nd community framework for moss 2007

8/8/2019 ND Community Framework for MOSS 2007

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_____________________________________

White Paper:

Community Framework

For Microsoft SharePoint(2009)

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Contents1 What is Knowledge Management? ....................................................................................................... 3

2 What is Social Networking? .................................................................................................................. 3

3 Social Networking in the Enterprise Information Management Context ............................................. 5

4 Social Networking to Support Business Process Applications .............................................................. 6

5 NetDexterity Community Framework for Microsoft SharePoint .......................................................... 7

5.1 Overview ....................................................................................................................................... 7

5.2 Features ........................................................................................................................................ 8

5.2.1 User Profile ............................................................................................................................ 8

5.2.2 Timeline ................................................................................................................................. 9

5.2.3 Groups/Communities .......................................................................................................... 10

5.2.4 Enhanced Search ................................................................................................................. 12

5.2.5 Tagging and Ratings ............................................................................................................ 12

5.2.6 Self-Service or Active Directory Integration ........................................................................ 13

5.2.7 Metrics and Reporting ........................................................................................................ 14

5.3 Technology Approach: A Configurable Application .................................................................... 14

6 Business Benefits ................................................................................................................................ 15

6.1 User Benefits ............................................................................................................................... 16

6.2 IT Benefits ................................................................................................................................... 16

6.3 Business Benefits ........................................................................................................................ 16

7 Background Information ..................................................................................................................... 17

7.1 About NetDexterity ..................................................................................................................... 17

7.2 About Microsoft SharePoint ....................................................................................................... 17

7.3 Contact Information .................................................................................................................... 18


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1 What is Knowledge Management?Knowledge management is the discipline of enhancing organizational performance through the capture

and reuse of knowledge. As business processes become more complex, the pace of work accelerates

and todays experienced workforce ages, organizations seek better ways of capturing data, insights and

experiences. Once captured, they attempt to distil this information into organizational knowledge that

can be accessed and reused to facilitate learning and process improvement. Organizational knowledge

enables an organizations success.

In the majority of todays organizations, knowledge is collected and published as text, inside paper or

digital documents. Knowledge management systems, therefore, have primarily focused on the

assembly, storage and distribution of documents. This has resulted in vast repositories of corporate

knowledge that are difficult to traverse and consume by contributors and learners alike.

Both the capture and the reuse functions of classic approaches to knowledge management have been

unnecessarily complex. Full-text enterprise search software and taxonomic systems (controlledvocabularies, mandatory metadata schema, etc.) have played a key role in making document-based

knowledge easier to contribute and discover, but the creation and absorption of the information itself

is not facilitated by todays knowledge management systems.

Authoring a document is typically a lonely activity (facilitated, sometimes, by peer contributions and

reviews using collaboration software); and learning by reading is similarly solitary.

The creation of knowledge and the process of learning, however, are fundamentally social processes.

People create knowledge collectively through a series of contributions and refinements. Business

processes are often only partially understood by individuals and require the participation of a number

of workers to accurately capture them end-to-end. In order to understand how something is done in an

organization, new employees often need to meet with a number of their coworkers; organizational

learning is a fundamentally socially-oriented activity.

It has become increasingly clear in recent years that first-generation knowledge management systems

(document management, document-based collaboration, etc.) are not suitable on their own to support

knowledge management in the 21st century. Document-based knowledge needs to be enhanced with

context, discussion and collective ways of knowledge development and discovery .

2

What is Social Networking?With the meteoric rise of social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter in the past fewyears, most computer users regularly participate in online social networking. These web 2.0 sites are

optimized to encourage and support connections between users.

Social networking sites enable users to:


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Discover each other: Through a variety of mechanisms (search and browse, suggestions fromthe system based on its knowledge of other users patterns), users can find other users to

connect with.

Connect with each other: Both directly (user to user) and indirectly (through membership in acommon community), social networking sites enable users to connect to one another.

Exchange information about, and by, each other: Social networking sites enable users to shareinformation descriptions, statuses, documents, blog posts, pictures, videos, audio files, etc.

Communicate directly and publicly: Users use social networking sites to communicate with oneanother either privately or publicly. Increasingly, social networking software is taking on the

role of electronic mail.

Store key knowledge items, opinions and observations in the cloud: Many users are choosingto store much of their lifestream information only in the cloud. This includes blog posts,

photos, etc. As a result, social networking sites have become an acceptable mechanism of

storage/backup and are seen as secure.

Be connected to other people from a variety of locations and using a variety of accessplatforms (PCs, smart phones, cellular phones, etc.): Many users are accessing social

networking sites from mobile devices, including smart phones and mobile PCs. Increasingly,

social networking sites or third parties are providing specialized rich client software that use site

APIs to access data and represent it appropriately for mobile devices.

Syndicate and connect information between different social networking sites usingApplication Programming Interfaces (APIs): Many social networking sites offer the notion of

applications which can connect to other social networks and retrieve information. As a result,

users can exploit data ubiquity and access and share their data in multiple places at the same

time.

The basic topology of social networking software is also increasingly being discussed in the enterprise.

Sometimes known as enterprise 2.0, applications for social networking inside organizations hold the

promise of delivering on the promise of knowledge management as they provide context and

connection in addition to document management and collaboration.

As the workforce becomes younger and more oriented towards Generation Y, organizations face

unique challenges regarding business software.

Like web 2.0, business software needs to be engaging, fast-paced, flexible, constantly updated, single-

purpose and have a familiar user experience.

However, most document-centric collaboration and document management platforms today do not

meet these criteria. Even advanced collaboration and portal platforms provide proprietary user

experiences focused on documents and data.

As a result, younger information workers who do not find suitable software inside an organization look

outside the corporate firewall for tools to support their work. This has obvious security and privacy


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implications. In other cases, IT departments are simply suppressing the use of Facebook and Twitter in

the workplace, sometimes causing the workplace to be viewed as unattractive for younger workers.

IT departments throughout the public and private sector are challenged to present solutions that meet

both business objectives and user demands.

3 Social Networking in the Enterprise Information ManagementContext

The two primary business concerns with offering social networking software in the enterprise are:

To ensure governance, security and manageability: All corporate data needs to be managed inthe context of the organizations business priorities, policies and the applicable regulatory/legal

framework. This has become increasingly important in the past few years, and is often seen as

directly contradictory to the introduction of social networking software in an organization.

To ensure that the business value of realized and measured : All enterprise applications shouldsupport key performance indicators to help management understand how they are performing

in the context of business priorities. Social networking software especially needs to continually

prove its value in the work context.h


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The approach we have chosen for the NetDexterity Community Framework is to build it in the context of

Microsoft SharePoints recognized governance, security and reporting capabilities.

We believe that all enterprise software needs to be anchored in a capable Enterprise Information

Management (EIM) platform. Therefore, the Community Framework builds on Microsoft SharePoint and

leverages many of its core EIM capabilities, such as:

Document management Records management Collaboration Authentication and authorization Search Business forms Workflow.

In addition, SharePoints pluggable repository architecture makes it possible to connect other, third

party repositories for long-term storage and records management, if required.

In the context of EIM, the Community Framework social networking platform can be seen as an enabling

business application for SharePoint. It enhances SharePoint to provide social context to knowledge

items.

4 Social Networking to Support Business Process ApplicationsSocial networking applications will increasingly provide the context for business process applications in

the enterprise. The NetDexterity Community Framework introduces a more practical form of

collaboration by providing context, connection and better ways of discovering knowledge.

In practical terms, social networking features can enhance the following typical business process

applications:

Business Process Application Enhanced by Social Networking in these ways:

Case Management Enhanced collaboration Case consultations from ad-hoc resources Find and add specialists to the case Case management mentoring Better hand-off between case managers

Policy Development/ WorkingGroup Management

Enhanced collaboration Ability to include a wide variety of stakeholders and

specialists, often in different geographic locations/time zones

Easy stakeholder consultation/surveying Collaborative document drafting with comments, tags and

ratings


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Fundraising/Volunteer

Management

Ability to invite fundraisers into an enhanced collaborativeenvironment

Ability to invite volunteers to participate in volunteerscheduling and volunteer activities

Political Campaign

Management

Ability to provide private social networking sites for politicalorganizations

Capability to spread campaign messages and programsthrough knowledge networks of like-minded voters

Campaigning and organizing in an online contextProcurement A social networking approach to managing the collaborative

work required to gather requirements, author a RFP, manage

and evaluate the responses

Allows procurement stakeholders to collaborate seamlesslyacross different locations and time zones.

In each case the NetDexterity Community Framework for Microsoft SharePoint provides key features

enhancing and facilitating the human connections required to effectively create, capture, manage anddistribute knowledge artifacts throughout their lifecycle.

In all cases, the Community Framework built on Microsoft SharePoint is underpinned by the

enterprise-ready governance and security features on an EIM platform. This ensures that organizations

can trust it with their valuable data and business processes.

5 NetDexterity Community Framework for Microsoft SharePoint5.1 OverviewNetDexteritys Community Framework for Microsoft SharePoint is a software suite that installs on

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and provides additional, enhanced features to enable secure

social networking in the enterprise.

Our aim was to build the framework by utilizing SharePoints basic features and concepts where possible

and appropriate.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

Collaboration Portal Search Content ManagementBusiness Forms and

WorkflowBusiness Intelligence

NetDexterity Community Framework for SharePoint

Personal, Group

and Public

Timeline

Enhanced Profiles

incl. Status

Enhanced

Discussion

Forums

Enhanced

BloggingEnhanced Wikis

Enhanced

CollaborationEnhanced Search

Tagging and Tag

Clouds


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As a result, many features of Community Framework for Microsoft SharePoint are stable, mature and

recognizable to end users. For example, Community Framework for Microsoft SharePoints Group

feature is a customized and feature-enhanced version of SharePoints collaboration site. Community

Framework for Microsoft SharePoints Profile is a version of SharePoints My Site.

The features of NetDexterity Community Framework for Microsoft SharePoint are discussed in thefollowing sections.

5.2 Features5.2.1 User Profile

Community Framework for Microsoft SharePoint offers a comprehensible, configurable user profile.

Each user, after signing up or being activated, is asked to provide information about himself. The

standard information fields include:


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Name Description/biography/resum Photo/portrait Contact information Expertise Settings (password, etc.).

In addition, the user profile also allows users to blog, publish documents and enter status information

(similar to Facebook or Twitter).

Viewing a users profile page provides a single, integrated view into all information and activities from

that user.

5.2.2 Timeline

Our analysis of successful web 2.0 social networking applications clearly indicates that providing a

consolidated information stream, a timeline, is crucial to encourage user adoption and participation.

The timeline in Community Framework for Microsoft SharePoint is the users hub of interaction with the

system. It continually collects and updates events generated throughout the community platform. A

users timeline typically includes:


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From connected users profileso Status updateso Profile information updates, such as employer information, etc.o Documents publishedo Blog posts publishedo Expertise updates

From group the current user participates ino Discussion forum postso Blog postso Wiki page additions/editso Document library additionso Group administrative announcementso Members joining or leaving a groupo Group calendared events, such as meetings or presentations

Each event on the timeline is time stamped, and the latest events are presented at the top. Each event isshown with a small thumbnail portrait of the originating user.

5.2.3 Groups/Communities


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Groups are the focal points for communities in Community Framework for Microsoft SharePoint. Each

group has a number of key features, such as:

Discussion forums: A sophisticated discussion board featuring threaded multi-user discussionswith ratings, tags, etc. New postings are reflected in the timeline for all users who are

participating in the discussion forum. The discussion forum also features a forum landing pagewhere all thread titles can be seen, including their relative levels of activity (number of posts,

last active date, etc.).

Wikis: An enhanced wiki allowing users to collaboratively capture and develop knowledgeresources. Enhanced with ratings and tagging.

Group blog: A collaborative blog for the group. Each member can be a contributor. Group blogsencourage the group to publish internally in an informal, productive way. Enhanced with ratings

and tagging. Group blogs have RSS feeds.

Document libraries: Featuring approval workflows as well as tagging and feedback/ratingssupport, enhanced document libraries allow Community Framework for Microsoft SharePoint

users to perform advanced document-based collaborative work. Group document libraries also

allow external publishing of certain documents: for documents that have reached final status,

group members can obtain an external URL that can be emailed to contacts who are not part of

the Community Framework for Microsoft SharePoint user base.

Meeting workspaces: Meeting workspaces enabled group members to plan and hold meetings. Project workspaces: Group members can manage structured projects with the help of Gantt

charts, task assignments, issue and risk lists, etc.

List of group members: Each member of the group is listed in the group directory. Membersprofile information is displayed inside the group.

Group calendar: The group can use the enhanced calendar to schedule group events, such aspresentations, seminars, meetings, etc. Users can add meetings to their own calendars provided

they use either Microsoft Outlook or an iCal compatible calendar tool.

Group announcements: Group leaders can use the Announcements functionality to broadcastmessages to all group members if required.


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5.2.4 Enhanced Search

The enhanced search feature allows users to search for knowledge items and people separately. This

ensures that search results are accurate and useful. While the knowledge item search results are

typical weighted search results provided by Microsoft SharePoints highly regarded search engine, the

people search shows matching users of the Community Framework platform.

Results are arranged by degrees of distance from the current users; people who are the current users

friends are at the top of the search results, followed by users in groups/communities shared with the

current user, followed by all other matching users in the system.

Users can easily friend users from search results.

5.2.5 Tagging and Ratings

Content in Community Framework for Microsoft SharePoint can be tagged and rated by users. Tagging is

heavily used in web 2.0 sites and increases both the searchability and browseability of information. Tags

are keywords which are applied to content to help classify it and become important metadata about

the content which aids searching.


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Tags are also used to build tag-clouds which are a graphical way to navigate through the content of a

site. Each tag is represented within the tag cloud, with its size representing how often the tag occurs.

These tag clouds can be used to browse through the content of the site. They also create an easy to use

overview of the site and encourage exploration of the sites content.

Ratings are applied to content by the community and serve to give an idea of the value of a piece of

content. As users consume content they rate it based on usefulness and accuracy and these ratings

then act as guideposts to future users.

Both tagging and ratings are collaborative knowledge practices which give context to knowledge items

and increase the usefulness of content.

The Community Framework implements them as near-native SharePoint features using lists and web

parts, to ensure that they become an organic part of the platform.

5.2.6 Self-Service or Active Directory Integration5.2.6.1 Self-Service Scenario: Independent Community Portal or Inside/Outside CollaborationThe NetDexterity Community Framework for Microsoft SharePoint can function as an independent,

stand-alone system with forms-based authentication. Users can register themselves in a self-service

mode.

The system can be configured to be open and accept all registrations. Alternatively, a site administrator

can be configured to approve all applicants before they are allowed to access the system.

This open mode is particularly suitable to organizations that wish to deploy the Framework for

collaboration across organizational boundaries (policy institutes, research organizations, etc.).

5.2.6.2 Active Directory IntegrationFor organizations looking to deploy the NetDexterity Community Framework in an internal context, the

ideal authentication configuration is to use Microsoft Active Directory (as in a regular SharePoint

deployment).


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When users connect to the Framework-enhanced SharePoint server for the first time, they are asked to

fill in a personal profile, upload a picture, etc. This ensures that all users have a personal profile.

5.2.7 Metrics and ReportingIt is crucial to continually measure the performance of business software applications. However,

measuring typical web metrics (such as page impressions, numbers of visitors, etc.), while helpful, is notideal for social networking sites.

Communities are, by their very nature, environments that the same users return to frequently. By virtue

of the Community Frameworkssecurity and authentication, it is possible to track users behaviours

accurately. Items that can be measured include:

Number of active users Most active users Number of groups Most active groups Number of documents/discussions/wiki pages/blog posts by group Number of documents/discussions/wiki pages/blog posts in the overall system Number of meetings Number of discussion forums Most active discussion forums

Tracking these items provides a mechanism to establish trends and help identify areas that require

attention or improvement, both in the platform itself and in the activities that are being conducted in it.

The NetDexterity Community Framework presents these metrics in simple dashboards that are easy to

understand by nontechnical users.

5.3 Technology Approach: A Configurable Application

Our approach to the technology implementation of the NetDexterity Community Framework for

Microsoft SharePoint can be summarized as follows:

Configurable The Community Framework is design to allow administrators or skilled end users

with appropriate permissions to configure many aspects of the application. This

ensures that organizations can easily adjust their instances of the application to suit

their needs without requiring the services of developers or consultants.

Configurable Maintainable Scalable Secure Interoperable Usable Extensible


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Maintainable The application is design to work in the context of Microsoft SharePoint. By

leveraging many of SharePoints core features, we have ensured that the

Community Framework is typically unaffected by SharePoint infrastructure

upgrades and maintenance work, such as applying patches and security updates.

Scalable By levering the Microsoft SharePoint platform, the NetDexterity Community

Framework is highly scalable. Many organizations use SharePoint for more than

50,000 employees.

Secure By leveraging the Microsoft Windows Server and Microsoft Active Directory

platform for user authentication, SharePoint and the Community Framework are

among the most secure collaboration platforms in the industry. For externally-facing

installations (open implementations with self-service user registration), we

recommend using SSL security (HTTPS).

Interoperable The Community Framework is designed to be interoperable. This means that it

leverages standards where possible, both at the micro and macro level. For

example, RSS syndication is available throughout the platform. Web Services are

used for all system-level integration/API requirements.

Usable The application has been tested rigorously and is highly usable. Our approach has

been to design our custom elements to closely resemble the standard SharePoint

user interface, ensuring that the new features will be recognizable to users familiar

with SharePoint. We regularly usability-test our software.

Extensible Microsoft SharePoint is highly extensible using the Microsoft .NET platform. Aspects

of the NetDexterity Community Framework can be extended using Microsoft .NET

and common SharePoint programming techniques.

6 Business BenefitsThe NetDexterity Community Framework for Microsoft SharePoint is beneficial in each of the three core

value areas of business applications:

BusinessBenefits

IT Benefits

UserBenefits


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6.1 User BenefitsUsers benefits from the NetDexterity Community Framework in these key ways:

Social networking software has become the de facto standard user expectation for collaborativesoftware. The NetDexterity Community Framework provides a secure, manageable, enterprise-

ready version of social networking that will meet users expectations. The application is highly usable as it has been deployed and tested in a number of different

organizations. In all cases, great care has been taken to implement common functions in re-

usable, easy-to-understand ways.

As a result, the application is easy to learn. Skills acquired in one social networking system caneasily be transferred to the Community Framework for SharePoint.

The configurable nature of the application means that necessary system adjustments can bemade more quickly than in other social networking systems. This results in higher overall user

satisfaction.

6.2 IT BenefitsThe organizations IT function benefits from deploying the NetDexterity Community Framework in these

ways:

The NetDexterity Community Framework ensures that corporate data is secured and governedaccording to business objectives and IT standards but provides the productivity and

collaboration features that end users have come to expect.

The configurable nature of the Community Framework ensures quick response times to changedbusiness requirements.

The high supportability of the Community Framework means that the total cost of ownershipwill be relatively low in comparison to other, more purpose-built applications.

The nature of the Microsoft SharePoint platform implies that a common IT skill pool can be usedto perform maintenance and enhancement tasks for the Community Framework.

These benefits result in a lower total cost of ownership and greater return on investment than other,

stand-along social networking platforms.

6.3 Business BenefitsBusiness decision makers benefit directly from the following aspects of the Community Framework:

Better engagement of Generation Y employee by providing familiar social networking toolsetswhile ensuring corporate governance requirements are being met.

Better knowledge capture and exchange through enhanced social learning tools. Better context for organizational knowledge results in higher employee productivity. Online communities/groups promote learning and mentorship. Better business process applications result in better service delivery and better customer/citizen

service.


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7 Background Information7.1 About NetDexterityNetDexterity is a Toronto based business and technology consultancy focused on delivering business

value on the Microsoft platform. Our customers trust us to deliver excellence in:

Business Process Management Enterprise Content Management Customer Relationship Management Application Integration Portal and Collaboration Solutions

Our consultants have successfully developed innovative solutions that have resulted in more responsive

organization, improved productivity, strengthened relationships and reduced operational costs. We

have proven experience capturing business requirements and translating those requirements into

demonstrable results. Our technology group works in small expert teams that have significantexperience with the most current Microsoft Server solutions and related technologies. This experience

translates into frameworks, roadmaps and best practices that aid in the development of enabling

technologies to bring value your organization.

NetDexterity partners with its customers to deliver solutions that deliver real business results. We have

an established methodology that is based on the Microsoft Solutions Framework and agile

programming. We also work closely with our extended network of technology and consulting partners

to provide an integrated approach that delivers your priorities.

7.2 About Microsoft SharePointMicrosoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) is the flagship Enterprise Content Management (ECM)

suite from Microsoft. MOSS provides best-in-class capabilities in a variety of functional areas, such as

Collaboration Portal Management Enterprise Search Enterprise Content Management, including document management, web content

management and records management

Business process/workflow and forms support Business intelligence, including key performance indicators (KPIs) and dashboards.

For organizations looking to standardize on a single ECM platform to maximize their technology and

human resource investments, MOSS provides highly usable and cost-effective features in all these areas,

making it a comprehensive enterprise information management platform.


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Leveraging SharePoint skills that have been gained in a collaboration or intranet project to set up and

maintain an externally facing website constitutes a great deal of potential cost savings for an

organization.

Using a fully supported product like Microsoft SharePoint ensures that organizations can place their

trust in their technology platform choices.

Microsoft continually invests heavily in maintaining and upgrading platform server products such as

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Internet Sites.

The Microsoft Office System and Microsoft SharePoint are updated approximately every 2 yearsby Microsoft (the next Office System release is tentatively scheduled for late 2009).

Microsoft invests heavily in each new release of the Office System to ensure backwardscompatibility, upgrade path, product quality and new feature development.

7.3 Contact InformationNetDexterity Inc.

300-21 Bellair Street

Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5R 2C7

+1 416 800-2060

[email protected]

http://www.netdexterity.com