Comments on: Customizing Clearspace vs Sharepoint

By: Lawrence Liu

Lawrence Liu — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 04:35:12 +0000

I’m amused by the lack of SharePoint knowledge here though I really shouldn’t be surprised. I think that vendors should focus on how their own products address business problems rather than nitpick at someone else’s product. FYI, with SharePoint MySites, Content Editor web part, Page Viewer web part, and RSS Viewer web part, a user (with just Contributor level — not Admin — permissions) can drop just about any kind of widget/gadget onto a SharePoint page.

By: Gia Lyons

Gia Lyons — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 04:14:14 +0000

Folks, this isn’t a portal like the old days, where IT could build a portlet/web part for every lovin’ thing in your organization, then try to guess which ones to show for which user roles in a bunch of default templates. This is a *social dashboard*, scoped to social content created by them and the people they care about.

Yes, the framework and implementation might be similar to the old portal solutions, but the content is not. Yes, you could probably build a widget to surface personalized ERP/CRM/etc/so-forth content, but just because you CAN do something, doesn’t mean you should. I can eat a whole pizza in one sitting, but it doesn’t mean I should.

Users - I’m sorry, *people* - hate trying to order dinner from a 14-page menu, and they hate trying to customize a web page by choosing from 97 portlets/web parts, or being forced into one of only six user roles. They just want a frickin’ dashboard that shows THEIR content, and the content of their peeps. And they don’t want to wait for IT to figure out which widgets/portlets/web parts to create, which default templates to put them in, how to lock which widget down for whom, etc. They just want to work, for chrissakes.

Out-of-the-box usability for specifically scoped activities is the prime directive today.

By: Todd

Todd — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 01:04:26 +0000

I so cringe when I bring up sharing information online internally, and the internals start going on and on about how Sharepoint enables sharing and ease of use, and and and… ARE THEY FREAKING NUTS?! Sharepoint is dull, hard to ‘get’ and has so many layers of permissions and lock downs, one is afraid to even try. Most of internal IS won’t even go near it.

By: chriskalani

chriskalani — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 22:21:24 +0000

It seems like the guy in the video is talking to a bunch of criss-cross-applesauce 6 year olds. “Let’s get started!” yaaayy!

By: Sharon

Sharon — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 21:15:21 +0000

Well, besides the obvious, I can’t believe someone wasn’t taken out back and shot for not having the product compatible with their flagship, Vista….that’s the biggest crashnburn I’ve seen this year.

By: John Johansen

John Johansen — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 20:16:16 +0000

I kind of zoned-out after he said “based on FrontPage technology”.

By: Dan Keldsen

Dan Keldsen — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 20:03:33 +0000

Mmm… Personalization ala Portals… came about roughly 10 years ago. Just about time for an overnight success!

Interesting that MOSS started as a combination file server/portal platform, and yet this is the “state of the (mass) art.”

MOSS brings along both the good and bad of portals, enterprise content management, search, social activities, etc. as it brings along all of these capabilities to the masses. I’m personally hoping this is more of a good thing overall, than a bad thing - see my presentation from November 2007 on “Who’s the Boss, MOSS?”

Great contrasting though, Sam. Point well made, and it shows the flexibility of actually moving to a “2.0″ mindset, as well as SaaS. Do you provide “locked” sections of your templates to make sure that company-wide, department-wide, etc. information is always seen - and the rest is personalizable? Hope so - hate to see some of the useful lessons learned from portal days fall off the map.

By: Rich Rose

Rich Rose — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 19:15:17 +0000

I think the samples are extremely valuable in promoting adoption with users who need some help “getting it”. In fact, as an admin I’d like to be able to set up several templates for users to choose from as starting points for their page. I’ve not checked to see if this is practicable yet.

Beyond that, I’d like the option to put “Your…” widgets on the main page. e.g. i might want to put “Your Colleagues” right on the main page (with the assumption that content would still be tailored for the end user) as a way to drive adoption. Right now i don’t see any of the “Your…” widgets in the main page config.

As long as I’m on the topic, it would be nice to be able to copy widgets AND layouts from space to space. Right now I can copy widgets, but I have to select the layout manually. No big deal it just feels clunky.

Lastly, do y’all have comparisons with NewsGator’s Social Sites, which seems to be more in your space than Sharepoint?

Thanks sir,
Rich

By: paisano

paisano — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 19:11:34 +0000

Being a SharePoint Sheriff this depresses me, yet excites me at the same time. I’m filled with self-pity for being stuck with the severe limitations of SharePoint and its web 1.0 hideosity (yeah I know it’s not a real word, so sue me!)! However, I am thrilled knowing that the future is bright and promising for the enterprise thanks to companies like JiveSoftware who just get it. If nothing else, this will force Microsoft to re-evaluate their entire strategy and make dramatic changes or else totally lose their market. Up until now they’ve been the only real solution in this space, with all due respect to the others who tried to compete with them. JiveSoftware didn’t try to compete, they set out to obliterate them and that they have. SharePoint is like Yahoo photos and ClearSpace is Flickr. Game over.

Pai

By: Dennis McDonald

Dennis McDonald — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 19:00:46 +0000

one kitty, please!