoft, SA Benefits, Technology |
