d.SharePoint - OurSpace
For reference, d.SharePoint refers to SharePoint's dirty twin. Oh, and we are talking about SharePoint Server 2007 in this series. Some of the ideas could be implemented on older versions of SharePoint (SharePoint Portal Server 2003) and/or by just using Windows SharePoint Services (part of Windows Server 2003)
One of the big Web 2.0 stories of 2006 was the phenomenal growth of MySpace. There were scandals and careers launched but, what really mattered, people shared 'stuff' on a scale never seen before. And the funniest part? I rarely meet an IT dept who thinks anyone in their organisation has even heard of MySpace. Where do they think all the users live? Mars?
For those who have never visited the land of MySpace, here's a screenshot of a MySpace site:
So, if MySpace = people voluntarily sharing lots of stuff, and you want to increase knowledge sharing in your organisation, what could possibly be the solution? One option is to encourage everyone to create a site on MySpace... but if you don't fancy the idea of your company knowledge being dumped on the Internet, how about doing it internally on SharePoint instead? Let's call it OurSpace.
Granted, it's not quite as psychedelic, but hey I created it in 5 minutes :-)
SharePoint contains the technology - web pages with boxes that can display various types of content; the ability to create sites, lots of them; you can customise the appearance (colour scheme, page layout, how 'stuff' gets organised) and the ability to let the users control it all. Lots of standard admin can be automated - for example, if a user tries to access a site they don't have permissions for, they can be presented with an email that will forward their access request to the owner of the site, they don't have to go and fill in a form to get IT to do it for them.
The challenge is being prepared to let it all just happen...
...and that means trusting people to look after their space. Try applying lessons in managing the physical to manage the virtual.
You don't remove all unused electrical sockets from office space just in case a user decides to bring in a DVD player and sit watching pornography at their desk. Instead, you have a company policy that (should) make it pretty clear what activities are likely to lead to being fired.
The same should apply to virtual space. Don't worry about locking down SharePoint in anticipation of unacceptable uses. Do leave a link on the standard template pointing users to the company handbook that defines what is and is not acceptable or appropriate behaviour. Worried about Sarbannes-Oxley compliance or similar? Include a reference in the handbook. Clearly state what information would fall under compliance rules and require the owner sign an agreement to be responsible for the content on their site (you can even include the requirement on the web form used to create new sites).
Tips and Tricks:
Create some initial site templates populated with sample web parts and links to help people get started. Sponsor a couple of virtual teams and help them set up their sites, including their own colour schemes and layouts. Include handy hints for making it easy to find and share content. Include a link to OurSpace / Community / whatever you want to call it, in the top-level navigation of your intranet - make it easy to find and use
Use quota management to restrict people from overloading the servers. By restricting the maximum size of a site, and the maximum quantity of sites that can be created, you can ensure your database doesn't run out of disk space. Depending on just how popular OurSpace becomes, you may need to scale the solution by starting a second site collection, and it may even require its own dedicated server/virtual server depending on the size of your organisation
Put good housekeeping procedures in place. For example, configure SharePoint to send out regular reminders to owners to confirm if their site is active or not, and automatically delete those who ignore reminders (the email can tell them this will happen). Those who hit their site quota can request additional space - you can decide if it is justified or not.
If people start dropping lots of content on to their community spaces, they may influence your corporate index (similar to how blogging results have been skewing Google's search results). You can tweak the search settings within SharePoint to help maintain (and improve relevance). One element of ranking is click distance, determining relevance by how far a page is located from an authoritative site - others may call this Page Rank ;-) You can define which intranet sites are authoritative and also demote sites. If you don't want community content to dominate your results, demote the Community site collection to reduce its relevance. A more extreme solution would be to not include OurSpace content within your corporate index - depends on how useful the content is to people.
These are just a few suggestions for getting started. If you want more details or help on how to implement OurSpace on SharePoint. If there is interest, I'll flesh out this article into a step-by-step guide.
Technorati tags: SharePoint, SharePoint 2007, MOSS 2007